Pitching the morning after

As a (beginning) extract brewer, the least enjoyable part of brewing a batch is getting the wort cooled down enough to pitch the yeast. I've traditionally just floated my pot in a bathtub full of packaged ice and water, and checked and checked and checked with a thermometer until it's down around 80°, after which I dump the wort into my carboy and fill up to 5gal with refrig'd water, then pitch. I'm now wondering what the rush is, though. I've read about a cold break but don't know what the benefit/purpose is. Why not dump the wort into the carboy straight after flameout, add the cold water, cap it off for sanitation, and pitch the next morning . . . or even a couple days later? Aside from the extra time, what's the drawback?

("The Morning-after Pitch" would have been a better title for this post, I'm realizing.)

Until I stepped up for a wort chiller, I always pitched the next day. Never had any problems. The only suggestion I have, if you have a 0 hop addition, do it then when you pitch the yeast.

Cover the HOT wort and let it cool. Make sure it is covered before you start to cool it.

Here's what John Palmer has to say about chilling wort -

At the end of the boil, it is important to cool the wort quickly. While it is still hot, (above 140°F) bacteria and wild yeasts are inhibited. But it is very susceptible to oxidation damage as it cools. There are also the previously mentioned sulfur compounds that evolve from the wort while it is hot. If the wort is cooled slowly, dimethyl sulfide will continue to be produced in the wort without being boiled off; causing off-flavors in the finished beer. The objective is to rapidly cool the wort to below 80°F before oxidation or contamination can occur.

Rapid cooling also forms the Cold Break. This is composed of another group of proteins that need to be thermally shocked into precipitating out of the wort. Slow cooling will not affect them. Cold break, or rather the lack of it, is the cause of Chill Haze. When a beer is chilled for drinking, these proteins partially precipitate forming a haze. As the beer warms up, the proteins re-dissolve. Only by rapid chilling from near-boiling to room temperature will the Cold Break proteins permanently precipitate and not cause Chill Haze. Chill haze is usually regarded as a cosmetic problem. You cannot taste it. However, chill haze indicates that there is an appreciable level of cold-break-type protein in the beer, which has been linked to long-term stability problems. Hazy beer tends to become stale sooner than non-hazy beer.

If you get (or even better, make) a wort chiller, cooling your wort will be one of the easiest parts of your brewing day. Plus, you'll fill your fermenter with a much clearer wort (especially if you use whirlfloc @ 5min)

I pitch the morning after in about half of my brews. I tend to brew at night.
So long as you keep it covered so that it doesnt become contaminated i cant see that it should be too much of an issue.
Unless you add all of your hops in the last ten mins that is.

I almost always pitch my yeast in the morning.

I have a nice secluded back deck where nothing bothers my wort. I put a lid on it with glad containers full of water to weight them down in case the wind kicks up. The covers won't fly off.

I'm very pleased with the results.

Adding boiling hot wort to a glass carboy can cause thermal shock making the carboy break and adding it to a better bottle will make the carboy melt.

John Palmer's quoted text above are some plausible reasons, but if you search "no chill", you'll find some do that often with no problem.

I have done it a couple times and noticed my beer was a lot more hazy than normal, but other than that, I had no problem.

Chilling is not that big of an issue for me, so I chill my wort quickly, but I hate the thought of wasting water. I made a two part immersion chiller. The first coil goes into ice water and the second coil goes into the wort. This helps chill the wort faster. The tubing coming out of my immersion chiller is long enough that I use it to clean out my mash tun and water plants for the first few minutes. I then start stirring the wort. Stirring the wort around the chiller, or moving the chiller around in the wort helps to cool it even quicker. While I'm stirring, I put the end of the tubbing somewhere so that it waters the grass or fills my tun so that I can use the water for something else later.

I read this type of post often, and really have to wonder. Back before I got my chiller, I regularly chilled full 5 gallon boils to pitching temps in less than a half an hour - yet I read folks who take hours to do so...

Place your kettle into your tub (or utility sink, etc) with water as cold as you can get it - no ice - up to the same level as the wort. Then begin stirring your wort with a sanitized spoon. As you do this, gently move the kettle around the tub or sink a little bit to improve the heat transfer, so you're not always transferring to the same warmed water. Do that for 5 minutes or so and you should be down by about 50 or 60 degrees. Drain the sink or tub and repeat, which should get you close to 100. Drain, then refill with ice and cold water, and repeat the stirring and moving around routine.

