I was just listening to some guy who coauthored the yeast book. He claimed that he found a study during his research that reports up to 30% increase in fruity ester production if you rapidly cool or cold crash at the end of fermentation as compared to gently cooling by dropping the temp a couple degrees per day. (June 3 14 Jamil Show)
Last winter I worked on lagers a bit. They got to be pretty good but still, what I called too aley, probably due to my cold crashing. When the beers were done I would set my temp at 32° and it would get there over night.
Any comments from experience on this? I'm looking forward to making this change when lager season comes around. If it's true, I think my lagers will reach that magic level I just couldn't find last year.