Cold Crash?

I have a raspberry fruit beer I am attempting that calls for fermenting atop raspberry's in a secondary.  I also have been reading the many and various opinions about cold crashing.  From what I read CC is usually done for clarifying purposes only?  If I were to CC would you recommend CC primary then rack to secondary?  CC secondary before bottling?  Dont bother? 

A part 2 to this question is whether CC reduces the yeast in the beer such that it effects bottle carbonation?

Thanks for your responses. :

not sure about the fruit and where it gos in  but, as far as secondary gos, if the yeast are healthy there will be plenty for bottle conditioning. I use to have problems with cc and bottle conditioning, then I changed my water that I brew with and the yeast were much happier/ heathery. 

so do you cc after primary or after secondary before bottling?

I leave my beer in the primary until the gravity is stable for three or four days, then give it another week before cold crashing (to drop the yeast and hop particles) for a few days then racking to a keg. No secondary, unless you count the time in the keg at 34 F before I start drinking it.

Lots of brewers still use a secondary to get clearer beer. Hopefully one of those folks can comment on their cold crash process. I'd consider the bottle priming/conditioning/chilling phase to be a secondary.

Most of my beer eventually clears before I finish the keg.

I don't usually rack to secondary but this recipe has me adding raspberries then racking on top of them.  I will most likely rack to secondary and sit on it for a couple weeks, cc, then bottle.

Thanks

I would secondary only if adding ingredients such as in your case, or when doing a complex dry-hop with multiple hop charges. Otherwise I'll crash the primary after completion of fermentation is confirmed by at least two consecutive days at the same SG, plus a couple more days to ensure the yeast has cleaned up after themselves. No need to add extra steps if not necessary - just increases the chances of infection, oxidation, etc.

I suppose you could crash it in the primary prior to racking onto the fruit in the secondary, but I'd think you'd want the beer to be at warmer than freezing temps to infuse the fruit characters - could be off on this one, never tried it.

Me? I crash a couple of days prior to packaging but I keg my brews. If you are bottling, you'd want the beer to be at fermentation temperatures or the yeast will not eat the priming sugar and carbonate your brew. Even if you DID crash it in the primary to get most everything to drop out, you'd still have plenty of yeast available for the bottle, but I'd let it come back up to fermentation temperatures prior to bottling to ensure the yeasties are wide awake for their next meal.

Crashing to clear your beer can be done, with time being the most effective factor. Where time is an issue, there is always gelatin. I just tried it for the first time on my last IPA and I gotta say; it really works! But then again; I keg so I'm not relying on residual yeast to carb my beer. Sitting in the bottle carbonating and conditioning for a week or three can do the same thing - you'd be surprised how clear your bottled beer can become by the time it's ready to enjoy.

Primary till its done. 5 days with an ale at best. Transfer to secondary and add fruit(if you must). Let it set for a week. Then keg or bottle. CC. Done.