I have 1 Irish red 5.46%ABV & 1 Amber 5.48%ABV batches in my fermentation controlled chamber.
Brew date of both batches: Sunday July 26, 2015
yeast Used: WYeast 1056
Approx… 1 weekend ago, I brewed a “Pale Ale 5.5 abv%” on Sunday August 8th,2015
yeast Used: WYeast 1056
Basically I have 3 batches, 2 that are close to bottling and 1 that is just past the major initial fermentation activity period as of today August 14,2015 Friday
I want to cold crash the previous 2 batches a few days before I bottle theseon August 22nd, 2015 Saturday
and leave the Pale Ale in the ferm. chamber for another 3 to 4 weeks.
My questions:
Can I cold crash the Irish Red + Amber and not mess up the yeast in the Pale ale?
By the way, I’m pretty much at end or very near the end of major yeast fermentation activity in the last batch: Pale Ale since its been around a full week already for this batch from brew date.
By the way I live in California and next week our temps will be in the high 95F + range if that matters. Currently we have very nice 80F weather for now…
If not an issue how would you do this exactly?.. I just want to do it right and with the expert advice I regularly find on this web forum.
Do you have a cooler place in your house (basement, air conditioned room)? Even one that is in the low 70’s would be just fine for your pale ale since the majority of the primary fermentation has completed. Allowing it to warm up would not be a big deal at this stage and then you can go ahead and cold crash your other two beers.
If you don’t have this option, then you may also consider allowing all beers to remain at the controlled fermentation temps (+ bumping them up a bit to properly finish out) until say 8/20. Then at this point your pale ale will be about 12 days old and you can probably cold crash all of them at the same time.
What is the ambient temp in your house? If not too high, and considering fermentation is basically done, you could pull the later batch out and leave at ambient while crashing the other two.
Ambient air Inside home is around 78 to 80F+ or so
Running ac unit to keep colder temp for beer is probably not sensible lol $$$ especially here in expensive California.
Brewnhard:
“If you don’t have this option, then you may also consider allowing all beers to remain at the controlled fermentation temps (+ bumping them up a bit to properly finish out) until say 8/20. Then at this point your pale ale will be about 12 days old and you can probably cold crash all of them at the same time.”
Me: Yea, I was thinking id be safe too cold crash the (2) 1st batches on Thursday the 20th or Friday 21st & bottle them on Saturday 22nd.
Then raise the temp back to 62-65F of the chamber containing the last 3rd batch “Pale ale” and let it go from there the 3 or so weeks for this one
OR as Steve in Tx commented: “Skip the Cold crash” since the ambient air might not be in my favor due to the predicted Hot weather next week in the 97F - 100F range… at least we are not Humid… its dry heat…LOL
Me: Considering my ambient air temps might be too hot next week
I’m thinking I might skip cold crash…
Brewing multiple batches brings problems to my plans… Ha!
