Wort Chilling in Montana

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TroutSlayer

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This is how we do it! 12F out right now!

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My experience with this approach is that it's a pretty slow way to cool wort. Air and snow are great insulators. I guess it's a little faster than no-chill.
 
I agree. Outside, but not in the snow, will be faster, because of the air circulation. Snow is a great isolation. You know Igloos? Here in Québec, they build a Ice Hotel (yhea, hotel made of ice), and you can sleep easily there, no heating, only natural insolation of the ice and snow.
 
My experience with this approach is that it's a pretty slow way to cool wort. Air and snow are great insulators. I guess it's a little faster than no-chill.

You did see that it is/was 12F for the ambient air temp. You want a bit of insulation when it is that cold. A little faster than no chill? Seriously?
 
Hex23 said:
My experience with this approach is that it's a pretty slow way to cool wort. Air and snow are great insulators. I guess it's a little faster than no-chill.

Yeah, I found that out the hard way. After fifteen minutes and the lid still scorching hot I made a snow bath in the kitchen sink. I think the whole cooling process took over 30mins. I hope I didn't mess up my beer.
 
You did see that it is/was 12F for the ambient air temp. You want a bit of insulation when it is that cold. A little faster than no chill? Seriously?

Yes, when I learned my lesson on this it was 10F outside. It took me 45 minutes to get from 212 to 140 F.

Certainly didn't ruin my beer though. I don't think you have anything to worry about there. I think the whole DMS concern with slow chilling is overstated. There's plenty of no chill brewers on here that seem to get good results.
 
The main problem with a long chilling, is the extended time that the wort is exposed to contamination. With a lid on, it should not be a problem. But that said, a lid will extent the chilling time...
 
It works well if you keep the wort churning, the lid off, and keep moving it to melt fresh snow. The pot gets ICE cold and it acts like a plate chiller of sorts. But letting it sit in place after it has melted the snow won't do much.
 
Heh, was going to say if it's that cold out then a standard immersion chiller would have that cooled in probably under ten minutes. When it's that cold out here in NJ over the winter I cool my beer to pitching temp in 8-11 minutes since the ground water is so cold.


Rev.
 
Zamial said:
It works well if you keep the wort churning, the lid off, and keep moving it to melt fresh snow. The pot gets ICE cold and it acts like a plate chiller of sorts. But letting it sit in place after it has melted the snow won't do much.

Bingo. The lid needs to be off and you need to move it around occasionally. Basically the same way you chill a starter in an ice bath.
 
When it's that cold out here in NJ over the winter I cool my beer to pitching temp in 8-11 minutes since the ground water is so cold.

+1...Ground water temp is the big variable in wort chilling time here in NC...I have to use a "secondary" ice bath in the late spring thru early fall, but in the true winter, I can chill boiling to near 60*F in 20 min or less...
 
You can extend the wort chiller and have a part of it going trough an outside ice bath, that way the water in the chilling is way cooler.
 
I'm wondering what to do with the outflow of my IC in the cold. I brew in my garage and have a hose in there. The outflow turned my driveway into i e in no time. What to do??
 
I'm wondering what to do with the outflow of my IC in the cold. I brew in my garage and have a hose in there. The outflow turned my driveway into i e in no time. What to do??

Get 3-4 five gal buckets and empty into them. You can then re-use the water for whatever (my wife waters the indoor plants).
 
I tried something like this a couple years ago. Waited for one of the coldest days of the winter (it was near -35C/-31F without wind...) and put my kettle in the snow. An hour later it had barely made a dent dropping like 10-15C... Brought it back inside and ice bathed in down to pitching temp in about 30ish minutes. As cold as snow is, it is also an amazing insulator.
 

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