Cooling wort before pouring into primary a must?

I would have no problem cooling before pouring, but my brew pot was donated to me and it's very wide, my chiller does not completely submerge in 5 gallons of wort and takes 30mins+ to cool. If I dump hot wort into my 6 gallon primary bucket, my chiller is completely submerged and I can easily make an ice bath out of my gigantic brew pot in no time which would cool my wort much faster.

Any thoughts about why pouring hot wort into 6 gallon plastic primary would be a bad idea? (besides obvious safety reasons..)


Im broke right now or I would just buy a smaller pot or a plate style chiller, so upgrading my equipment is out of the question for a few months

Thanks!

Most of the brew buckets I've dealt with are safe up to about 180 or so. Beyond that I don't know if you'd risk deforming the bucket or leeching something from the plastic. But you could cool it down to below 180 or so, dump it in, and then continue to cool in the bucket.

the reason for chilling before putting into your primary is, if you are using the dump method, is to aerate the wort. Hot wort will not aerate well. you should be ok cooling in your primary if you aerate by some other means after it cools, a vigorous stir or aeration stone with ox or compressed air

Also aeration of hot wort can create some off flavors that won't go away with conditioning according to Palmer's "How To Brew".

So a key issue with wort temp is oxidation. Aeration happens with pouring, and aeration of wort above 80° creates hot wort oxidation. You cool first to allow aeration from transfer to be helpful for fermentation without being harmful to beer taste.

I agree with bdgrizzle, there is always a higher chance of oxidation with hot wort. Is there anyway you can use an ice bath with the chiller or even better how about a counter flow? I try to move the wort as little as possible till it is about 75degrees.

bdgrizzle said:

So a key issue with wort temp is oxidation. Aeration happens with pouring, and aeration of wort above 80° creates hot wort oxidation. You cool first to allow aeration from transfer to be helpful for fermentation without being harmful to beer taste.

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Better safe than sorry, I choose NOT to pour before cooling.

Thanks everyone for your input I appreciate your willingness to help a rookie with his first brew..

HBT FTW!

I'm planning to do my second brew tomorrow, and my pot is too big to put in an ice bath in the sink or other vessel, my first brew I pitched way too hot, but the beer came out fine. I was planning on just putting my brew pot in a snowbank to cool fast, but we have no snow left... my question is if it takes an hour to cool the wort to pitching temp is that gonna affect my beer?

Josh14025 said:

I'm planning to do my second brew tomorrow, and my pot is too big to put in an ice bath in the sink or other vessel, my first brew I pitched way too hot, but the beer came out fine. I was planning on just putting my brew pot in a snowbank to cool fast, but we have no snow left... my question is if it takes an hour to cool the wort to pitching temp is that gonna affect my beer?

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Yes.

Will the effects be "bad"? Not necessarily. You'll get way more flavor utilization of late hop additions ad your 5- min additions essentially become 20 min additions.

And while your beer may have come out "fine" , I'd suggest that your next steps move towards some sort of wort chiller and also making yeast starters. Then ferm temp control. Those will move your beer towards GREAT!

Piratwolf said:

Yes.

Will the effects be "bad"? Not necessarily. You'll get way more flavor utilization of late hop additions ad your 5- min additions essentially become 20 min additions.

And while your beer may have come out "fine" , I'd suggest that your next steps move towards some sort of wort chiller and also making yeast starters. Then ferm temp control. Those will move your beer towards GREAT!

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well my birthday is coming up, a wort chiller is high on my want list! I want my next brew to be better, and being a noob, i bought an 8 gallon pot so I can do a full boil not thinking practically like how the hell will I cool it!!

Read up a bit on "no chill brewing" and make up your mind on that evidence. I can usually make my wort cool in an hour and "I" like how my beer turns out.

It used to take me an hour or more to cool my wort when I first went to full volume boils. Just move some of the 10 or 15 minute hop additions closer to flame out because you'll get higher utilization off the hops from sitting in the hot wort longer, but I made plenty of beers I enjoyed quite a bit by leaving it in an ice bath, or snow bank, or whatever crazy slow chilling method I used. Either keep that lid on the pot, or cover the top with saran wrap or something to make sure nothing gets in the wort while it's cooling.

Life is better with my chiller, but for at least a year or two I made do without one and while I wouldn't go back, the beers I made were just fine.

I ended up filling my bathtub with water and 3 bags of ice purchased at the local deli, chilled my wort down to 70 in about a half hour! I'm super excited for this IPA I brewed

I am brewing a Brown English Ale tonight and was planning on pouring on top of about 2 gallons of ice and top off with cold water to speed up the cooling process. When the temp hits 70 degrees, I'll pitch yeast and pour into carboy from counter top for aeration. Then store in 65 degrees to ferment.

So I should not pour the wort until it cools if I understand the posts correctly?


Edit: To late if I shouldn't have done it... I'll see how fast it cools. Has to be better than last time.

