bottle conditioning

Zambi

Zambi

Well-Known Member
Trial Member
Established Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2019
Messages
3,942
Reaction score
9,683
Points
113
I got a batch belgian ale / blonde fermenting at around 21-22 oC which is almost ready for bottling.

I heard a lot of remarks of cold crashing before bottling. I have never done this before. I always bottled, let the bottles carbonate and then move to the fridge
Should I try cold crashing?

Then after bottling, I've always had my bottles in a cooler box to condition. I would like to do that again, so I can directly re-pitch on the slurry and get the fermenter in the fridge again.
This fermentation fridge is too small for bottles and fermenter
Any major disadvantages?
 
Cold crashing is primarily for clearing up the beer, which is a personal preference in my opinion. If you are happy with the aesthetics from the fermenter, I'd bottle and re-pitch on the slurry. Keep in mind things will settle in the bottle as well. If the beer is currently too hazy for your likes, then cold crash it and maybe save the slurry for later use.

I empathize with having limited cooling real estate and the resulting sacrifices we must make :)
 
Zambezi Special said:
I got a batch belgian ale / blonde fermenting at around 21-22 oC which is almost ready for bottling.

I heard a lot of remarks of cold crashing before bottling. I have never done this before. I always bottled, let the bottles carbonate and then move to the fridge
Should I try cold crashing?

Then after bottling, I've always had my bottles in a cooler box to condition. I would like to do that again, so I can directly re-pitch on the slurry and get the fermenter in the fridge again.
This fermentation fridge is too small for bottles and fermenter
Any major disadvantages?
Click to expand...
I personally would continue as you have, bottle it up and on to the next brew on the cake.
Cold crashing is nice but not a necessity. I can cold crash with my glycol setup but brewed for 25 years before cold crashing and the beer was fine.
 
Cold crash seems pretty easy to do.
Only need to change the settings on the inkbird and wait for the fridge to get to the right temperature.
Or am I missing something?

If the trub settles in the fridge and I bottle, then the trub can be re-used once it is back to the right temperature, isn't it?
 
It is if you want to use the fridge. No you are not missing anything.
Yes, just pour the new wort right on top. I just let mine get up to room temperature and start the next batch. It is usually fermenting in an hour or two.
Good luck!
 
Zambezi Special said:
If the trub settles in the fridge and I bottle, then the trub can be re-used once it is back to the right temperature, isn't it?
Click to expand...

I don't see how this is fundamentally different from storing a slurry in the refrigerator under a layer of beer. It might not be optimal, but it should work.
 
Zambezi Special said:
Cold crash seems pretty easy to do.
Only need to change the settings on the inkbird and wait for the fridge to get to the right temperature.
Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

I don't know what your setup is, but when you drop the temperature there is potential for the fermentor to suck back liquid from your airlock or blow off tube. It isn't a big deal if you are using water or vodka, but other chemical mixtures can be yucky or dangerous. If you use an airlock, dump the liquid and use a little cotton until the temp drops. I uses a blow off tube and set the end in the bucket just below the surface of the water... water will suck up the tube a little, but then release back into the bucket before reaching the top of the fermentor.
 
Good point!
I got starsan in the airlock.
 
You can use a balloon too. Fermentation fills it with co2, then when it gets cold, it will collapse the balloon. You can leave your airlock in place

20211015_163955.jpg
 
Last edited:
You're still cold crashing your beer, you're just doing it individually in bottles post carbonation vs as one batch still in the fermenter. I don't think you'll gain much if you add a cold crash before bottling. If you want clearer beer, leave the bottles in the fridge 3-4 weeks after they're carbed
 
I don’t cold crash before bottling, but my home does stay pretty cool this time of the year (high 50’s to low 60’s F). My bottles are conditioning in the same room where my fermenters rest. So far, I have been impressed with the clarity of my batch of amber ale (the first batch brewed in this home). We’ll see soon how clear my batch of Janet’s Brown Ale turned out. After that is Smooth Stout, for which clarity doesn’t matter.
Clarity is nice, but certainly not essential.
 
Sunfire96 said:
You're still cold crashing your beer, you're just doing it individually in bottles post carbonation vs as one batch still in the fermenter. I don't think you'll gain much if you add a cold crash before bottling. If you want clearer beer, leave the bottles in the fridge 3-4 weeks after they're carbed
Click to expand...

I do the same--let the bottles cold-crash in the fridge.

