I am wanting to bottle some beer this weekend? What is a good temp to cold crash @ and for how long. The Beer is the English pale ale extract kit. Thanks for the help.
Cheers
Nick
Go as cold as you can get it. Length of time will depend on how flocculant the yeast is. I’d plan on a few days for a highly flocculant yeast and longer for a yeast that’s slower to drop. Just keep an eye on it and rack when you’re happy with the clarity.
Thank you sir.So as long as I don’t freeze it I should be good to go…What about the air lock? Put some rubbing alcohol in it?
If it’s not too late, DON’T put rubbing alcohol in it. Just imagine if some got drawn down into your wonderful, precious beer by mistake.
Vodka, or other neutral tasting spirit will do well. Although, unless you really think you’ll get below freezing temp, plain water or diluted starsan will be OK.
By the way, I use gelatin and cold crash at about 35-45(depending on my garage temps.) for usually 24-48 hours before bottling. Works for me (so far anyways)
I’m cold crashing one right now. Swamp cooler with 4 frozen water bottles has it down to 42. It’s cleared up nicely in 24 hours.
Ya I just left the Star San in the air lock. It is a pale ale and it is still pretty “cloudy” Looking but it is an amber color and not blond so trying to look through the 6 gal carboy might make it difficult to do such.
How do you add the gelatin? do you boil it in water first? then let it cool and add it?
I agree that cold crashing as cold as you would like for 24-72 hours will do the trick. As long as it has a chance to settle out, you’ll be good.
[quote=“gallowaynp”]Ya I just left the Star San in the air lock. It is a pale ale and it is still pretty “cloudy” Looking but it is an amber color and not blond so trying to look through the 6 gal carboy might make it difficult to do such.
How do you add the gelatin? do you boil it in water first? then let it cool and add it?[/quote]
Search the forums for gelatin. There’s a great older link on how to prep it. Basically as I recall, they say gelatin will clump in hot water. Mix it at room temp then microwave for 1 min. Then cool before adding to your beer.
