How fast do you cool your beer?

After brewing is complete and you have to get your beer to the right temperature,

How fast can you do it?

5? 10? 15? Minutes

What's your best time?

My best time was with 10 gallons. I took it from boiling to 65F in 13 minutes. That was with a 50' chiller, water was at 32F.

I usually go 20-30 minutes in 25ft of CFC, no matter what groundwater temps are.

Use a ice bath for 3 gallons partial boil, add salt to the ice to reduce freezing temp, cools to 70 degrees in about 10- 15 min...

6 Gallons in 8 minutes, @ 62F.

20-40 minutes for 6' gallons depending on the time of year. I have an immersion chiller, about 30'.

13-15min for 6 gallons to 60* using a 20ft CFC. That's recirculating until the entire batch is under 140, then straight to the fermenter.

About 5 minutes for 12 gallons, using a plate chiller and ground temp water. That's straight from kettle to fermenter, avg of about 70F.

I just upgraded from a 25 foot to a 50 foot recirculation chiller. I am going to use the 25 foot in an icewater bath and am excited to see how much faster it works. In Phoenix our water temps are never very low so I am hoping this will have a huge impact. Right now it is about 20-25 minutes to go from boiling to 70.

i can go from boiling to 62 in about 7 -8 min with my ic in 3 gal of wort

Using a plate chiller, the wort gets to pitching temperature really fast. I haven't actually timed it, but I would say about 10 or 15 minutes from flameout until the airlock goes in.

boiling to below 60 in less than 5 min, for around 4 gallons

Depends on the time of year, but my last batch was 10 gallons from boiling to 80° in ~30 minutes using a 25' immersion chiller. In the summer in Texas it's impossible to get to 80° with an immersion chiller as the tap water is usually about 82°.

malthed said:

Depends on the time of year, but my last batch was 10 gallons from boiling to 80° in ~30 minutes using a 25' immersion chiller. In the summer in Texas it's impossible to get to 80° with an immersion chiller as the tap water is usually about 82°.

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An easy fix for this is to buy a cheap aquarium pump and put it in and ice bath. Pump ice water into your chiller and until the water is around 100, let it flow onto the ground. Somewhat of a waste of water...but it works well.

If the wort isn't full of hops (I only use leaf), then I can do 5 gallons in 6 minutes. Hoppy beers do it in 8.

I'm getting 5 gallons down to 68 deg in 7 min using a 50 ft stainless immersion chiller. Well water.

6.5 gallons takes me 15 mins to get to 65f. I use a 50' IC and whirlpool.

I got 3 gallons from boil to 60 F immersed in ice water in approx. 15 minutes.

hoppybrewster said:

I'm getting 5 gallons down to 68 deg in 7 min using a 50 ft stainless immersion chiller. Well water.

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Sorry I meant 3 gallons.

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

An easy fix for this is to buy a cheap aquarium pump and put it in and ice bath. Pump ice water into your chiller and until the water is around 100, let it flow onto the ground. Somewhat of a waste of water...but it works well.

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I have used a pre-chiller submersed in an ice bath but without recirculating. Thanks for the fish pump suggestion. I'll give it a try. And instead of letting the water go onto the ground I capture it and water the plants with it.

Mine is usually cooled off by the next morning

About 10 minutes from boil to room temp using an IC, no idea how much copper is in it. I bought it at a LHBS maybe 7 or 8 years ago.

plate chiller
5.5 gallons to 60 degrees in about 3 minutes, 10 gallons in about 5....gotta love minnesota winters!

From Boiling to 70 in 7 min with my well water and IC (water temp this time of year is 36).

I usually can take 3 gallons and bring it down to 80-90 in 15 minutes with a sink full of really really cold water. Usually after 10 minutes I'll drain the water and fill it up with fresh cold water. I figure since I'm adding 2 gallons of cold water to it I don't need to get it all the way down to 70

bduane said:

Mine is usually cooled off by the next morning

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Wow you wait that long? Do you ever get chill haze or infection? Im just curious because i have always heard you should cool down the wort and pitch yeast ASAP, ( which is really the whole point of this thread right?) otherwise bacteria can settle in...

bduane said:

Mine is usually cooled off by the next morning

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Don't know if you're kidding or not, but you may have a point. I think that's the way the Aussie's do it as they have big time water wasting issues.

If I'm not in a big hurry, I've been setting the fermenter in a few inches of cold water, wrapping the fermenter in a soaking wet towel and hitting it with a fan. It takes a few hours to chill, but I'm usually not in a big time hurry anyway.

I'm not convinced that a quick chill's that big of a deal. I'll probably be corrected on that thought shortly.

Its called No Chill brewing. I have done it dozens of times and it works just fine. I run off boiling wort into corny kegs and seal them up to cool. The wort is sterile when it goes in and stays that way.

onthekeg said:

Its called No Chill brewing. I have done it dozens of times and it works just fine. I run off boiling wort into corny kegs and seal them up to cool. The wort is sterile when it goes in and stays that way.

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Then transfer to a fermenter under pressure?

I have tried no boil with a plastic bucket, but I'm always worried about temperatures in those suckers.

Yes, no-chill is what i was referring to. I have a 7 gallon HDPE plastic container that I can transfer boiling hot wort to and squeeze some of the head space out. I seal it up and let it cool overnight.

I guess typically you adjust your hop schedule by subtracting 15-20 minutes from each of your hop schedule steps. So 60 minute hops become 40 min, 20 min become 0 min, and 0-15 min I dry hop.

I like it because it shortens my main brewday, and i dont have to buy an expensive chiller.

For beers that use a lot of lighter malts, switching to a 90 minute boil will ensure no more DMS will be produced, but from my understanding a 60 minute boil is sufficient to ensure no DMS problems with most beers.

Franc103 said:

Then transfer to a fermenter under pressure?

I have tried no boil with a plastic bucket, but I'm always worried about temperatures in those suckers.

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No I spray the tops of the corneys with Star-San and dump them into the fermenter.

malthed said:

I have used a pre-chiller submersed in an ice bath but without recirculating. Thanks for the fish pump suggestion. I'll give it a try. And instead of letting the water go onto the ground I capture it and water the plants with it.

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you could consider using a bilge pump as well. I have a 500gph bilge pump that cost $20. Using a 15ft immersion chiller and an ice bath I can take 5 gal to 70 in 10 min.

Luckily my tap water is crazy cold year round (hooray for snow run-off!) usually ~40-45*F

Using a 20' 3/8" copper immersion chiller I can get 206*F wort (boiling temp for my elevation) down to 65*F in about 15 minutes.

My last one was 25 minutes with 2lbs of ice and 4 4" square freezer packs. Normally I use anywhere from 12-22lbs of ice and get it done in 20 minutes or a little less.

ETA: That is partial mash and extract kits, 3-3.5 gallons.