Cold Crashing

[Dragster]

Hi there all

Have a question about Cold Crashing. I have cold crashed a particular brew for 2 days at 2-3 degree and after ageing in the bottle primed with Carb drops. The carbonation is not as what I’ve seen before. Is this a common issues or so I have to wait more in the bottles ?? 
Any suggestions would be much appreciated 

Dragan 

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

46 minutes ago, Dragster said:

Hi there all

Have a question about Cold Crashing. I have cold crashed a particular brew for 2 days at 2-3 degree and after ageing in the bottle primed with Carb drops. The carbonation is not as what I’ve seen before. Is this a common issues or so I have to wait more in the bottles ?? 
Any suggestions would be much appreciated 

Dragan 

It's most likely the temp you has your bottles at. Where are you at and where are you storing them?

[Dragster]

Ok I see. Cause once I’ve bottled them they are cold as. Then they sit in a cupboard downstairs so they may only be 18 c. 

[ozdevil]

you havent really given us much to go on

what size bottles are you using 330ml 375ml 500ml  650ml?

how many carb drops per bottle?

a picture of your carbonated beer would be great as well

[jamiek86]

2 carb drops per pet bottle is mostly not enough for most people try a tiny bit of sugar as extra and a few extra degrees and extra week in storage may help. I use a sugar scoop and do the scoop for 750ml plus half again.

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

10 minutes ago, Dragster said:

Ok I see. Cause once I’ve bottled them they are cold as. Then they sit in a cupboard downstairs so they may only be 18 c. 

4 things are needed to carbonate. Yeast, sugar, temperature and an adequate seal. A 2 day cold crash is not going to drop enough yeast out to make a difference whether you bottled cold or not. Sugar it sounds like you have sorted. 1 drop for 375ml and 2 for 750ml. The seal I am assuming is good. The last thing is temp. Most ale yeasts will not function well or shut down below about 16c. A warmer temp they will carbonate faster and more thoroughly than a lower temp. 

That's the basics. My thinking is temp. It is a problem in the cooler months for ales.

[Dragster]

Yeah so I’m using 750ml King Browns. With 2 carb drops in each. After crashing do you all bottle or wait till wort temp is up again??

[RDT2]

39 minutes ago, Dragster said:

Yeah so I’m using 750ml King Browns. With 2 carb drops in each. After crashing do you all bottle or wait till wort temp is up again??

How long have they been in the bottle?

 

[Classic Brewing Co]

42 minutes ago, jamiek86 said:

2 carb drops per pet bottle is mostly not enough for most people try a tiny bit of sugar as extra and a few extra degrees and extra week in storage may help. I use a sugar scoop and do the scoop for 750ml plus half again.

I found when I was using carb drops, 2 of them didn't cut it, as soon as I started experimenting with sugar the results were much improved. I only use 1 scoop of sugar these days & it works really well. It is also much more economical. 

[Dragster]

1 hour ago, RDT2 said:

How long have they been in the bottle?

 

20 days 

[Tone boy]

Hey @Dragster  I use 750 ml glass bottles too and find 2 carb drops about perfect. It sounds to me like temperature might be the issue as others have pointed out. 
Try to find a spot to keep them around 20 degrees for a couple of weeks - out of sunlight (or any light) of course. They should carb up just fine. 

[RDT2]

6 minutes ago, Tone boy said:

Hey @Dragster  I use 750 ml glass bottles too and find 2 carb drops about perfect. It sounds to me like temperature might be the issue as others have pointed out. 
Try to find a spot to keep them around 20 degrees for a couple of weeks - out of sunlight (or any light) of course. They should carb up just fine. 

Sounds like temp to me as well, I used to take a few bottles inside the house in the cupboard where it was warmer and by the time I drank those the ones in the shed were ready to go  

[Dragster]

9 minutes ago, Tone boy said:

Hey @Dragster  I use 750 ml glass bottles too and find 2 carb drops about perfect. It sounds to me like temperature might be the issue as others have pointed out. 
Try to find a spot to keep them around 20 degrees for a couple of weeks - out of sunlight (or any light) of course. They should carb up just fine. 

Cheers mate 

[jamiek86]

and to answer your first question despite advice that cold crashing still leaves enough yeast to carbonate I find I need to add just a little bit more sugar after a good cold crash.

Edited July 21, 2021 by jamiek86

[Shamus O'Sean]

6 hours ago, Dragster said:

Yeah so I’m using 750ml King Browns. With 2 carb drops in each. After crashing do you all bottle or wait till wort temp is up again??

I bottle straight from cold crash.  About 2°C.  1 and 1/2 teaspoons of sugar per longneck.  Allow to rise back to at least 18°C for at least 2 weeks. 

You might just need to leave yours longer.  Although 20 days sounds plenty enough.  If the temperature gets a bit below 18°C in the cold of winter, it will take longer, and might even stall.

