Mar 202129Mon

Started Cold Crashing Golden Wave

SG 1.010 19.8℃ cold-crashing

There’s been very little movement on this brew in the past couple of days with the gravity swinging between 1.010 and 1.009, representing 98% to 100% completion against target. The only sign of life in fact has been a gradual increase in pressure since the spunding valve was closed after dry hopping 2 days ago, starting at 10 PSI and getting as far as 13 PSI today. I don’t think that’s going to cause issues with the 4 or 5 bottles (if any) that we’ll get over and above a keg, and it certainly won’t be a problem for the Cornelius.

Golden Wave Ale, 9 days into primary

The only question in my mind right now is whether cold-crashing is even necessary, since I’ve seen an unprecedented level of clarity with this, my first attempt at using Protafloc tablets. I’d be mightily pleased if a non-fined beer were this clear after a week in the chiller, so is there even any point in doing this? Well, the keg this is going into will be chilled as soon as I’ve filed it, and if chilling is only going to remove a smattering of suspended hop matter then it may as well remove it before we go to the keg.

Let’s give it a couple of days and keep an eye on the temperature via Tilt, which seems to be working just fine through the walls of the refrigerator. Speaking of which, a couple of days ago I added a gas line via the drain pipe so that I could keep my kegs carbed, and I may as well add some pressure to the Fermzilla now rather than wait until we’re in the Corny. Dialling in 15 PSI and setting the temperature control to ‘mid’ in order to prevent a repeat performance of the Great Bure Permafrost of 2021.