I use an Irish moss/carageenan fining agent in the boil, and I use ClarityFerm to eliminate gluten during the fermentation. The latter is also supposed to eliminate chill haze. My homebuilt temperature control system (swamp cooler with thermoelectric chiller and PID loop) can only cool to about 45-50, so I usually cool my carboy down to 50 for 24-48 hours before bottling. That seems to give a very compact yeast cake and clear beer. Is there any advantage for me to go lower?
Dude… just lower the temp and crash that sh:::::t
Trust me I listen to the advice on this brd. they know what they are talking about. If they say crash. Then crash away!
Crash is the key word here. Take it down as close to zero F as you can.
Since you bottle, I don’t see the benefit of dropping the temperature lower than your current practice as you’re going to end up with a deposit in your bottles anyway.
Zero will freeze the beer, which won’t be very helpful! I shoot for 33. The freezing point of an average gravity beer is around 29.
Thanks for all the replies. I was looking for more technical information on the consequences of cold crashing. I know it affects the clarity, but are there any other benefits?
If you’re getting clear beer with your current approach, I don’t see any point in wasting energy trying to cool it further.
You can’t get rid of chill haze at 50 F, even with Clarity Ferm. You need to chill the beer to below serving temperature (often domestic fridge temp) and then wait a week or two for the precipitated haze to drop out; then rack or package. Using gelatin while chilling speeds up the clearing process. If you serve beer warmer, chill haze might not be an issue. And some/most brewers don’t mind a touch of haze anyway. It only bothers me when I give beer to friends.
Denny is right. To clear lagers quickly at the end of lagering, I go to -1C, or about 30F. Maybe Frankenbrew meant 0C?