Changes to brewing process, what can I expect?

I made two significant changes to my all grain brewing process with my last batch.

#1 I used an inline RV style charcoal filter to filter all of my brewing water

#2 I used a wort chiller for the first time


Previously I have been using my municipal water as is and cooling my wort in my bathtub with cold water, it typically took 3-4 hours to cool my wort down to pitching temp. With the chiller it is about 7 minutes!

Things I am hoping for:

1. reduction in chill haze
2. clearer beers
3. more hop aroma and flavor from late additions due to reduction of contact with hot wort due to rapid cooling
4. overall better beer

The filter will change the flavor profile, it will remove some of the flavors in the water, but, what that change does, will be found when you taste the beer. It may be so subtle you won't notice it. As for the chiller, I think that would just be a reduction of potential DMS, Other than that, I don't think it has to do w/ haze... I may be wrong. But basically it just means you get done w/ your brew day faster. I love my plate chiller, 10 gallons in fermenters in less than 5 minutes.

You should see a real cold break from using the chiller. Clearer beer in the keg or bottle much faster. You should see all 4 of the items you mentioned.

It would be good for you to find out what your water is like pre & post filter and then adjust according to style as needed.

pompeiisneaks: I wish I could get my wort into fermenter in 5 minutes, just never seems to work that well for me. Sigh!

Samc, ahh forgot about the good cold break, that's right! it will help clear the beer . Yeah well when I pay what I paid for my blichmann plate chiller, it better make it a helluva lot faster

you ought to analyze your water chemistry now too while your at it.

I have great inlaws, my father in law provided me with a wort chiller with 60 feet of 3/8 copper that fits my pot perfectly, it is probably overkill, but with my 50 degree garden hose spigot water, it exchanges heat fast, you can literally watch the cold break happen. Craziness.

The only option I have for my water is to send a sample in to get analyzed. I have requested an analysis from the city numerous times, I might as well just bang my head against a wall for a few hours..it would be less painfull than dealing with them.

There is a very active homebrew club in my town, and they say the water is good to go for most styles straight from the tap, so I figure with my filtering I should be good to go. But I wish I could get a good analysis of my water.

pompeiisneaks said:

Yeah well when I pay what I paid for my blichmann plate chiller, it better make it a helluva lot faster

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I am starting to think the Blichmann is better than the Duda Diesel version.