I was considering cold crashing anyway I guess...

[MitchK]

So at some point during a brewery cleaning/organizing I unplugged my ferm chamber setups to move the inkbird electronics onto the wall instead of on the floor where they were likely to be ruined if I had a big spill or bottle bomb... And I guess I accidentally plugged one of the fridges into the "heating" plug slot instead of "cooling"...

The heating diff was set at 3 degrees F, the temp at 70 (had just turned it up from 68 to 70 because I wanted to make sure it was done in time to use the carboy for wine) but that was just as the apartment cooled off with the weather so it was mostly sitting at 68-69 the whole time anyway (wasn't actually relying on the fridge to do anything other than insulate from night/day changes I guess)... Until last night.

The temperature of the beer dropped to 67 at some point this weekend. The "heating" switch kicked on and I go in to check on the beer today to see it sitting at 44f. I was considering trying cold crashing and it needed to be chilled to carb it anyway so I just fixed my plug error, set the inkbird to 34, and left it. When it hits 34 or stalls out due to the weak mini fridge I'll transfer to a keg and proceed as normal from there I guess. Is this insane? I'll have to heat up a sample to get a decent gravity reading on it to know my FG at this point.

[Lucas]

Accidents happen. Did you check the gravity? If it has reached your desired final gravity it should be OK, just maybe not optimal.

[chalmers]

How long had it been fermenting/conditioning? I'd probably like to know the current gravity before committing to stopping the fermentation "permanently".

[MitchK]

It's been two weeks and it was only a 1.045 OG so it should definitely be attenuated

Also you can definitely still bottle condition after cold crashing so it shouldn't be permanently dead yeast activity wise right?

[Lucas]

It should be attenuated, but you should check to make sure that it is.

You are correct in that the yeast should not be completely dead, it should be dormant at the lower temperatures. The potential problem if it is not fully attenuated is that the yeast may keep working very slowly and produce excess pressure.

[MitchK]

I checked the gravity and it was about standard for a weizen at like 1.012... Might attenuate a further 2 points or so, hard to tell.

Beer tastes fine but has some kinda icky sediment floating around in it (protein bits from the wheat I'm guessing - it was bits from what caked onto the side of the fermenter)... Basically I should've racked this one into secondary halfway through and maybe clarified with gelatin because this stuff seems to not settle out as well as the stuff in my first batch did... So basically I'll drink it obviously but it looks bad enough visually (and requires a bit of care to not suck back a small pile of it at the bottom of your glass) that I basically can't serve it to other people... I'm hoping it'll sink to the bottom and I'll pull it all out through the tap so within a week I'll be pulling decent looking pints but certainly can't serve it to anyone as is.

[saosborne]

put gelatin in the keg, leave it sit while it carbs ( cold), pull 3-4 pints then serve away

[MitchK]

It's definitely settling out on its own now.

The first pint I pulled today was filled with the stuff, this last pint before bed I see no trace. I think it did settle enough for me to get all the icky little bits floating around, now all that's left is a general cloudiness that I think I can get away with on a weizen. I will DEFINITELY be doing gelatin from now on (and racking into secondary on any beers with a stubborn/massive krausen that leave gunk all over the fermenter like this one did)

[saosborne]

Wheat beers are cloudy. you got rid of the floaties,if it doesn't taste like crap, serve it to your guests, be humble when you pour,In the end it's beer they didn't have to pay for.

[MitchK]

Still getting a few "floaties" per pint, but I think if I poured myself one immediately prior to pouring someone else it should be minimal.

Might try pulling a pint through a strainer to catch them, but I'm worried that will cause a lot of foam issues.

[mthibodeau]

yeah strainer would definitly do that

[Keith]

Strainer is going to kill the carb. Best bet is to let time do its trick. After a few days it should poor clearer.

[MitchK]

yeah even my first pint today is clean so I think the last of the floaties were pulled out yesterday.