Refrigerating wort after fermentation

[ChrisK]

Hi Guys

 

I was wondering if there's any benefit to refridgerating the wort prior to filling kegs (or even bottles?)

 

My brew fridge sits at 22 for the first 12 hours or so then 17 for the next two weeks with a ferment of US05. Then I keg, then I whack the kegs in the fridge at about 170 for two weeks and they're awesome.

 

I'm thinking though, if I turned my brew fridge down to 1degree two or three days before I emptied my fermenters into my kegs, this would probably save me a day or two of carbonating.

 

Any thoughts? Any reasons why the above wouldn't work? Any advantages/disadvantages from a cloudiness point of view?

 

Thanks guys!

 

[Ollie]

Hi Chris,

 

There will be some merit for you in reducing the temperature of the worts for carbonating because the CO2 is absorbed into the beer at a quicker rate.

 

Question for you though - Do you naturally carb using priming sugars or do you purge using the CO2 from your cylinder?

 

I am assuming maybe the former because if you carb at 17 degrees for two weeks then I am not sure how this would work if your were purging although in saying that I have never tried it so each to their own [happy]

 

Depending on the beer style and level of carbonation you are looking for you would need it to be down at around 4-6 degrees and at 14ish psi to work properly and then it would take approx 3-5 days to find its level and balance out of its own accord.

 

This way you can be sure of perfect carbonation every time [biggrin]

 

Cheers,

Ollie

[Guest]

Chris, what you have suggested is a common thing a lot of brewers, including myself, do. It is called cold conditioning (CC) and brewers mainly do it for the purpose of dropping yeast and other proteins out of suspension quickly which in turn results in a much clearer beer than otherwise. You can read a little about it in John Palmer's book "How To Brew".

 

I do it and suggest you do if you are able as you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

 

The following is a passage from "Yeast" written by Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff.

"Regardless of a strain's flocculation level, lower beer temperatures result in a higher flocculation rate. More yeast drop out of solution at 4C as compared to 21C, and more yeast drop out at 0C as compared to 4C."

[Hairy]

Bill, for how many days do you normallly CC?

 

And at what temp?

 

I will be bottling this weekend so I might give it a go to see if there is any real diffferennce.

 

I have never bothered before as my beers have always been fairly clear. I mainly brew ales so for me clarity isn't the biggest deal, as long as it tastes good.

[Guest]

I usually drop my temp down to 3C when primary fermentation has finished. I keep it there until I am ready to keg which is usually 3 days to a week after and depending how quickly I need the brew and my time schedule. This could even be for longer and if it is then I suggest to rack it off the trub.

 

If you are bottling then there is no real big deal I wouldn't think as it takes at least 2 weeks to carb then you chill the bottles anyway. Cold Conditioning I believe just speeds up the process for yeast and proteins to drop out which will happen if given enough time anyway. Usually when kegging by CC then this provides a clearer beer in a shorter timeframe and can enable you to carb your kegs at a faster rate.

 

Paul maybe able to elaborate further or correct me but this is how I see it [cool]

[Hairy]

Thanks Bill. I may just skip the cold conditioning. I have no problems with clarity at the moment.

 

Plus it will involve me having to change the temperature setting on the temp controller and I'm too lazy to do that.

[Guest]

Yeah mate, as I said, bottles are given plenty of time to clear without the need to. You'll be fine. However, in Chris' case, if he kegs then he will get the added benefit if he decides to Cold Condition.

[Guest]

I found that before I CC'd the sediment in the bottle was alot thicker than it currently is, I CC @ 2'c for 5 days minimum and now the bottles have such a fine amount of yeast I can pour all the way to the last bit without a yeast flow..

 

in fact Ive had one at 2'c for almost 2 weeks now due to time constraints, realy looking forward to this one[cool]

 

Yob