Chilling Wort

This might be a common new guy question, and if so I apologize.

I did my first batch today, extract with specialty grains. I boiled about 3 gallons of wort and added more water to the fermenter to get to 5 gal. To chill it, I switched the brew kettle between two ice baths and I was able to chill the wort to 70 degrees F in just under 20 minutes.

I almost bought a wort chiller before this first batch, but am now thinking that I can get away without one with my current approach. From what I've read, 20 minutes is likely sufficient to avoid off-flavors.

Any advice / thoughts on the benefits of wort chillers with my current approach (less than 5 gal wort extract brewing)?

Thanks.

I did just what you are doing - works just fine! Ice baths work great for partial boils.

Jim

A chiller is not really necessary unless you're doing a full boil IMO. I do it pretty much the same way you described, I top off with spring water that I put in the freezer when I start the brewing process and after 3 hours it's close to freezing. Between the water bath and the cold top-up water I'm always at 67-70 and ready to pitch within 15-20 minutes. The other nice thing about this approach is that you get plenty of oxygenation from the top-off water, especially if you shake the jugs before adding them to the fermenter.

Thanks for the reaffirmation, folks. I keep running to the basement to watch the bubbling airlock ... I'm like a kid with a new toy.

Omahawk said:

Thanks for the reaffirmation, folks. I keep running to the basement to watch the bubbling airlock ... I'm like a kid with a new toy.

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I've been brewing for years, and I still do that!

-Steve

Only benefit I can think of is that you don't have to figure out where to come up with a bunch of ice every time you make a brew. I went to a wort chiller just because I didn't want to mess with buying/freezing that much ice every time I brewed...

Florida is a different animal. We're under harsh water restrictions so running water to cool beer with a water temp that won't ever hit close to 70-75 without a fridge dispenser just isn't a possibility.

I used 2-1/2 gallons of water and froze the other one while I was boiling.

I'm going to recycle the containers and use them for block ice.

Yesterday I bought 6 bags of ice and dropped it from 120 to 80 and then added in the other 2-1/2 gallons of water from the freezer. That took under 10 minuets. It was just starting to freeze when I brought it outside. I put the stainless steel pot on top of a round baking pan and filled it with water till it reached the bottom of the SS pot in a tupperware storage container. I added ice from there and kept on adding. It was pretty warm here yesterday in Tampa but the ice held and I swirled the wort while it was chilling in the icebath.

I was experimenting with trying to brew outdoors so I'm not trashing the kitchen and can sit/swim/drink and smoke cigars while I'm doing the homebrew thang!

It's all good.

jeremyjudd said:

Only benefit I can think of is that you don't have to figure out where to come up with a bunch of ice every time you make a brew. I went to a wort chiller just because I didn't want to mess with buying/freezing that much ice every time I brewed...

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Good point. I did plan ahead quite a bit, hording ice for a week ahead of time.

DrMaddVibe said:

I was experimenting with trying to brew outdoors so I'm not trashing the kitchen and can sit/swim/drink and smoke cigars while I'm doing the homebrew thang!https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/images/smilies/occasion14.gif

It's all good.

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I got up at 5:30 AM to start brewing, so most of the carnage was cleaned up by the time everyone else got up to see it. Outdoors is looking more attractive.

Omahawk said:

I got up at 5:30 AM to start brewing, so most of the carnage was cleaned up by the time everyone else got up to see it. Outdoors is looking more attractive.

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I have a screened-in enclosure so I wasn't freaking out too much about airborne flies and skeeters sampling the wares.

I shudda took pictures. I will next time.

Thinking about going to Lowes today and building myself a chiller. They are not necessary for partial boils, but once you make the leap to AG, you will need one.

jeremyjudd said:

Only benefit I can think of is that you don't have to figure out where to come up with a bunch of ice every time you make a brew. I went to a wort chiller just because I didn't want to mess with buying/freezing that much ice every time I brewed...

Click to expand...

I don't use any ice at all...my 3 gallon boil is cooled in just a cold tap water bath in the sink, stirring both the wort and the bath frequently. One water change, once the bath gets hot enough that stirring doesn't help. Our tap water stays pretty cool all year, and I'm sure that helps. My top-up water is also near freezing, sometimes even slushy.

