New Brewer with Wort cooling issue

I'm brewing my first batch of beer. However, it's taking forever for my wort to cool below 80 degrees. What will happen if it takes hours to cool? Also, I filled my fermenting bucket a little over 5 gallons. What impact with this have on my final product. I'm doing an English Import, Irish Ale. Any suggestions, thanks!

So it's sitting in the fermenter at what temp? What's the room temp?

If you can make a run for a couple bags of ice, you can stick the fermenter in the bathtub and fill with ice and cool water. If you can't get ice, you can still stick the fermenter in the tub and fill the tub with cold water, drain and repeat.

Temp of the wort is in high 90s, and room temp is 70. I have it setting in an ice bath as we speak.

There's nothing wrong with the ice bath. The problems are threefold:

(1) Certain chemicals (DMS) can form at temperatures between the boiling and fermentation temperature, thus you want to minimize this time. This is, IMHO, overblown, based on the large number of people who let wort cool over several hours.
(2) Infections can take place during this time. Overblown again -- infections can occur at almost any temperature.
(3) It's annoying to wait to pitch the yeast. Valid. I've stayed up late more than a few times....

As long as you're sanitizing everything, there's nothing wrong with putting the fermenting in an ice bath (with an airlock), and pitching yeast in the morning. You may find, however, after a few brews the cost of a chiller seems worth the price. I picked up a plate chiller for about $75 that will chill 5 gallons to 70 degrees in a few short minutes. This makes brewing much nicer....

I've been too cheap to buy a chiller, but when I can afford it I'm getting one. I have always done the ice bath and it's taken hours. I used to buy ice then stopped and just used an ice pack. One it gets to 100 or so it goes in the freezer to speed up the process (still takes a while). My beers have been great, so yours should be too.

LordHedgie said:

(3) It's annoying to wait to pitch the yeast. Valid. I've stayed up late more than a few times....

Click to expand...

I believe this is the largest driving factor for chilling quickly, I simply use the IC for a few minutes until the wort is down to say 100, then drain to the fermentor and take it to the cellar, where it cools overnight. If you do this you need to put vodka in the airlock as there will be suck back.:rockin: In the morning I pitch.

Oh yea forgot, take your hydrometer sample as you drain to the fermentor and let it cool somewhere also.

Try putting your pot in ice water and using a wort chiller, I can get down to pitching temp in about 20 minutes. If you're not doing full 5 gallon boils and have double kitchen sinks, fill one with ice water and put the pot in it. When that water warms up move the pot to the other sink with ice water and go back and forth.

I agree with the above posters though, it's just annoying waiting for it to cool enough to pitch the yeast, I don't really worry about infection.

If you're doing partial boils (boiling say 3 gallons and then adding water to get to 5 gallons), try chilling the boiled wort first in a water bath in the sink. Once it's below 90 degrees (takes about 20 minutes), then add it to the fermenter and then add chilled top off water.

If you boil the wort, then add water, it'll take forever to cool down. A smaller volume cools much quicker.

Aren't there proteins that coagulate when rapidly chilled and that's one of the reasons why the wort is chilled as quickly as possible? I am pretty sure I read this in Palmer's book and he referred to it as "the cold break".

Sithdad said:

Aren't there proteins that coagulate when rapidly chilled and that's one of the reasons why the wort is chilled as quickly as possible? I am pretty sure I read this in Palmer's book and he referred to it as "the cold break".

Click to expand...

Yes. It looks like wads of scum. But it's a good thing!

Thought so. I use a bucket so I am not sure if I am getting that or not. So far when I've racked to my bottling bucket all I have left is the yeast cake. However, I just made my IC for last batch and it did well, but as well as I had hoped. Now I know I gotta add ice to the water the pump draws from.

YooperBrew said:

If you're doing partial boils (boiling say 3 gallons and then adding water to get to 5 gallons), try chilling the boiled wort first in a water bath in the sink. Once it's below 90 degrees (takes about 20 minutes), then add it to the fermenter and then add chilled top off water.

If you boil the wort, then add water, it'll take forever to cool down. A smaller volume cools much quicker.

Click to expand...

This.

I've been doing 2 1/2 gallon boils and after filling up the sink with water and (lots of) ice I dump a gallon of chilled spring water right into the pot. It takes 10-20 mins to get it down to about 100-110, then after topping off the rest it's right at 69-72°F. The pot I use is somewhat big and can probably do a 4 or so gallon boil--I've found swirling it around in the sink helps A LOT. I mean the wort in the center is 145° while the sides are 111. This constant swirling quickly evens eveything out and really helps speed up the process.

