Cold crashing effects on priming sugar quantity

[matthuds]

Seems like a very mixed topic so looking for some more opinions...

Cold crashing for the first time.

Fermented at 19c US-05.

Planning to cold crash (in primary fermenter, after 2 weeks fermentation) down to about 3c over the next couple of days now I have a freezer chamber.

When bottling at the weekend how much sugar do I use to achieve 2.4vols Co2 on 19 litres of beer?

Calculators are giving me 115g with 19c input or 50g if at 3c.

I am swaying towards the 115g or just not cold crashing at all because of the headache!


Can anyone with coldcrashing to bottling experience please advise me how you do it?

On a side note will adding cold beer to room temperature priming sugar give me any crystallization problems?

Thanks

Matt

[barry44]

I used to cold crash when I didn't transfer to secondary to dry hop.

When I bottled, i used the normal amount, 115g, rather than the smaller amount and noticed no adverse effects.

I'm sure that beersmith says something about the storage temp rather than the cold crash temp for calculating sugar additions.

[orlando]

Seems like a very mixed topic so looking for some more opinions...

Cold crashing for the first time.

Fermented at 19c US-05.

Planning to cold crash (in primary fermenter, after 2 weeks fermentation) down to about 3c over the next couple of days now I have a freezer chamber.

When bottling at the weekend how much sugar do I use to achieve 2.4vols Co2 on 19 litres of beer?

Calculators are giving me 115g with 19c input or 50g if at 3c.

I am swaying towards the 115g or just not cold crashing at all because of the headache!


Can anyone with coldcrashing to bottling experience please advise me how you do it?

On a side note will adding cold beer to room temperature priming sugar give me any crystallization problems?

Thanks

Matt

Won't make any difference, add the sugar as a priming syrup by boiling it up for 10 minutes and racking the beer on top of it, gently stir to avoid oxygenation then bottle as usual. If you like fizzy beer your in for a treat . Cold crashing is worth while as you will get clearer beer which won't be so prone to chill haze when refrigerating.

[Jocky]

The temperature is included in the priming calculation because it helps understand how much CO2 is still in suspension in the beer from fermentation - more stays in at lower temperatures.

So normally I would use the temperature at the end of fermentation, unless I'm warming it up more before bottling.

The procedure for you now is to cold crash for 48 hours or more, then - before bottling - gently bring it up to conditioning temperature. Then add sugar syrup as described by Orlando to your bottling bucket and rack the beer on top of that.

Rack carefully to avoid stirring up yeast. In theory there is still plenty of yeast in suspension to carbonate your beer... personally I've found carbonation to be a very slow process this way so I'll add a teaspoon of slurry into the bottling bucket.

For my next batch I'm going to be cold conditioning for several days and then trying using a fresh packet of dry yeast for proper carbonation.

[matthuds]

Chill haze has been the blite of all my beers but i used Clarity Ferm for the first time in this batch too! Hoping that will take care of the chill haze and the cold crashing will dump a good amount of yeast out.

then - before bottling - gently bring it up to conditioning temperature.

Is it required to raise the temp again before bottling? or can this just happen in the bottles?

[orlando]

Is it required to raise the temp again before bottling? or can this just happen in the bottles?

By using a syrup you have excellent distribution so the bottles have enough yeast & sugar to carb up at circa 20c, so this time of year couple of weeks is fine.

[Jocky]

Chill haze has been the blite of all my beers but i used Clarity Ferm for the first time in this batch too! Hoping that will take care of the chill haze and the cold crashing will dump a good amount of yeast out.

then - before bottling - gently bring it up to conditioning temperature.

Is it required to raise the temp again before bottling? or can this just happen in the bottles?

To be honest, I don't know, so I really shouldn't have put that as conventional wisdom.

My thinking is that the cold crash will make most yeast dormant, and that warming it up should bring enough yeast back out of dormancy to help get quick carbonation. But if you're adding yeast slurry or fresh yeast it probably doesn't matter.

[matthuds]

Crashed down to 2c overnight and held there for 48hr.

Moved out of the freezer and let settle for 2 hrs before bottling.

Beer wasn't as clear as I had expected. I usually find my beers are clear in the bottle after a week anyway (at room temp).

Interested to see the effects of the Clarity Ferm when I get the bad boys in the fridge in a month or so!

[Fil]

when using a calculator for primaing charge which uses the temperature plug in the temp at which you fermented ignore any crash cooling temps,

the reason is the beer will have been sat at fermentation temp and its this temp which will dictate the level of co2 disolved in the beer, not the crash cooled temp.

crash cooling to a lower temp will not increase the level of co2 disolved/in suspension significantly, some extra co2 may be absorbed at the top but not any significant volume.
you need a degree of extra pressure to 'push' the gas into suspension.


using the crash cooled temp in a priming charge calculation will result in an under conditioned beer.