Cold crashing is a general term among homebrewers. It is the use of cold to drop all the tiny particles in your beer. Cold crashing is not something you must do, but most homebrewers do it so they can have a clear beer that is free from particles after fermentation. Cold crashing also has to do with cooling your beer to a temperature within the range of thirty to forty degrees celsius for over 48 hours so that yeast can remain at the bottom of the fermenter—a lot of brewers cold crash their beer in a fridge, Keezer, kegerator or refrigerator.
But if you don’t have a fridge and are looking for other better options of cold crashing your beer, you can get that done.
You can cold crash your beer by using an ice bath or keeping it outside if the weather is cold.
Below are the various methods of cold crashing your beer without a fridge.
1. Using an ice bath to cold crash.
This method is straightforward. All you need to do is put your fermenter in a container and get it filled with ice.
You can also use your bathtub for your ice bath, but you will need plenty of ice to do that.
Depending on the size of the beer you made, you can also use an 18-gallon storage bin for your ice bath if you have only one fermenter. So, when you want to cold crash, you fill your storage bin with enough ice.
You should note that the ice will end up melting in whatever container you put it in, so you will have to keep refilling it with more ice until you get what you want. It may be a little bit tedious for you, but it works well if you don’t have a fridge.
Make sure you keep checking how cold the water often is. Please don’t allow it to go above 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
You should be the one to determine when your cold crash should finish. If you are satisfied with how clear your beer is, you can end your cold crash, although, after 48 hours, your beer gets clear. After this, you can remove your beer from the ice.
You need to apply special care when during the movement of your fermenter after the cold crash so that you don’t end up shaking the beer too much and ruining the beer that you are trying to allow to clear. If you shake the fermenter too much, you will make all the tiny particles under the fermenter get stirred up, causing the beer to get cloudy again. That’s like having to wait all over again for it to clear.
2. Cold crashing outside
This is another excellent way of cold crashing your beer without a fridge. The only painful thing about this method is that you will need to rely on the cold weather to get it done.
Using this method will require you to find a time where the weather is between 30 degrees Fahrenheit and 40 degrees Fahrenheit for up to two days. You also need to locate a suitable spot like a garage or shed to keep your fermenter. Finding these two essential things will help you cold crash your beer outside. Winter is a perfect period for cold crashing your beer out.
You need to frequently check your beer if it is outside to ensure nothing or no one is trying to tamper with it.
3. Cold crashing using a cooler
You can also use a cooler that can allow your fermenter to fit in. You can place about 5 to 8 ice packs around the fermenter. Then, you continue to replace the ice packs as they melt. Continue to repeat this process for three days until your beer clears.
4. Cold crashing using additives
You can also use additives to help clear your beer. Super-Kleer, Irish moss, and whirlfloc are some additives you can use in your beer to help you keep it clear. After using these additives, allow it to stay within two to five days to work in your beer; simultaneously, you let your beer cold crash.
After cold crashing your beer, the next thing is for you to bottle it. Ensure that you position the siphon above the trunk, so it doesn’t end up sucking everything you have tried getting rid of. If you keg your beer, it would keep clearing as you continue to serve it. Also, if you used a kegerator or keezer to store your beer, it will keep settling as you continue to serve it.
What is Cold Crashing in Brewing?
Cold crashing is a traditional term for improving beer’s clarity after fermentation and before it is bottled. It involves reducing the temperature of the beer after fermentation is completed. Reducing the temperature of the beer allows you to increase the stipulated time for particles to settle to give your beer a cleaner look and a pleasant taste.
If you don’t allow your beer to ferment completely, the yeast will stop fermenting. If the temperature goes below the stipulated temperature, there will be excess sugars in the beer that will alter the taste of the beer. A hydrometer is equipment that you can use to help you determine if fermentation is completed.
Usually, it would be best to wait for a week before cold crashing so that the yeast that is suspended can get cleaned up.
Usually, cold crashing causes yeast cells to still survive and flavor around inside the tank. These cells that don’t settle at the bottom will come together to form larger flocculates of yeast. This flocculates of yeast reduces the quantity of trub that can enter your bottles of beer when you start bottling.
