Is it ok to let your wort cool overnight in the brewpot

I just got finished cooking a five gallon batch of porter Is it ok with the lid on overnight I do not have a wort chiller yet

I've transferred to a carboy with an airlock and left hot wort in it to cool overnight with no ill affects. I think that would be a better choice than a kettle that doesn't seal as well.

Thanks

People do that all the time. Its called "no chill brewing", look it up in the search bar. I've never actually done this but there are a few threads in here that will help you further.

I've done it with no noticable side effects.

Yep... Just be careful transferring hot wort to a glass carboy. That could cause the glass to break.

NEVER PUT HOT LIQUID IN A GLASS CARBOY !!!! there'll be a click then a splash and hot wort and glass all over the floor.

I did no chill brewing for quite a few batches before I got my homemade CFC assembled..search for an "Aqua-tainer" and threads about no-chill aquatainer. I got mine at Walmart for around $8. They're 7.5 gallons and make great fermenters too !

joeybeer said:

never put hot liquid in a glass carboy !!!!

Click to expand...

ever!

Consensus seems ok with it. The only batch that I ever had good bad was a batch were I had to leave the wort in the carboy overnight because I forgot to purchase yeast and the LHBS was closed for the evening.

I would agree that putting in a sealed plastic fermenter is FAR better than leaving it in the kettle overnight. But there is a much better solution: Place your hot kettle in an ice bath (about 20 pounds ice) and stir the wort gently a few times. It will chill down much faster that way.

Next time, if you have no chiller, you might want to do a partial boil and have several gallons of bottled spring water in the fridge cooling over night. Then chill the hot kettle in the ice bath as above and add the cold water from the fridge to your fermenter, further chilling the wort.

It's very important to chill your wort as quickly as possible for several reasons...the most important being that the warm wort is a giant petrie dish just looking for bacteria. You need to get YOUR yeast in there first! Don't risk your entire batch...chill it fast!

I no chill all the time. I have a plate chiller but its so much easier to no chill. I just run the wort into a 20lt cube, push the sides to get the air out and seal it up. The boiling wort sanitises the plastic cube, then it's just sitting there. It cools over night and ill pitch the next day or the day after that. Easy as. Never had an infection.

Chilling wort to proper pitching temps actually does very little to get you out of the prime zone for bacterial infection. Bacteria are most active from 40 degrees F to 140 degrees F. I have heard this a number of times on different posts or in books or articles. I may not have that much brewing experience, only about 20-30 batches, and only a little over a year under my belt, but I do know a lot about bacterial growth, sanitation, and food safety from working in restaurants and being a professional chef over the years. I don't know if this thread was the proper place to put my rant, but I get annoyed when I see misinformation perpetrated upon the public, be it in a beer forum or any other format as well.

I think that the thinking is that the quicker we get yeast in there, the quicker there is yeast to contend with, plus alcohol (and a sealed chamber).

I let my last batch cool down at room temp roughly 16 hours in the brew pot. It only got down to about 78F. I admit I kept opening up the top to check the temp. I know that even putting the lid on tight would not necessarily keep anything out, since as it cools it's going to suck air in.

But, it's done fermenting now and I did not notice anything in the flat & green pint I had when kegging.

Assuming this works out ok, I will probably continue with this method. I enjoy the idea of simplifying things. I'll just put the top on and transfer it 24 hours later.

If I was going to "no chill", I'd put the wort in a cube fermenter, and let it cool that way. It would be more sanitary.

I also don't let food sit out overnight cooling, as an example. If I make lasagna, it goes in the fridge after about two hours. I feel the same way about wort. Letting it sit out overnight in the pot doesn't seem like the best way to keep it as sanitary as possible before pitching the yeast.

Why not just ice bath it?

I get my wort to pitching temp in about 30min with a big bag of ice from the gas station dumped in the sink.

I've let batches cool overnight in the pot. I simply stuck a star san covered paper towel around my dial therm and stuck it in the therm hole in my lid. No ill effects seen from any of those batches. Although anymore, i'll at least chill it down to around 100F and transfer right into primary and wait until morning to aerate and pitch.

With all due respect to the self described "ranter", there are more reasons to chill and pitch quickly than the obvious need to get your yeast going before wild yeast or bacteria (which IS a very real concern...and NOT mis-information). It's simple logic: The longer a pot of sugar is NOT inoculated with your yeast strain, the more likely it is to become inoculated with another...or bacteria. Also, by moving the wort first to a temporary holding container, you risk hot-side aeration, in which there is oxygen uptake which causes staling of the beer. Then you move it again to the fermenter, again subjecting it to oxygen. And finally, the precise reason we chill beer quickly is to get through the bacteria "danger zone" as quickly as possible and get the good yeast going fast.

And this is one reason virtually every commercial brewery in the world invests a lot of money in a chiller.

Sanitation aside, another significant reason to chill beer quickly is to achieve what is called a "cold break", wherein the protein in the wort comes out of solution, clumps together, and drops out of the wort. Excess protein leads to chill haze and instability (i.e. the beer will go stale quickly). There will be no cold break unless you chill quickly and your beer is likely to be cloudy (when cold) and go stale sooner than it otherwise would.

By the way, I'm an advanced brewer of over 25 years, I teach brewing at a local college, and am the owner of a homebrew supply shop. I do know how best to make beer...and would never suggest letting wort slow chill...it's simply asking for trouble.

Having said all that, I also believe that there are more ways than one to make beer, and if it works for you, by all means, do it. Just know that your beer will not be as good as it can be if you take short cuts like this.