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My fridge holds a damn near constant and consistent temp at whatever i set it at. I am thinking about cold crashing my double IPA and this would be my first time trying this technique. I heard there are things that can go wrong. What temp and how many days and how long before bottling should i cold crash if I also dry hopped the beer. What can go wrong, and what are the benefits? thanks i know i have a ton of questions this is a great resource as i don't have much time to research during the day at work and at night with a newborn :

cheers!

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I cold crash (and fine with gelatin) at 30F for two or three days before kegging. I have found that 30F for two days clears my beer better than weeks at 38F in my refrigerator.

If you plan to bottle the beer, you might fear that you'll drop too much yeast out, leaving you with too little yeast to carbonate the beer. That isn't a concern. Plenty of beer has been cold crashed and then bottled successfully. I recently cold crashed a RIS at 30F for four days, and it carbonated within two weeks. As a bonus, it also reduced the amount of sediment in the bottles.

About the only thing that could go wrong is you let it get too cold and freeze the beer. That could result in a broken carboy. I don't know what effect it would have on the beer.

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  • Freezing uncarbonated beer will also kill the yeast (if the whole beer is frozen). Freezing carbonated beer causes the beer to lose carbonation.
    – Atron Seige
    Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 13:04
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    @AtronSeige a carbonated beer will loose carbonation if the freezing cracks the vessel and the carbonation out gasses - it can’t loose carbonation if the vessel stays in tact. Think about it - the liquid carbonates because gas is forced (let’s say 2.2 volumes) into the same space as the liquid. If the gas has no where to go then the liquid says only the same pressure as it thaws. Frozen beers only loose their carbonation if they are opened while still frozen.
    – zatbusch
    Commented May 15, 2019 at 19:40
  • @765tgs, valid point. When I made the comment I clearly did not think it through.
    – Atron Seige
    Commented May 16, 2019 at 10:44

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