Topped off the wort to 5 gallons and the temp was 80 degrees. Placed to brew bucket outside in 38 degree temps for 15 minuets. Temp read 69 degrees, so I pitched yeast and filled the carboy. We'll see in 6 weeks or so.

RM-MN said:

Read up a bit on "no chill brewing" and make up your mind on that evidence. I can usually make my wort cool in an hour and "I" like how my beer turns out.

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A good point! I always forget about the no-chill approach. No personal experience, but it does have a satisfied following. Something i need to read up on as well. This is a good reminder that there are lots of paths that lead to good beer! Thanks, RM-MN!

BW210 said:

I am brewing a Brown English Ale tonight and was planning on pouring on top of about 2 gallons of ice and top off with cold water to speed up the cooling process. When the temp hits 70 degrees, I'll pitch yeast and pour into carboy from counter top for aeration. Then store in 65 degrees to ferment.

So I should not pour the wort until it cools if I understand the posts correctly?

Edit: To late if I shouldn't have done it... I'll see how fast it cools. Has to be better than last time.

Topped off the wort to 5 gallons and the temp was 80 degrees. Placed to brew bucket outside in 38 degree temps for 15 minuets. Temp read 69 degrees, so I pitched yeast and filled the carboy. We'll see in 6 weeks or so.

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I think the only real key is not to pitch the yeast before the wort hits the right temp. I've actually left my wort in the carboy in my ferm fridge overnight to let it cool enough to pitch my yeast, and the beer turned out great!

There is a lot of back and forth about wort getting oxygenated while still hot, and whether or not it really causes problems. Sorry I don't have a useful link at the moment but if you search Hot Side Aeration or HSA you should find plenty of threads. After reading into it, I came to the conclusion that you want to avoid it if possible, but there was no significant proof that it caused any real harm.

beaSTi07 said:

I would have no problem cooling before pouring, but my brew pot was donated to me and it's very wide, my chiller does not completely submerge in 5 gallons of wort and takes 30mins+ to cool. If I dump hot wort into my 6 gallon primary bucket, my chiller is completely submerged and I can easily make an ice bath out of my gigantic brew pot in no time which would cool my wort much faster.

Any thoughts about why pouring hot wort into 6 gallon plastic primary would be a bad idea? (besides obvious safety reasons..)


Im broke right now or I would just buy a smaller pot or a plate style chiller, so upgrading my equipment is out of the question for a few months

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I just skimmed the responses, so I apologize if someone else asked this...

But what's the problem with the chiller not being fully submerged? (It won't have as much chilling power with less surface area in contact with the wort, but still...)

Also, if your chiller is copper, couldn't you just gently reform it to make it larger in diameter with less turns, so it does submerge fully?

beaSTi07 said:

I would have no problem cooling before pouring, but my brew pot was donated to me and it's very wide, my chiller does not completely submerge in 5 gallons of wort and takes 30mins+ to cool. If I dump hot wort into my 6 gallon primary bucket, my chiller is completely submerged and I can easily make an ice bath out of my gigantic brew pot in no time which would cool my wort much faster.

Any thoughts about why pouring hot wort into 6 gallon plastic primary would be a bad idea? (besides obvious safety reasons..)


Im broke right now or I would just buy a smaller pot or a plate style chiller, so upgrading my equipment is out of the question for a few months

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I have a wide pot myself. I made my own chiller so, it's ugly and loosely spaced. It never submerges completely during 5 gallon batches and takes about 30 minutes to cool as well. I have no problems with the way any of my beers turn out.

I wouldn't dump hot wort into a plastic bucket. You run the risk of ruining both your bucket and your wort.

hnsfeigel said:

There is a lot of back and forth about wort getting oxygenated while still hot, and whether or not it really causes problems. Sorry I don't have a useful link at the moment but if you search Hot Side Aeration or HSA you should find plenty of threads. After reading into it, I came to the conclusion that you want to avoid it if possible, but there was no significant proof that it caused any real harm.

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This covers my thoughts exactly!

I routinely dump hot wort (partial boil) into my bottling bucket onto 1.5 gallons of ice. I have done almost 30 batches like this with no issue and my beer has always turned out great (minus 2 batches one of which I know to have fermented too warm). If you ask me the caution about hot side aeration is just that, caution. as a matter of fact I'd venture to say it's over cautious. Try it. If you do it and your beer turns out fine its just that, fine.

dorklord said:

I just skimmed the responses, so I apologize if someone else asked this...

But what's the problem with the chiller not being fully submerged? (It won't have as much chilling power with less surface area in contact with the wort, but still...)

Also, if your chiller is copper, couldn't you just gently reform it to make it larger in diameter with less turns, so it does submerge fully?

Click to expand...

That's a great idea I didn't even think about re-forming it doh.

I did my second brew yesterday and besides a stuck sparge (which really sucked) everything went smooth, I actually found a big plastic tray thing and used it for an ice bath, along with my half submerged wort chiller I got it down to 70deg in what seemed like 15min tops. Now 16 hours later my airlock is bubbling away w00t!