I was wondering, for those of you who keg, do you cold crash prior to kegging. Seems to me kegging is cold crashing and 1st pint might be yeasty, but otherwise pre-cold crashing might be a waste. Is there a reason to do both?
I just keg and then cold crash. My first pint is clear as a whistle. Not yeasty at all.
I have been trying to be more patient with my beer and recently have been cold crashing prior to kegging.
I have been happy with the results but am not sure if it has made any significant improvements to the taste or overall clarity.
The one place that I have noticed am improvement is that when I have to shift my kegs around to remove an empty one, add a fresh one, or bring it to a friends for an event, I no longer have any clouds kicked up. I do not typically store my beer too long, but for those who do it seems like it would reduce the risk of off flavors caused from the yeast or autolysis.
I am always looking for new ways to make my beer the best it can be. I can not see how cold crashing before I keg will hurt anything but it may make a small improvement, so that is the route I take.
Joe
I cold crash before racking to any secondary vessel if I can.
I rack to the keg, cold crash, add finings, carbonate and serve. I used to rack to an intermediary keg with a shorter dip tube for the cold crashing/fining stage, and then push the beer to a serving keg after a week or two. Sure, I ended up with less sediment in the bottom of the keg, but it wasn’t worth the extra effort IMO.
