And what does it do?
Cold crashing is when you take usually the carboy after fermentation is done and drop the temp down to just above freezing for a day to three days to help clear the beer. I think it also helps with racking because everything clumps together a bit more.
Also better make sure you keg or if not, add yeast after cold crashing
Did you not read AFTER FERMENTATION that’s when you do it.
I think what tszabo was referring to was a concern that cold crashing will lower yeast suspension, so the added sugar at bottling time may not be consumed by the yeast. I don’t cold crash so I couldn’t say if this is an issue for bottlers, but it would seem logical that it could at least increase carbonation time. OTOH, wouldn’t adding yeast at bottling be counter productive to clearing the beer?
I’ve been thinking about this, since I am going to use gelatin for the first time in addition to a cold crash, before dry hopping, but after fermentation is finished. The goal is to clear the beer.
I am going to take a flip top growler, add an appropriate amount of dissolved priming sugar, and while the rest of the beer is dry hopping, see if the growler carbs up at all in a week. That way I will know if I need to add champagne yeast to the bottling bucket before bottling.
re adding yeast being counter productive: I believe that since you are adding a small amount of yeast and not giving it time to thrive on fermentables (i.e. going straight to the bottle) that you are not really going to cloud up your beer that much. I believe what you are really trying to clear out with cold crashing or fining is the inactive yeasts that have had weeks or months to feed. ALso, the “pitch rate” of priming yeast vs. a yeast starter must be a small fraction.
My hypothesis is that I won’t need to pitch more yeast, but it will take at least a month to get good carbonation. Good things come to those who wait.
