Cold crashing in kegs

[claponsie]

Currently using a 1 bbl brite and we cold crash in the brite. Prior to filling kegs, we dump trub off the bottom and have been very pleased with resulting crystal clear beer. Just upgraded to 3 bbl fermenters and now subsequently must decide whether or not to get a 3 bbl brite. An option we are considering is keg carbonating via a manifold. However, it seems unpractical to move the 3bbl fermenter into the walk in cooler in order to crash it. What I'll effects can I expect if I crash cool in kegs? Any suggestions here would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris Laponsie
Millgrove Brewing Company

[Junkyard]

Do your fermenters have any temp control ability? If you can cool the beer down to 60 degrees after attenuation and drop out most of the yeast you can fill kegs off your fermenter and carbonate in the kegs by shaking them with 40 psi. After the kegs settle you can serve the beer off them as long as you don't move them while, or before you serve them.

[Swags]

Moving fermenters

Currently using a 1 bbl brite and we cold crash in the brite. Prior to filling kegs, we dump trub off the bottom and have been very pleased with resulting crystal clear beer. Just upgraded to 3 bbl fermenters and now subsequently must decide whether or not to get a 3 bbl brite. An option we are considering is keg carbonating via a manifold. However, it seems unpractical to move the 3bbl fermenter into the walk in cooler in order to crash it. What I'll effects can I expect if I crash cool in kegs? Any suggestions here would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris Laponsie
Millgrove Brewing Company

Not sure if your'e set up will allow it, but I move our 6 bbl. fermenters full of beer all the time. Requires a pallet jack and some room in the cooler.

[claponsie]

I have the ability to control the temperature of the room that the fermentors are in with some precision, but that would mean cold crashing all 8 of my fermentors at the same time. My fermentors are not on casters right now, but I suppose we could change that... I can also try the pallet jack option. Getting into the cooler might be a tight fit, but we do have plenty of space in the cooler if we can get through the doorway.

[ChuckD]

3bbl brewing

We are a 3bbl brew house and had inconsistent carbonation and a lot of uneeded manual time crashing, carbing, and shaking the kegs. We quickly identified the wasted time and bought a separate brite for our cold room. After FG is reached in the primary we drop the yeast and transfer via pushing with CO2 into the brite. Crash cool, carb, then keg it up. I think the brite is the way to go. If you can, get a jacketed on and chill it outside of a cold room.

[claponsie]

We decided that we will continue to use our 1bbl brite tank to crash and carb until we can get a 3 bbl within a month or two. The cost of building a keg carbonating manifold is substantial and poses a significant challenge for crash cooling for us. It's and expensive bandaid with a lot of caveats. Thanks for feedback and please let me know if you have any other ideas.

[Junkyard]

So your fermenting 3bbl batches without temp control.. Hopefully your doing only Belgian beers.

It's pretty easy to carbonate consistently by shaking kegs, all you have to do is rock the keg back and forth for an about 3 min on 40 psi, then turn the regulator down and keep rocking the keg, the pressure will drop and equalize, if your keg is room temp you will want it to equalize at about 25 psi.

[claponsie]

Reread the thread. We control the ambient temp to +/- 1 degree. No problems with fermentation here; we're talking about crashing.

[claponsie]

Again the question wasn't whether or not keg carbonating works, we should all know that from our home brewing days. Was wondering if anybody else cold crashes in kegs. Obviously the issue would be shaking the keg after cold crashing and disturbing the sediment. Might be ok for in house but ultimately we decided against it for distribution, where we have no control over disturbance of the sediment.

[Junkyard]

Yes you said you could control the room the fermenters are in but you also said that the room has 8 fermenters in it. 8 different fermenters are never going to be in the same stage of fermentation, so how are you ever going to facilitate a good fermentation by controlling the temp of the whole room. and furthermore ambient room temps for 3bbl fermentations aren't really going to do squat. You need some direct liquid contact with either a glycol jacket or a glycol immersion coil.

I don't mean to give unsolicited advice, but your ability to cool the beer in your fermenters goes a long way not just for fermentation but also what we are currently discussing about kegging off of your fermenters.


Also, I realize you weren't asking about carbonation, but I apologize. I assumed because that is the Hang up that most people have without use of a brite tank.
If you are kegging cloudy beer off of your fermenters of course you are going to have lots of sediment in them but if you had the ability to cool them to crash out the sediment you would have much more clear beer going into the kegs. Bars shouldnt have a problem if you tell them not to move the kegs after they have been tapped. It could get you through until you free up enough funds for a 3bbl brite tank. I sure would hate to have to spend half a week just to keg one batch through a 1bbl brite.

[claponsie]

Yeah I hear you about temperature control of fermentation, but unfortunately alot of us Nanos do it this way. We monitor temperatures daily and while we don't have the precision control of jacketed fermenters, we keep fermentation temperatures within 3 degrees of 65. Very aware that it's not ideal, but we make very good beer with our process.

The next big investment for us will be a 3bbl brite. When we upgrade our system beyond 3bbls we will get jacketed unitanks and glycol but we're not there yet. Thanks for the advice!

[andrew_FSBC]

What size kegs are you packaging in to? If sixtels you could buy a small amount of 1/2bbl kegs, use those as brites and transfer to sixtels when the beer is done carbing and has turned brite.

[claponsie]

Ended up buying a proper brite tank. Don't have many sixtels, but that is a viable idea!