Brand new to home brewing and loving it so far. I have a quick question on cold crashing and get some perspectives. I have seen a few “solutions” to prevent suck back during crashing but frankly they all seem pretty high maintenance so I was considering solutions.
My plan is to just insert the hose from my CO2 into my blowoff tube while it remains submerged (my blowoff is 5/8" silicon running into a 5 gal. bucket of Star San) and just barely leak the CO2 into the hose as the fermenter cools. Is there any reason this wouldn’t work? And if so, why is it not used? Or maybe it is and I just haven’t heard of it.
That might work, depending on your equipment and layout. My CO2 tank is nowhere near my fermenter so I wouldn’t consider this. Also, many pressure regulators aren’t very stable at low pressures and many fermenters can’t take much in the way of positive pressure. If your fermenter can take it and your regulator can keep the pressure stable and very low then this could work. I have a tee in my blowoff line that goes to a mylar balloon on one side and through a keg being purged to a blowoff jar on the other side. When I start to cold crash I just disconnect the input to the keg and let the balloon take care of the suckback. Once set up this is very low maintenance and self-contained.
Okay, that setup seems to make good sense. Don’t think I understood the tee intersection and wasn’t understanding where the balloon went. I assume you just rubber band the balloon to the joint?
I pressure ferment and put a CO2 line on the in post when I cold crash. After a day or so, i transfer under pressure to a keg with a spunding valve attached and pressure set at a couple psi less than the fermenter. But having said that, if you have a tank that can hold pressure, you can get away with removing a blow off tube at the tail end of fermentation to build some carbonation just before crashing,
Disclaimer: Any comment I add is simply the way I brew beer. There are certainly other ways that can be equally effective which other brewers may contribute. This is what I’ve found that works for me using my equipment and processes so I offer this for your consideration. YMMV
I use my clear draught system (floating diptube product) exclusively in the fermenter, so I cold crash the fermenter. The dispensing keg needs no floating dip tube set up this way and has the thinnest of sediment of all ways I have found. YMMV and whatever works for you - go for it.