Sure, it's a little work - but just sitting the kettle in ice and waiting on it is not an effective cooling method for large volumes of wort.

stratslinger said:

I read this type of post often, and really have to wonder. Back before I got my chiller, I regularly chilled full 5 gallon boils to pitching temps in less than a half an hour - yet I read folks who take hours to do so...

Place your kettle into your tub (or utility sink, etc) with water as cold as you can get it - no ice - up to the same level as the wort. Then begin stirring your wort with a sanitized spoon. As you do this, gently move the kettle around the tub or sink a little bit to improve the heat transfer, so you're not always transferring to the same warmed water. Do that for 5 minutes or so and you should be down by about 50 or 60 degrees. Drain the sink or tub and repeat, which should get you close to 100. Drain, then refill with ice and cold water, and repeat the stirring and moving around routine.

Click to expand...

Your water must be one heck of a lot colder than it is here. The coldest our tap gets in the middle of winter is 60*F. In Texas, you have to use ice in your chiller water once you get down to about 80-85*F depending on the time of the year.

stratslinger said:

Sure, it's a little work - but just sitting the kettle in ice and waiting on it is not an effective cooling method for large volumes of wort.

Click to expand...

+1. You've got to stir, even with an immersion chiller.

To the other folks, if you want to do no-chill, go for it. It's your beer. May it be forever tasty.

+1 to experiencing no problem with next day pitch.

I've found there's a lot of "facts" and fears about brewing that simply are not supported by experimentation. I've done this many times w/o chill haze, so it's not guaranteed to arise.

I no-chill in the kettle all the time w/ good results. Yes, the beer will likely have harmless proteins or chill haze, but will drop clear after cold aging for a week or two...I keg so my beer is stored cold and drops nice and clear after cold storage. Also, I have read that if you are going to do an extended chill, delicate hop flavors and aroma are best preserved at temps below 160 - 170, so after flameout I wait an hour or two for the wort temp to drop and then make my last addition below 170 degrees.

FWIW, much better to wait and pitch the yeast at a proper temperature, than pitching quickly into wort that is too hot!

stratslinger said:

Sure, it's a little work - but just sitting the kettle in ice and waiting on it is not an effective cooling method for large volumes of wort.

Click to expand...

Not true in my experience at all! I have an immersion chiller and don't use it very often, I either no chill in the ketttle, or place the kettle (8 gal batch) in a large tub, 1/2 of a 55 gal HDPE barrel, fill with water and about 10 frozen 2 liter bottles, a few hours later we are at pitching temps w/ no babysitting a chiller...to each their own.

During summer, when tap water is warm, ice will likely be needed at some point to reach 60-65 degrees, rather than using the chiller, I find it simpler to just use the large tub and ice, I have a beer fridge / keezer, and the freezer compartment holds plenty of frozen soda bottles for wort chilling.

wilserbrewer said:

FWIW, much better to wait and pitch the yeast at a proper temperature, than pitching quickly into wort that is too hot!

Click to expand...

+1. I think it pains all of us to see people post about pitching yeast into 80+ degree wort. For ales, I stop the flow when it gets to 66*F. This time of year, that takes about 15 minutes with 60*F hose water and some stirring every couple of minutes. Most of that time is spent going from 80* down to pitching temp.

wilserbrewer said:

During summer, when tap water is warm, ice will likely be needed at some point to reach 60-65 degrees, rather than using the chiller, I find it simpler to just use the large tub and ice, I have a beer fridge / keezer, and the freezer compartment holds plenty of frozen soda bottles for wort chilling.

Click to expand...

That sounds like a workable method. I wish my keezer were big enough to chill all those bottles. Mine's pretty full with 3 kegs and a CO2 tank and has no separate freezer section.

wilserbrewer said:

FWIW, much better to wait and pitch the yeast at a proper temperature, than pitching quickly into wort that is too hot!

Click to expand...

Amen. This quote alone should be a sticky in the New Brewer's area!

After switching to a wort chiller, I've only brewed twice. I may need to play with me recipe, I preferred my beer the way it was letting it sit over night.

I hesitated to get a wort chiller because I didn't want to waste water. Then came across a clearance item at Lowe's. I got 60 feet if 3/8 copper tubing for $18. Wrapped it around a bucket, instead if a corny, got some fittings. It will cool 11 gallons or wort to just under 80 degrees using only 20 gallons of water. I just save that water for clean up.