oh Sh*t it was still too hot

I brewed a double batch on sunday. The first batch went fine, the second took a lot longer to cool down. I had it outside in 15 degree weather with snow surrounding it. It took over an hour to cool. I got it down to 85 degree's( I was running short on time) and pitched my starter. The next morning all I found was large clumps of dead yeast.

I racked it off, cleaned out the carboy, added more oxygen and repitched a packet of dry.

doing ok now. This was my 20th batch of all grain. My first real screw up.

next time I was allow more time for the double batch.

85F isn't going to be near enough to kill the yeast. I doubt the clumps were dead.

i was surprised as well that snowbank cooling is useless.

So was I. I can cool down wort in 20 minutes during the summer. I thought with the cold air it would be fine. I thought that 85 would be ok, but I guessed wrong. It could have been 85 right where I placed the themometer, and warmer in the middle.

Just hoping it will be ok in the end. Never poured one out yet.

I got a buddy who pitches at 100 degrees without issues (maybe he gets off flavors he's not picking up on but the ferment still takes off).

I've been trying to get mine down to 70 (or lower) lately, but I'm just aiming for marginal improvements. You should still be fine.

houndhome1 said:

So was I. I can cool down wort in 20 minutes during the summer. I thought with the cold air it would be fine. I thought that 85 would be ok, but I guessed wrong. It could have been 85 right where I placed the themometer, and warmer in the middle.

Just hoping it will be ok in the end. Never poured one out yet.

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You have to be more patient. Occassionally I have a batch that takes longer than the next morning to take off. I've never had one not start. The more experienced guys on here say not to panic until a day or two has gone by.

Edit: I recently had a belgian go 36 hours before any activity. I used two vials of the Chimay strain; one straight, one with what I thought was a dead starter. So far it's progressing just fine, but this recipe usually takes months to come into its own so I won't know for sure.

You know that DMS precursors are still being produced while the wort is over 140F. You really want to go from a rolling boil to under 140F as fast as posible to limit DMS in the beer.

On the yeast. Was an English strain? Those appear to clump like cottage cheese. I don't think 85F would kill yeast. But really I think it would be best pitched much cooler just to control the fermentation temp.

motobrewer said:

i was surprised as well that snowbank cooling is useless.

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Snow around the kettle acts as an insulator, not as a chiller.

Make your own immersion chiller. I made mine with 50' of 3/8" copper for $50. Works like a charm!

Just out of curiosity, how did you diagnose these clumps as being dead?

dpittard said:

Snow around the kettle acts as an insulator, not as a chiller.

Make your own immersion chiller. I made mine with 50' of 3/8" copper for $50. Works like a charm!

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having your kettle in DIRECT CONTACT with 32F water (snow) helps cooling dramatically. trust me, I know.

in understand the insulation properties of snow pretty well. I do live in Wisconsin.....

yes, I have a wort chiller. yes, i made it myself. no, I didn't use it because my outdoor faucets are frozen, and I thought 3F ambient would do a good job. It doesn't.

I have been real surprised on the time it takes ambient temp to cool down a batch as well.

The other night I left mine outside in 20's deg weather with the lid on for something like 3 hours before it had dropped below 80. I had poured the wort into ice water which brought it down to 110. So it took about 3 hours for 20 degree outside temps to cool the wort from 110 to 77.

By 77 I pitched anyway cause it was 3 in the morning and I wanted to get it going.

when the outdoor hose is frozen, I hook my chiller up to the ktchen sink. There are adapters you can get at home depot that will thead to the sink and hose threads.

yeah, at the time i was surprised. but, re-reading my thermo / heat transfer books....not that surprising.

unless there is a stiff wind, pure outside convection is useless against 6 gallons of boiling water.

maida7 said:

when the outdoor hose is frozen, I hook my chiller up to the ktchen sink. There are adapters you can get at home depot that will thead to the sink and hose threads.

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I live in Wisconsin as well and I only hook the hose up the faucet five minutes before I chill and leave it run until I am reading to break it down and store it. I am lucky and have a heated garage to store the hose in, but you can always haul it into your basement. Nothing like chilling in the winter, it goes twice as fast and you can get much lower.

Edit: I always connect the two ends of the hose the together before bringing inside to avoid it draining all over the place and save the time of actually draining it outdoors every weekend I brew.

+1 on the wort chiller sink adapter from the Home Despot, or Lowes.

Caution though it's a tough needle to find in the proverbial haystack, and you obviously need to make sure the threads are right (they have about 3.5 million of them that all look very similar).

Garden Hose in the summer, sink in the winter. And the nice thing about winter is that city water runs cooler.

dpittard said:

Snow around the kettle acts as an insulator, not as a chiller.

Make your own immersion chiller. I made mine with 50' of 3/8" copper for $50. Works like a charm!

Click to expand...

Yeah snow is actually a really good insulator. If you want to use a snowbank to cool your wort you need agitation. Some way to keep the kettle moving. Spin it in place. This of course would be a PITA because it would be manual. I shovel snow into a cooler and pump it through a chiller and recirculate the water back over the snow. Seems to work pretty well.

motobrewer said:

having your kettle in DIRECT CONTACT with 32F water (snow) helps cooling dramatically. trust me, I know.

in understand the insulation properties of snow pretty well. I do live in Wisconsin.....

yes, I have a wort chiller. yes, i made it myself. no, I didn't use it because my outdoor faucets are frozen, and I thought 3F ambient would do a good job. It doesn't.

Click to expand...

You can use that snow and cold in another way. Freeze some water/snow and get a recirculating pump. I just did this. I used a submersible that I happened to already have. Plastic garbage can, fill with snow, ice, water.... You will need some water to get the process started.