It would be best if you had a fridge or refrigerator to help you cold crash. Once your beer is done fermenting, put the fermenter in the fridge for about twenty-four hours so it will cold crash.
After cold crashing, remove your fermenter from the refrigerator and start bottling.
You can cold crash any beer, whether it is an ale or a lager. There are no restrictions
Cold crashing does not kill the yeast in your beer; it only makes it sleep. Cold crashing will also not ruin your carbonation process. You need to maintain the same fermentation temperature during carbonation for your bottles.
Cold crashing has a required temperature range you should stick to if you want your beer to clear correctly. The temperature range is between 0.5 to 5 degrees Celsius and 33 to 41 degrees Fahrenheit.
To help you maintain these temperatures, you can use a temperature-controlled fridge or freezer that uses a thermostat controller like inkbird. It would be best if you kept these temperatures, so you get the best clarity of your beer.
Most homebrewers have issues with cold crashing a beer and then encounter a temperature drop that will cause a vacuum to form in their sealed fermenter, and air will get sucked in through the airlock. It is not a severe problem but most brewers panic when it happens.
To fix this issue, you should remove the airlock and replace it with a small bung. You might still experience the vacuum after replacing the airlock, but it will not be strong enough to destroy your fermenter. Some homebrewers fill their airlocks with vodka so that if any liquid enters the beer, it will be sanitized.
Is cold crashing beer necessary?
Cold crashing beer is one unique thing that most homebrewers do. They do it so they can have a clear beer. It is not mandatory for you to cold crash your beer. It is not necessary. lt should be something that you decide to do and not one you must do because other homebrewers are doing it.
A lot of homebrewers use cold crashing because they have a fridge or refrigerator or kegerator or keezer. So, they do it effortlessly.
You can still have a clear beer even without cold crashing it.
Does cold crashing kill yeast?
Cold crashing does not kill the yeast; it just makes it sleep or dormant for a while. The cold will kill the yeast if you allow it to freeze. If your yeast is not frozen, it is inactive, and you can easily reactivate it by warming it up to receive the necessary nutrients.
To avoid killing your yeast while it’s still cold crashing, you should make sure you don’t allow the beer to freeze.
Generally, beer freezes at 28 degrees Fahrenheit although the freezing point of your beer differs according to its alcohol level. If you don’t want your yeast to die while cold crashing your beer, make sure you keep your beer between the range of 30 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
How to cold crash beer
Before you could crash your beer, you should make sure it is done fermenting. After cold crashing, bottling your beer is the next thing that follows. And cold crashing has to do with reducing the temperature of your beer to a near-freezing temperature and allowing it to stay that way for one day.
So, how can you cold crash your beer? By allowing it to chill to about 0.5 degrees Celsius or 33 degrees Fahrenheit within 24 hours. Ensure you stick to these measurements. To do this, you will need to put your fermenter in a fridge or refrigerator or a temperature-controlled freezer.
Please, don’t start the cold crashing process if fermentation is not complete; if you do, you may end up pausing the cold crashing process. A hydrometer can be used to check if the fermentation process is complete.
It is not suitable for you to freeze your beer. After cold crashing your beer, don’t try to stir the trub up; instead, pour it in a keg or bottle.
Bottle conditioning after cold crash
Bottle conditioning is simply carbonating beers in bottles. Usually, sugar is added to finished beer before it is siphoned into bottles. So, yeast cells eat the sugar and produce carbonation. When this carbonation dissolves, it carbonates the beer. Carbonation and conditioning of beers can happen within two weeks.
If you give your beer enough time, as soon as you cold crash your beer, there will be plenty of yeast to carb up your beer. It is good you leave your beers in primary for the expected period, but rack it to secondary level and leave it for some days before you bottle so that all the sediments can settle. You don’t need to rack to secondary. Just cold crash in your primary fermenter, and then be very careful not to suck up any yeast from the bottom when you transfer to your bottling bucket.
You will always have plenty of yeast in suspension to carbonate your bottles even after cold crashing. So, if you don’t suck any trub from your fermenter, your bottles will still get carbonated.
