Winter Brewing!

**RichBrewer** · 12-30-2007, 04:06 PM

I got an early start this morning (5am). It was cold and dark. All in all I really enjoyed this brew and it went without a hitch with one exception.
Here I am looking like a bum during the mash. Fortunately I do the mash and sparge indoors!

**RichBrewer** · 12-30-2007, 04:09 PM

The fly sparge went without a hitch. My new SS false bottom performed flawlessly.

**RichBrewer** · 12-30-2007, 04:11 PM

It was cold and dark but I really didn't mind. I didn't even notice the cold.
I've just fired the burner here.

**RichBrewer** · 12-30-2007, 04:13 PM

Suns finally up and I've got a good rolling boil.

Fingers · 12-30-2007, 04:15 PM

How do you keep your water hot for the fly sparge if you boil outside and sparge inside?

**RichBrewer** · 12-30-2007, 04:18 PM

Here's where I had my first problem. I went to hook my hose up and the hose bib has a block of ice around it. Apparently it must have been leaking and I didn't notice. Won't be using the wort chiller today! Good thing there's a lot of snow around! This is taking much longer than I hoped for. 1 hour after flame out and the wort is still 120º. Oh well. I'm glad I have the snow or I wouldn't know what to do.

**RichBrewer** · 12-30-2007, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fingers

How do you keep your water hot for the fly sparge if you boil outside and sparge inside?

I heat the water outside then pour it into a 5 gallon igloo cooler. I bring it in and place it above the MLT.

**RichBrewer** · 12-30-2007, 07:08 PM

Finally! Roughly 6 gallons in the fermenter! It took 3 hours to cool the wort in the snow! I've come to the conclusion that if you pile snow up around the pot and leave it, the snow against the pot melts. Now there is an air barrier between the snow and pot. I think the snow then acts as an insulator actually slowing the cooling of the wort. Anyone else have experience cooling with snow?

**budbo** · 12-30-2007, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Anyone else have experience cooling with snow?

Yes, I found moving the pot every 5-10 min sped up the cooling significantly

Skunkyhops · 01-17-2008, 08:44 PM

I thought I was brilliant when i made a big snowbank and plopped my kettle down into it but i had the exact same problem after an hour in the snow and minimal temperature drop maybe 40 degrees or so i moved it into an ice bath which moved the process along a lot faster. I also think that if you stir it while its in the snow it helps to cool your wort faster, something scientific has to say so somewhere.