Diacetyl rest and cold crash

[jwill911]

Hello, I’m sort of new to brewing, still doing extract kits mostly ales and IPAs. I’ve made some pretty good beers and some just eh. I’ve been racking to a secondary fermenter before dry hopping. Then up the temp by ~5 degrees for 24 hours or so and just started cold crashing on the last couple batches along with biofines in attempt to clarify my beer better. Also started using DME instead of LME as I’ve read that will help. Next step will be all grain.
With all that said can someone either give me a quick howto or point me to documentation that will help me on that journey.
Thanks,
John (Alameda,CA)

 

[camonick]

Next step will be all grain.

Research BIAB (brew in a bag). It’s a great way to make all grain brews with minimal equipment. What you’re using for your extract brews might be sufficient if you just add a bag. A larger brew kettle might be necessary, however.

 

[Stormcrow]

You're going to have a lot of people tell you not to transfer to secondary and avoid the oxidation that can happen there. I agree. You can dry hop and cold crash in primary without any negative effects. I usually start my diacetyl rest a couple of days after fermentation has really slowed down and just leave the temperature elevated the rest of the time. I actually haven't cold crashed yet (scared of sucking in oxygen, though most people say they don't have issues with it. ) So I don't really know how long a beer should be at cold temperature before packaging. I would think a couple of days would suffice.

Edit. Also BIAB is the bee's knees.

 

[jwill911]

You're going to have a lot of people tell you not to transfer to secondary and avoid the oxidation that can happen there. I agree. You can dry hop and cold crash in primary without any negative effects. I usually start my diacetyl rest a couple of days after fermentation has really slowed down and just leave the temperature elevated the rest of the time. I actually haven't cold crashed yet (scared of sucking in oxygen, though most people say they don't have issues with it. ) So I don't really know how long a beer should be at cold temperature before packaging. I would think a couple of days would suffice.

Edit. Also BIAB is the bee's knees.

Thanks for your input.
I have been eyeballing BIAB for a while but waiting to spend the money. I haven't had an issue with transferring to a secondary YET. I don't open the primary fermenter to do so. I raise the primary above the secondary so I can gravity transfer, I sanitize transfer tubing attach it on the spigot in the primary and open the spigot valve to transfer to sanitized secondary.
I have a an IPA batch that has been fermenting for 14 days now, so I plan to bring the temp up 4 degrees for 48 hours then start cold crash for another 48 hours. My cold crash is primitive, I put the fermenter in a 20 gallon trash can wrapped in Reflectix bubble insulation and add 20 lbs of ice. To keep track of the temp I put the Inkbird temp probe on the fermenter. I'm sure there's better ways and someday I'll invest in a small fridge.
Regards,
John

 

[hotbeer]

Consider just leaving your beer in the primary till it clears up somewhat on it's own. Then you won't have to cold crash. I've left beer in the primary for up to 7 weeks and they are some of my best beers IMO. And very clean. That final haze in the fermenter is taken care of in the bottles by the yeast since I carbonate naturally.