vidarien

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Ok so heres my question, and i suspect ill have to fall back to some of the grizzled veterans on here for a consensus on this one.


When you're using an immersion wort chiller to get the temp down to yeast pitch levels, any who has tried knows that agitating the chiller in the wort will cause the temperature to drop dramatically faster than leaving it alone and walking away.


However....

Palmer states that aeration/splashing, and consequentially oxidation, of the wort while its cooling down will cause the oxygen to bind and break up during fermentation causing off-flavors.



So my question is...which is the best of two evils? I know its general knowledge that the faster the cold break..the better...yet...with an immersion wort chiller..thats entirely dependent upon agitating the wort...which leads to hot oxidation.

Input?

Keith_Mahoney

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Revvy is going to chime in here with either the exact temperatures or reasoning on why HSA is a myth, but here is my take.
I let my immersion chiller get the wort down to about 100* before I start swirling it around. I'm busy doing other prep at that time anyway. At that temp I believe there shouldn't be any fear of HSA

Brewsmith

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Don't worry about the Hot Side Aeration.

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BreckBastion

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I stir my wort with my spoon in a whirlpool while my chiller is running. You will notice a significant heat transfer increase. The water coming out the other end will get hotter. I do not worry in the slightest about HSA, but at the same time, I am not splashing my wort around much.

JasontheBeaver

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To revive an old thread... I think the original question is an excellent one and very common for us beginners. I asked myself the exact same thing.
When learning this hobby we beginners are always finding the contradictions. Eventually we learn which ones matter or how to prioritize each factor.

I'm about 10 beers into this hobby and I use a copper coil immersion chiller in my keggle. As the OP and others have said, I immerse the chiller then go about cleaning some stuff and get my fermenter, yeast, O2 system ready, then gently swirl the wort to help with cooling. You don't have to splash the wort around, just gently swirl it.
My results have been very good.
As far as HSA my biggest faux pas is when I pour the mash runnings into the keggle. I try to pour it down the side and be as gentle as possible but ultimately it doesn't seem to be making a difference in the final product. This has led me into the camp of not being concerned with HSA, but not promoting it either if possible.

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Stauffbier

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I wouldn't even worry about this pre-boil..

xjmox14x

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Well, this answer is what I support. I leave it alone for a few minutes to cool off. Them I constantly stir in a slow fashion.. not splashing around, no need to stir hard and fast, just need to displace water a little bit at a time.

Never had a problem.

xjmox14x

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This too. I wondered about this myself, but I find it hard to believe, scientifically, that even if HSA is a real beast and does effect the hot wort, that it cannot be remedied through boiling. I don't think there are many things that can permanently effect a given sample of water.

3PegBrew

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spring for a plate chiller for some extra moolah. You will thank the beer gods.

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