It was a disaster once where I impatiently went into the fermenter. The wort was 80+ and the kitchen was over 90. Only 1/3 of the bucket was in the sink and the extremely warm kitchen probably negated any effect of the bath As YooperBrew said it is much easier to cool a smaller volume.

Sean187 said:

Also, I filled my fermenting bucket a little over 5 gallons. What impact with this have on my final product. I'm doing an English Import, Irish Ale. Any suggestions, thanks!

Click to expand...

Less ABV? When I mentioned about being impatient above I just grabbed a few poland springs and tossed them in there. It's a scottish ale and gonna be bottled tomorrow. My gravity readings show it may be lighter in color than I was expecting (watered down)? Meh, still tasted great!

Thanks for the feedback, however I still have some concerns... 1.) I put my fermentor in an ice bath to cool it down, but did not have my airstop in. Is this a problem? 2.) I pitched my yeast while the temperature was still in the 80s. Is this a major issue? I over filled my fermentor by to 5.5 instead of 5 gallons, what problem could this cause?

Thanks!

Sean187 said:

Thanks for the feedback, however I still have some concerns... 1.) I put my fermentor in an ice bath to cool it down, but did not have my airstop in. Is this a problem? 2.) I pitched my yeast while the temperature was still in the 80s. Is this a major issue? I over filled my fermentor by to 5.5 instead of 5 gallons, what problem could this cause?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

1. no problem.
2. too hot, may still work.
3. no problem.

Sean187 said:

I pitched my yeast while the temperature was still in the 80s.
Thanks!

Click to expand...

I thought the first kit I followed said to pitch the yeast when the wort gets down to 90, so I did.
It said when the wort gets down to 90, mix in the other three gallons of cold water. opps....
So I had all five gallons of 90 degree water in my fermentor, and I threw the yeast in.
P.S. It turned out fine.
As a matter of fact, I only have 6 bottles of it left, and wish I had more of it!
Dave

Thx for the info. Guess I will find out in a few weeks.

We made a simple wort chiller for our first batch with a 25' piece of copper tubing coiled in a 5 gallon bucket. We mixed in salt water and ice around the tubing and ran it through. Worked great for about half of the batch, because it melted the ice down. Next time we'll either use an ice chest, and pull the plug and replace the ice, or fix up some kind of manifold to run it through before it goes into the copper tubing.

I boil about 2 gallons of wort, take a 15lb bag of ice and a small sink in the kitchen. I get to about <80f in about 15 minutes this way. I then place the wort in my 6gal carboy and get to 5 gallons with water, then pitch the yeast. I've had nice action in 1st stages for both of my new attempts at brewing. I don't have the equipment or space to do boils any larger than that. I'm sure these will turn out fine. Good luck

LordHedgie said:

There's nothing wrong with the ice bath. The problems are threefold:

(1) Certain chemicals (DMS) can form at temperatures between the boiling and fermentation temperature, thus you want to minimize this time. This is, IMHO, overblown, based on the large number of people who let wort cool over several hours.
(2) Infections can take place during this time. Overblown again -- infections can occur at almost any temperature.
(3) It's annoying to wait to pitch the yeast. Valid. I've stayed up late more than a few times....

As long as you're sanitizing everything, there's nothing wrong with putting the fermenting in an ice bath (with an airlock), and pitching yeast in the morning. You may find, however, after a few brews the cost of a chiller seems worth the price. I picked up a plate chiller for about $75 that will chill 5 gallons to 70 degrees in a few short minutes. This makes brewing much nicer....

Click to expand...

I have to say, this is not a real issue. DMS is produced from the breakdown of SMM at high temp. Once your wort is boiled for 60 minutes or so, there is VERY little SMM left to create DMS. If you arent using Pilsner as a base malt, your level of SMM is so low anyway, that DMS is almost a non issue from the start.

Also, the temp range is not very wide. Once your wort is below about 170F, the creation of DMS is minimal to extinct. Those pioneering guys that do no chill wort cooling place boiling hot wort in an air tight container to cool over about 24 hours, they have no DMS issues... that is about as radical as you can get.

YooperBrew said:

If you're doing partial boils (boiling say 3 gallons and then adding water to get to 5 gallons), try chilling the boiled wort first in a water bath in the sink. Once it's below 90 degrees (takes about 20 minutes), then add it to the fermenter and then add chilled top off water.

If you boil the wort, then add water, it'll take forever to cool down. A smaller volume cools much quicker.

Click to expand...

Stirring the wort with a wire whisk briskly will aid in cooling the wort also and help infuse that oxygen your yeast will need to stay happy for a week. I have a double whisk with a smaller ball shaped wire with a stone in the center of that to really whip up a froth. I think I created the cold break today with my cream ale wort. Looked funky towards the bottom