| How important is it to cold crash your beer? When I started brewing, I dreamed of the day where I'd have the ability and equipment to cold crash.
I bought a stainless steel bucket fermentor, then a small fridge to store my fermentation vessel. Not only did I have the ability to control fermentation temperature (which is extremely important), I could also drop the beer's temp to "cold crash" it before packaging.
The first time I cold crashed, the star stan in my airlock got sucked into the beer (along with oxygen). Yikes! The beer came out fine, but still.
I switched to a blow-off tube, thinking this would help. Nope. It sucked up all the star stan into the beer like a giant straw.
| | | | The only way to stop this suck-back from happening was to supply the fermentation vessel with CO2 while I cold crashed. But that's a lot of work, which got me thinking about the importance of cold crashing.
Is it worth it?
No. And therefore, I stopped doing it. Even though I have all the right equipment, I let my beer sit in the primary for two weeks and then transfer to the keg without cold crashing.
My beers transfer without a problem. And it's one less step in the process, which is always a time-saving benefit.
That said, there are so many good reasons to control the temperature of your fermentation. And I'll continue to do a temp drop when I dry hop (I'm a poet, and I didn't even know I was one).
So I pass the question off to you. Do you even cold crash? | | | Happy Brewing! Matt, Founder of Brew Cabin | | | P.S. - Looking for a way to improve your all-grain brewing process? The Level Up All Grain Video Course is the perfect resource for brewers who want to take their game to the next level. With over 6 hours of video content, this course will help you dial in your system and improve your all-grain brewing process.
Improve your beer quality by learning new techniques and processes that are covered in this video course! Topics include water chemistry, yeast health, mashing, fermentation temperature, dry-hopping, and more. You'll be able to brew better beer with less effort after watching these videos! | | | | | | |
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