The night before bottling I bring the fermenter out of the ferm chamber in the garage and into the kitchen. Letting it sit on the counter overnight allows whatever I may have stirred up to re-settle. Then I bottle. After it's carbed up sufficiently, I put them all in the fridge. The beer usually clears up nicely.

If I do cold-crash in the fermenter, I switch to a 2-bubble S-shaped airlock with some cheap vodka. Any air that's drawn in won't push the liquid into the fermenter (and it's no big deal if it does--it's only a few ml). Starsan tends to foam its way in, so I don't use it for airlocks.

Once I forgot to do that before cold-crashing and I had a blowoff tube into a jar of Starsan. It sucked about a pint of it into the fermenter. Yeah, I could taste it--gave the beer a not-so-nice acidic twang.
 
Zambezi Special said:
If the trub settles in the fridge and I bottle, then the trub can be re-used once it is back to the right temperature, isn't it
Click to expand...

I've been cold crashing my yellow fizzy beers in the bottles after priming and conditioning....keeping them in crashed mode for about 2 weeks even cleared the chill haze I get.
The cons that I see in crashing the carboy are, as the other Z pointed out, suck back, real estate and the inherent problems of wrestling with a carboy. Dumping the yeast cake into a sterile mason jar make things so much easier to store and when it's time to get rid of the supernatant. Loosening up the cake to dump it for future use also frees up that one carboy or bucket for the next brew when you want to and not on the same day you're bottling or kegging.
 
Thanks all!
Only problem with the bottle cold crash in the fridge is that I can get to them...
I know... Patience

I quite like the back to back brewing, but it does limit me somewhat in types of beer as I'll be using the same yeast this way.
I'll be researching how to keep yeast.

As for carbonation:
Is the carbonation temperature important?
 
21 oC is cold for me!

Kveik carbonates in less than 5 days under my conditions. I normally keep them for 7-10 days
Most others in 1 to 2 weeks, after which I move them to the fridge.

I'm a bit confused now.
Carbonation is just to get fizz in the beer as far as I thought. The yeast already cleaned up whatever needed cleaning during fermentation?
So just get it carbonated then move to fridge?

Example
My saisons ferment for 3-4 weeks, then bottle & prime. After 7-10 days move to normal fridge. Leave for a couple days at least before testing
Voss ferments for about a week, 5 days carbonating then fridge

So far I've only done Belgiums (incl saison) & kveik.
I now got MJ 47 (Belgian Abbaye) fermenting at 21-22 oC (70-72 F) Bottle after (estimated 2 weeks). Idea was to carbonate in cooler box as I don't want to occupy my fridge (need it for more beer)
Estimated coolerbox temp will be roughly 25 oC (77 F) Carbonate till that little pet bottle tells me it's enough (about 7-10 days). Then move to "normal" fridge

Now if I understand @sunfire correct, I should carbonate for 3 weeks. What's the advantage of that? And what effect does the temperature have, other than speeding up carbonation?

Just trying to get as much info as I can
 
The 3 week carbonation period is just a rule of thumb. You could have full carbonation in less or more time. Depends on the health of remaining yeast, temp, etc. After 2 weeks, you could take one bottle, chill it and serve, to see if it's carbed up enough. If not, wait another week or so and try another. Bigger beers might take even longer. Being winter here, my house isn't as warm (around 18-20C), so my beers may take at least 3 weeks to fully carb.

Many Belgian breweries have "warm rooms" to bottle condition their beer at temps in the low-mid 20s Celsius.
 
If there's anything I suspect differently between cane sugar and corn sugar for priming, it seems like the cane sugar doesn't carb up quite as quickly as the corn sugar. I try real hard not to touch the bottles for at least a week after I put them on the shelf, but sometimes curiosity gets the best of me. I normally try one around the 5 day mark just to get an idea what it's gonna be like at peak. It helps me understand the whole conditioning process and it's effects on the beer. I'm trying to develop my tasting skills, so can't hurt to try some that aren't ready and then again when they are, so that I know the difference.

So far, all I've been able to accomplish with cold crashing is chill haze. I try to brew without fining agents. Dunno why, but perhaps it's mostly to make sure I get my brewing techniques lined up the best before I start hiding things from myself with finings. I think the next time I do a brown, it's gonna get a Whirlfloc tablet. The cloudiness of this batch was very disappointing. I'll keep trying, though, and learning. A bad day is when I don't learn something.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Copyright © 2007-2024 Brewer's Friend, Inc. - Send Feedback - Terms - RSS Feed - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Back
Top