If you do use ice to cool, don't waste it by using it the entire time. Cool as far as you can with cold tap water first, then change it and add the ice for the last step. Any earlier and it just melts too fast to have much impact.

I'm new to this... but I thought of an idea to syphon the wort into the fermenter and surround the tube with bags of ice. Has anyone tried this idea? Will it take too long?

TheTellTaleBrewer said:

I'm new to this... but I thought of an idea to syphon the wort into the fermenter and surround the tube with bags of ice. Has anyone tried this idea? Will it take too long?

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almost sounds like a counter flow chiller or a jockey box to me. Good idea though, may try something like that on my next 10 gallon batch.

so far as extracts and cooling is concerned I did the same thing for years, for lighter beer I would only boil one gallon and have the other 4 nice and cold in the refrigerator. temp would almost always perfect. only problem with this method is that you have to use more hops and grain (if any) as your utilization will go down.

DrMaddVibe said:

I have a screened-in enclosure so I wasn't freaking out too much about airborne flies and skeeters sampling the wares.

I shudda took pictures. I will next time.

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Haha. I brewed outside tonight. Pretty sure I saw a bug in there so I turned the propane up. I'll just call 'er "bug brew" and hope my strainer catches it on the way into the fermentor....

Little boiled bug never hurt anyone.

Makeyermark said:

Thinking about going to Lowes today and building myself a chiller. They are not necessary for partial boils, but once you make the leap to AG, you will need one.

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I built a chiller from Lowe's. The thing I ran into is that they don't sell a long enough length of copper tubing. You might have to couple two lengths together to get enough to cool it off with 15-20 minutes. My wort chiller is a little short and it takes awhile longer than most to cool my brew...

I do partial boils and I just stick two milk jugs full of water in the freezer a few days before. Then i just cut the jug and drop in the ice blocks and pour the wort onto that.

That usually gets the wort down to around 80* in about 5 seconds.

sunblock said:

almost sounds like a counter flow chiller or a jockey box to me. Good idea though, may try something like that on my next 10 gallon batch.

so far as extracts and cooling is concerned I did the same thing for years, for lighter beer I would only boil one gallon and have the other 4 nice and cold in the refrigerator. temp would almost always perfect. only problem with this method is that you have to use more hops and grain (if any) as your utilization will go down.

Click to expand...

I looked up the flow chiller and jockey box... didn't know what they were. Found an interesting article here:
SBC: Wort Chiller Basics
My first batch I just poured the wort into the fermentor and pitched it right then. I'll be doing it differently from now on.

ifishsum said:

I don't use any ice at all...my 3 gallon boil is cooled in just a cold tap water bath in the sink, stirring both the wort and the bath frequently. One water change, once the bath gets hot enough that stirring doesn't help. Our tap water stays pretty cool all year, and I'm sure that helps. My top-up water is also near freezing, sometimes even slushy.

If you do use ice to cool, don't waste it by using it the entire time. Cool as far as you can with cold tap water first, then change it and add the ice for the last step. Any earlier and it just melts too fast to have much impact.

Click to expand...

I live in Charleston, SC, and in the summer time tap water is about 75 degrees. It would probably take a month and a half to take it down to the right temp. But I see what you mean. I used to live in Oregon and the water was cold enough all year I don't think I would have messed with a wort chiller. I like the ice idea. That's a good one.

give this website a look. Cheap wort chillers.

discount brewing equipment, brew kits, wort chillers, brew kettles, beer supplies

I have always used an ice bath for chilling my post-boil wort. But I have recently moved to stove-top all-grain brewing, and the ice baths weren't enough to cool almost 5 gal of wort fast enough, so I tried a technique I heard about on this forum.

I sanitized several pre-frozen bottles of water and dropped them right in the wort. This coupled with an ice bath (the wort was divided into two pots) cooled about 4.5 total gallons of wort to 80 degrees in about 10min. I topped it off with a half gallon of cold tap water (about 52 degrees I think) and it brought the wort down to around 70, at which point I pitched the yeast. It worked pretty well and I think I will do it again for my next batch.

FYI stirring the bottles around in the wort, as well as stirring the water in the ice bath also helped a lot I think.