Wort Chilling

What is considered too long of a time to chill your wort to 70F?

I chilled it to 70F in about 30 minutes. My beer is not clear, but does taste good. It has also been in primary for 19 days, bottled today. It is an extract kit, pitched yeast US05 at 68F. I did about a 3 gallon boil and topped off with distilled water.

Any tips for next time to get clearer beer?

Try using Irish moss (1 tsp) during the last 15 minutes of your boil

Definitely use the Irish moss 15 minutes before the end of the boil.

It's not strictly necessary to use a wort chiller, but the main reason you want it room temp ASAP, is that while it's cooling you risk infection from bacteria/yeast in the air. More than an hour is probably pushing it on the chance of infection risk.

It depends on the type of haze you've got. On bottling day, it's probably still just yeast in suspension. Down the road, you should pay attention to how things change. Is it cloudy both when warm and cold, or just when cold? Does it gradually get better?

a trick that has worked for me to clear up the batches that i have had with haze is simply to put them in the fridge for a few days to a week. the haze is occasionally caused by a protein, that will precipitate and settle out leaving clear beer. To avoid it in the future irish moss as stated above works really well to help. I have also noticed even clearer beer using whirlfloc tabs, which are an irish moss product. not sure what they have in them that makes them better, but i'm noticing better results. Chilling fast to get a better cold break helps, but isnt 100% necessary.

I bought some whirlfloc and will use that next time. I wish I knew this before I started. Crossing my fingers and hoping it clears a bit while it conditions. Kind of bummed about it.

You don't need Irish Moss, Whirlfloc, or other fining agents when brewing an Extract beer with no unconverted grains. Extract beers do not suffer the same issues in clarity as PM or AG beers. So you're actually wasting money on something you think is a necessity. The best thing to do is let time and gravity to its job. And to avoid stirring up the trub by racking as carefully as possible.

bobbrews said:

You don't need Irish Moss, Whirlfloc, or other fining agents when brewing an Extract beer with no unconverted grains. Extract beers do not suffer the same issues in clarity as PM or AG beers. So you're actually wasting money on something you think is a necessity. The best thing to do is let time and gravity to its job. And to avoid stirring up the trub by racking as carefully as possible.

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There's still plenty of protein in extract. It's not as dramatic, but you can watch the stuff coagulate and drop out when you add whirlfloc. Clarity more an issue of aesthetics than taste, and likewise "needing" whirlfloc is a fairly subjective matter. But, saying that it doesn't do anything is incorrect.

Plus, c'mon...it's like 12 cents a batch

I'm willing to bet any amount of money that I can brew extract beer after extract beer with no fining agents and you would never know the difference. You can do this too! Any haze issues you experience from extract beers is most likely from the hop oils, or improper racking... not protein haze.

It's just one of those minor things... like adding carapils to an extract beer when extract already contains carapils. ...Another useless step.

bobbrews said:

I'm willing to bet any amount of money that I can brew extract beer after extract beer with no fining agents and you would never know the difference. You can do this too! Any haze issues you experience is most likely from the hop oils, or improper racking... not protein haze.

It's just one of those minor things... like adding carapils to an extract beer when extract already contains carapils. ...A useless step.

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I can brew an whirlfloc-free all grain batch without any haze, too, if I'm willing to give it enough time.

Whirlfloc does a thing. The scope of that thing is smaller in extract brews than in all grain brews, but it is still a long way from not being a thing. You can value that thing or not value it, but to say that it is not relevant to extract brewing is demonstrably incorrect.

MalFet said:

to say that it is not relevant to extract brewing is demonstrably incorrect.

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For you, it may be Demonstrably Incorrect...

but for me, it is "Demonstratably" Correct.

You will never know a difference in clarity, especially if your processes are sound... And this does not mean you need more time to do so.

The crud has already been removed by the manufacturer when they created the extract. So any proteins you are removing with the moss are the good proteins that create good head and body. After the small hot break from the extract, much of the leftover lumped protein drops to the bottom of the kettle anyway.

bobbrews said:

For you, it may be Demonstrably Incorrect...

but for me, it is "Demonstratably" Correct.

You will never know a difference in clarity, especially if your processes are sound... And this does not mean you need more time to do so.

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As you like.

To the OP: Whirlfloc coagulates protein. If you have doubts about whether or not this consequential in an extract batch, add one to a batch of beer and see what happens.

What about if you're steeping specialty grains in the extract kit? Is that not unconverted grain?

No... most kits only give you crystal malt. That is converted grain. Starch to Sugar. All you have to do it briefly steep it to get the color/flavor. If you're using 5-10% 2-row, which is normally a mashing grain, then that is unconverted grain, but you can still get away with steeping it around 150 F for 30 minutes.

Side note: I hate when people make it a point to say "I didn't brew an extract beer though" ... "I brewed an extract beer with specialty grains."... as if they're polar opposites or something. The majority of extract beers usually contain specialty grains.

wilsojos said:

What about if you're steeping specialty grains in the extract kit? Is that not unconverted grain?

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It depends on the specialty grain and the way that you steep it.

Some specialty grains contain significant amounts of unconverted starches, others don't. On top of that, some grains contain the enzymatic potential to convert the starches during a steep, but others have had this kilned away. Whether or not that actually happens depends primarily on the temperature and duration of your steep.

Back to the chilling topic, but not related to clearing beer, would dropping some sanitized plastic bottles with frozen water in them along with an ice bath to help drop the wort temp be ok to do or is this not a good practice. (I don't have the budget at the moment to by a full blown wort chiller system.)

gsueagle7703 said:

Back to the chilling topic, but not related to clearing beer, would dropping some sanitized plastic bottles with frozen water in them along with an ice bath to help drop the wort temp be ok to do or is this not a good practice. (I don't have the budget at the moment to by a full blown wort chiller system.)

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That should work. If you search on building your own wort chiller, it seems it can be done for about $40... my next project