Cold Crashing in the bottle?

Question

1. Is it possible or advantageous to cold crash after bottling? I am aftaid if I cold crash for 2-3 weeks before I bottle that all the yeast will settle out and I wont have any to provide carbonation in the bottle.
2. If I cold crash in the bottle, will the increased sediment contribute to long-term storage issues?

Assume that I hit my FG and that no additional fermentation will take place (other than bottle carbing)

Answer 1

You will want to dry-hop at normal/fermentation temps for the best hop oil extraction. Dry-hopping cold is going to be an inefficient use of precious hops.

If you're worried about (or better: experience via experiment) low bottle carbonation/refermentation, you can always pitch new yeast during bottling. Some highly-flocculant strains might be sufficiently reduced during cold crashing to limit bottle carbonation, but I don't say that with high confidence.

Answer 2

1. You should have enough yeast still in solution after cold crashing before you bottle. You should not have any issues with this much time. If you were to wait a few months then I would worry.
2. If you do cold crash in the bottle there will be some increased sediment but if you are careful when you pour no a problem
3. If you are going to dry hop in your fermenter for a long time I would transfer to a secondary fermenter to get the beer of of the yeast. If it is only for a few days I don't think there will be much issue at all.