You should ensure that you sanitize all the equipment that will touch the beer. Sanitize the bottles, spoon, bottling bucket, racking came and tubing and bottles and caps.
Priming sugar is used to prime or carbonate beer. Corn sugar is the best to use during the bottling procedure because it easily allows yeast to digest.
After following all the necessary bottling procedures for your beer, when you transfer the beer into the bottles, make sure you avoid the sediments at the bottom of the fermenter. Transfer only the clear beer. After bottling, cap the bottles with a bottle capper.
How do you know if carbonation is occurring? During the two-week carbonation process, you will see a small layer of sediment build up in the bottles. These sediments are made up of yeast cells.
How do you identify an over and under-carbonated beer? Over-carbonated beer is relatively easy to locate. When you open the bottle, it will pop loudly and will start foaming. The taste of the beer will be acidic and sharp. It’s caused by the high amount of carbonic acid in the beer.
For under-carbonated beer, the bottle will pop loudly when it is opened. The pour may have a thin head that dissipates quickly, and the beer will look thick on the palate. If this is the case, you can re-carbonate the beer by opening each bootle and adding a little quantity of yeast with some amount of sugar.
If your beer becomes carbonated increasingly, you may start to experience a bottle infection called a gusher infection, although they are pretty rare. What causes this? When your bottles get contaminated during the bottling process. When this happens, please get rid of the bottles because they will explode. To dispose them of, wear hand gloves, put the bottles in a Tupperware tote, cover them with very thick blankets, and open each bottle carefully so that they can each be relieved of pressure.
Should I cold crash before Kegging?
You can either choose to cold crash before or after kegging. If you keg your beer, you can cold crash in the keg. It will allow you to purge the keg with carbon dioxide and not bother about oxygen entering. If you want to do this, make sure you seal the keg very well, then allow the keg condition for some days in your kegerator while the leftover yeast drops out.
Cold crashing your beer before kegging allows it to clear quickly, and you don’t have to bother about dealing with sediments in your beer.
Can you cold crash after bottling?
You can cold crash after bottling, but it is not advisable. It is best you cold crash for about three to five days before bottling. Cold crashing will help the beer clear before you bottle it. The beer should settle before you try bottling it, so it doesn’t end up settling in the bottle instead.
Can you dry hop while cold crashing?
A brewing concept for adding hops late in the brewing process through fermentation or conditioning is called dry hopping. Dry hopping is different from wet hopping. Wet hopping is adding freshly picked hops during brewing. Hops quickly get bad after harvesting. Hops are flowers or come off a plant that is referred to as humulus lupulus. What do hops do? They help to keep a beer fresh, help it maintain its head of foam that is an essential ingredient of a beer’s flavor and aroma. Hops also help to give a beer that bitter taste.
You can choose to either dry hop while cold crashing, before cold crashing, or after cold crashing. You determine what you want to do with your beer. But please dry hop after cold crashing so that by then, the beer must have cleared, and then the hops will stay longer without carrying a grassy flavor.
Some brewers share their dry hops additions and add them at separate times to get different effects.
Should you cold crash a hazy IPA?
IPA stands for India Pale Ale. IPA is a very famous craft beer that has a bitter, bold, and fruity hop flavor.
Cold crashing a hazy IPA won’t clear up the haze effectively. It may reduce the bottle sediment, but the beer will remain hazy, except you try to treat it with finings.
But you can choose to cold crash a hazy IPA if you want to.
Conclusion
Cold crashing helps to give your beer an unmistakable look. It is not compulsory that you cold crash your beer, but if you love your beer having a certain look, then you should cold crash.
You can cold crash your beer using a fridge, refrigerator, or kegerator, but if you don’t have any of that, there are other ways you can explore, like using an ice bath or cold crashing outside your house during winter.
You should only cold crash your beer after fermentation has occurred. Don’t try to freeze your beer. It’s not good; it could make the bottle explode.
Ensure you stick to the correct temperatures when cold crashing beer, so you don’t end up stalling the process.