The pump for my whirlpool/immersion chiller broke, and I don't have a way to cool down my wort except for an ice bath in the kitchen sink. I'm brewing an American Hefeweizen tomorrow, and my question is, should I do a 90 minute boil instead of a 60 minute boil to drive off more DMS precursors? I know that rapidly cooling the wort helps with this, but since I won't be using a cooler tomorrow I was wondering if a 90 minute boil would be better than sticking with 60 minutes... Thanks in advance!
Cooling question
- Thread starter steven85
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
shafferpilot
Well-Known Member
a quick cool down helps to get the cold break to coagulate into bigger chunks, so you won't get that and you might not get quite as clear a beer in the end... but its a hefeweizen so who cares about that anyways? The important part is that extending the boil won't help your situation in any way. You'll still make great beer 
Do you have a deep kitchen sink? How about a utility sink? It'll just take a while longer if your sink is shallow (my kitchen sink sucks but I have a big utility sink in the basement that works well). I've used it a lot for cooling wort and it works pretty well. If you go that route make sure you swirl the water around otherwise a layer of hot water will form around the kettle with keeping cold water farther away slowing your cooling process.
When I use my utility sink I fill it up, swirl the water a few times, then change the cold water after about 20 minutes. Refill the water and let it go for about another 30 minutes and I'm down to pitching temp already. Of course it helps that Wisconsin ground water practically comes out as ice even in August
When I use my utility sink I fill it up, swirl the water a few times, then change the cold water after about 20 minutes. Refill the water and let it go for about another 30 minutes and I'm down to pitching temp already. Of course it helps that Wisconsin ground water practically comes out as ice even in August
sanitize a towel and throw it over your brewpot on the stove and worry about it the next day it will be cool by then i often do this to shorten a brew day
sanitize a towel and throw it over your brewpot on the stove and worry about it the next day it will be cool by then i often do this to shorten a brew day
Do you really need a pump for the immersion chiller? I mean ya, it won't cool as fast, but a litter circular stirring should get it down to temps fairly quickly, no?
Unfortunately, I need the pump because that is what pumps my water through the chiller. Being in Southern California, tap water is about 80F. So I fill a 5g bucket with tons of ice, salt, and water and recirculate that through through. I'm not too concerned about the cold break, since it is a hefe, but Jamil Zainasheff has always been an advocate of a 90 minute boil to drive off DMS precursors, especially with pale malts, and even more importantly if you dont have a chiller, since the precursors are active in the high temperature range (I think until 140F). But thanks for everyone's input, I think I'll just do an ice bath and it should turn out fine!
I'd still use the immersion chiller with tap water to start. Switch to ice bath once it feels less than lukewarm. It takes a lot of heat capacity to chop ~60ºC out of 5+ gallons of wort, and that capacity comes a lot more readily from the tap than the ice machine.
maida7
Well-Known Member
No need for the 90min boil & stick with the immersion chiller.
even 80F tap water will chill your batch below 140F in an acceptable amount of time. Use a spoon (the poor mans whirlpool) to make the whirlpool and speed the chilling. Once you get it below 140F there is no longer a risk of DMS. So put the lid on and wait patiently until it gets down below 100F. Then transfer to the fermenter and move it to a cold spot (I'm hoping you have a temp controlled fermentation fridge) until you can get it down to pitching temps.
