Cold crash after or before secondary?

[unsteadyneddy]

I have a fermentation fridge with a temp controller, and want to try cold crashing to clear up a light pale ale. I generally secondary, and am under the impression this will give a clearer beer. Is this true? And do I cold crash before or after racking to secondary?

All help is much appreciated.

[BDawg]

you cold crash at the end of secondary.

[Stinkfist]

or at the end of primary.....as most often a secondary is not needed...

[unsteadyneddy]

It seems that many are divided on the topic of the necessity of secondary fermentation. I have heard Doc talk about the importance of getting the beer of the nasty yeast cake...anyone have anything to add to this?

[MRbrew]

I haven't been doing this for very long but what I've heard/read is that if you do an active pitch of healthy yeast (yeast starter) then your yeast will still be alive and healthy at the end of fermentation. Its actually important to give the yeast time after the ferment to clean up any off flavours produced (2 days once all activity has stopped) and a slight rise in temp toward the end will help (diacetyl rest). This is all done on the primary but you can rack to secondary if you want. The risk is an extra unnecessary transfer with possibility of introducing oxygen/contamination. When "cold crashing" its the final temp that is important not the speed at which you get there. Especially in lagers as going too fast will cause the yeast to produce a protein coat and produce off flavours. That's what I've heard and do with my beers anyway.

[brewinhard]

Racking to secondary is obviously a personal decision and one that I ONLY use if I am adding oak, fruit, or wild bugs. Besides that I typically keg/bottle directly out of primary after my beer has gone through a proper conditioning period and undergone a 2-3 day period of cold-crashing to drop out yeast and excess proteins to give me a clear beer at packaging.

Why go through the extra work of cleaning/sanitizing a secondary fermenter and racking it over which could lead to oxidation, infection, and more time? Just my 2 cents.

[spiderwrangler]

The 'need' to get the beer off the yeast is largely unfounded for modern homebrewers. I think that it came from either the commercial side (where cylindroconical ferms create greater pressure on yeast), or as a hold over from when people were using poorer quality/viability yeast.

[unsteadyneddy]

Thanks Spider, definitely answers my question.

Cheers!