[Dragster]

Cheers

[Malter White]

@Dragster 
If you bottle your beer you need yeast to carbonate it. By cold crashing you reduce the amount of viable yeast to do that job. Your beer will still carbonate but it will take longer, as is happening to you now.
If you're cold crashing to get clearer beer, you won't because you're still priming your bottles and you'll still have sediment. When it comes time to refrigerate your beer ready for drinking you will have performed the same task as cold crashing anyway.
I only bottle my beers. I don't keg. Kegging is a different scenario where the beer is carbonated by gas so I can see a clarity benefit in cold crashing for kegs.
Others might disagree with my views but I wanted to share them with you in case they might be of help to you.

[Otto Von Blotto]

13 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

@Dragster 
If you bottle your beer you need yeast to carbonate it. By cold crashing you reduce the amount of viable yeast to do that job. Your beer will still carbonate but it will take longer, as is happening to you now.
If you're cold crashing to get clearer beer, you won't because you're still priming your bottles and you'll still have sediment. When it comes time to refrigerate your beer ready for drinking you will have performed the same task as cold crashing anyway.
I only bottle my beers. I don't keg. Kegging is a different scenario where the beer is carbonated by gas so I can see a clarity benefit in cold crashing for kegs.
Others might disagree with my views but I wanted to share them with you in case they might be of help to you.

I'll disagree, in part anyway. Yes it will reduce the amount of yeast but my own experience was that it didn't really affect how long the carbonation took, even in lagers that I cold crashed for weeks prior to bottling. They were always pretty well carbonated after a couple of weeks. Two days would barely make a difference, especially since it takes about a day to drop the temp down in the first place. 

In terms of pure clarity I didn't find much improvement from cold crashing alone because the haze wasn't caused by suspended yeast. However, I did find the amount of sediment in the bottles considerably lower than non cold crashed beers, which is why I kept doing it. 

In this scenario I doubt the issue is from cold crashing directly, it may be that the bottles aren't able to warm back up enough to get it done, but if that's the case then they would probably have dropped to the same temperature if they were bottled warm anyway and the same problem occur. That happened to me once when I did a pale ale half batch around this time of year and deliberately kept it warm up to bottling in the hope they wouldn't get too cold before the yeast did their thing... unfortunately it didn't work, there was a little bit of fizz but it was nowhere near enough

[Tone boy]

10 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

I did find the amount of sediment in the bottles considerably lower than non cold crashed beers, which is why I kept doing it

Yep I’m finding exactly the same thing 

[Malter White]

@Otto Von Blotto and @Tone boy
I also found less sediment when I tried cold crashing but I didn't think the difference was startling and decided the extra couple of days in the FV and running the fridge weren't worth it for me. Even with a small amount of sediment you're still going to get some stirred up when pouring.
It's your beer and ultimately you decide how you make it. I have no intention of telling anyone to not cold crash if that's what they want to do. That is up to them. I was just putting an alternative viewpoint across as food for thought.
Cheers guys.

[Classic Brewing Co]

I have to agree @MUZZY I didn't find any real difference either & I have 4 FV's - 3 of them are brewed at ambient temp mostly & in my opinion they are fine, not super clear as some of the guys posts but I don't keg or plan to enter in any sort of Competition any time soon. 

My next brew is a Lager & as I have acquired the new brew fridge I may give it a go & see if there is any difference.

[Malter White]

42 minutes ago, CLASSIC said:

I have to agree @MUZZY I didn't find any real difference either & I have 4 FV's - 3 of them are brewed at ambient temp mostly & in my opinion they are fine, not super clear as some of the guys posts but I don't keg or plan to enter in any sort of Competition any time soon. 

My next brew is a Lager & as I have acquired the new brew fridge I may give it a go & see if there is any difference.

Definitely give it a go, Phil. It's all part of our learning journey. It does make a difference but I made the choice that it didn't make a big enough difference for me to warrant the extra time and electricity to do it.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Probably because you only did it for a couple of days it really needs several days to a week to do its job properly. Like I said I never got great results with clarity itself, because it was caused by chill haze which cold crashing alone won't fix unless you leave it for months. Others have better results in this area for whatever reason. Now I use polyclar which sorts it out quick smart, although has no effect on yeast.  

[Classic Brewing Co]

37 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

Definitely give it a go, Phil. It's all part of our learning journey. It does make a difference but I made the choice that it didn't make a big enough difference for me to warrant the extra time and electricity to do it.

I have done it years ago & actually froze one brew which put me off the whole idea but as I have 4 FV's I really can only have one in the brew fridge & the others ferment at ambient temp producing good results. I only have 1 Temp Control unit (STC-1000) but if I was to buy an Inkbird I could set up 2 brews in 2 different fridges but it really depends what I am brewing at the time.

[Classic Brewing Co]

15 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Probably because you only did it for a couple of days it really needs several days to a week to do its job properly. Like I said I never got great results with clarity itself, because it was caused by chill haze which cold crashing alone won't fix unless you leave it for months. Others have better results in this area for whatever reason. Now I use polyclar which sorts it out quick smart, although has no effect on yeast.  

Yeah I agree however I am not that worried about it as my brews taste OK to me & I have had favorable remarks from those who have tried them.

Cheers.