First off is cold crashing truely 100% effective?
how long do you normally wait after cold crashing and stabalizing before bottling?
how long do you normally wait after cold crashing and stabalizing before bottling?
Bottling after cold crashing
- Thread starter McJeff
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After letting the mead warm to room temperature, check the gravity several times over a couple of weeks. If it remains stable, then it is okay to bottle. Remember to make gravity adjustments for temperature changes.
No. Cold crashing doesn't do anything except put the yeast to sleep so they drop out of suspension. They are still there...waiting to wake up and blow up bottles. If you stabalize, that's a different story. Rack off the lees, add your stabilizing chems, then as PitBull says, wait and measure for a couple of weeks until you are sure it's constant at room temp, then bottle worry free.
Awhile back I briefly read some comments on here about cold crashing and figured, what the heck I have this stubborn batch that doesn't want to clear up. So I set it on my front porch during a warm winter spell (We call them Chinooks 30-40F) left it there for about 2 weeks, by which time it had dropped to about 10F. I then decided I better bring it in and bottle it before it gets too cold and freezes.
I bottled it straight off the porch. I use just plain hose to siphon and plug off the end with my thumb between bottles. After going through 20 + bottles my thumb was so cold I thought it was frost bitten.
Then (of course) as the mead warmed up it expanded and pushed the corks out. The next morning all the corks were sticking up, 2 had pushed all the way out.
On the positive side once I re corked them all I never had a bottle blow.
I bottled it straight off the porch. I use just plain hose to siphon and plug off the end with my thumb between bottles. After going through 20 + bottles my thumb was so cold I thought it was frost bitten.
Then (of course) as the mead warmed up it expanded and pushed the corks out. The next morning all the corks were sticking up, 2 had pushed all the way out.
On the positive side once I re corked them all I never had a bottle blow.
The mead would have expanded some, but I think most of it was the little bit of air at the top of the bottle. Since I siphon by hand there is some variability in the amount of air at the top of the bottles. I suspect the CO2 solubility probably increases as the mead warms up.
Cold crashing is a clarification method. It does nothing to stabilize mead (e.g., protect against bottle bombs).
think you misunderstoond. When we say stabalize, i assume we all know that is K meta and K sorbate.
I'm a little fuzzy on the actual question. I re read it. If you are stabilizing then you're going to be fine. If you are cold crashing then you will have clearer mead.
So is cold crashing 100% effective as a clarifier? Nope. A combination of cold crashing/racking/fining/waiting or filtering is effective as a clarifier. It may look clear after a cold crash but there will still be plenty of suspended stuff in solution.
Is it effective as a stabilizer? Also nope. In fact really nope.
Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
So is cold crashing 100% effective as a clarifier? Nope. A combination of cold crashing/racking/fining/waiting or filtering is effective as a clarifier. It may look clear after a cold crash but there will still be plenty of suspended stuff in solution.
Is it effective as a stabilizer? Also nope. In fact really nope.
Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
sorry i guess i could explain a bit more. When im about to achieve the ABV that im shooting for i want to cold crash to stop the current activity and ill stabalize(meta and sorbate) to inhibit future activity. I was wondering how long i should wait before bottling so not to make potential bombs. Pitbull answered it pretty well.
Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Gotcha
Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
