Cold crashing is a technique involving the reduction of beer temperature once fermentation is complete with the aim of dropping out particulate matter such that clearer beer can be transferred to the package. Whereas some prefer cold crashing rapidly, others take a slower approach due in part to concerns about thermal shock negatively affecting head retention, among other qualities. To test this concept out, we compare a beer that was cold crashed rapidly to one where the temperature was reduced gradually.
6 thoughts on “The Brülosophy Show: Impact Cold Crash Speed Has On An American IPA | exBEERiment”
Could you put a valve on your glycol line and throttle the flow rate down to a trickle (or get a pump with a much lower flow rate)? That would allow you to set your desired temperature only once on your controller, but *should* extend the cold crash timeline.
I *think* it would scale linearly. i.e., cut glycol flowrate to 10%, make timeline 10x normal.
Very interesting, I wouldn’t think this would make a perceptible difference. I’ll be trying this out for myself for sure! Keep up with the good and supprising work!
Your podcasts are decent quality, BUT I won’t invest 16 minutes to watch what I should be able to read in about 3-5 mnutes. Please post transcripts!
I enjoy skimming the brulosophy transcripts, but I can’t skim videos…
I noticed that John originally framed this as an issue mainly with commercial lagers. Yet you tested the effects using an ale clearly made with an ale (Chico) yeast. What about lagers!? As a retired biologist, I volunteer my services as a critical reviewer of your experiments prior to conducting them in order to avoid this type of inconsistency. Regardless I too am going to chance my process based on your results, although I just cool my 23L in a fridge so I think the rate of cooling is slower than your chiller.
Also it raises another question. What about cold crash temperature? You chose 3C. I usually crash to a chilling -1C, marginally above the freezing temperature of beer. Does that make any difference?
As always, Salud!
Was the trub dumped from the conicals before chilling? If they weren’t I’d be interesting in seeing the results of the trub being dumped or the beer being transferred to a keg first before the chilling variables are introduced.