Do I need a wort chiller?

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EddieWess

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I live in Colorado, at about 8,700 feet where it is usually about 10 degrees cooler than say Denver. Right now I just stick the covered wort in the carboy outside and it cools pretty quick. When summer comes, will I neeed a a wort chiller? The summer nights are cool but I wouldn't call it cold. I am on a well so running water for 15 + minutes is not good well usage (CO is a very dry climate). Any ideas?
 
get a tub of ice water and circulate that through your wort chiller, youll need to chill your wort down to pitching temps as fast as possible.
 
Well, an immersion chiller is very handy and helpful. If you're worried about water usage, search for a thread I think EdWort did on recirculating ice baths. Minimum of water used. Or you could get a big 5 bushel drum or something similar and fill it with ice to cool your wort. Not as effective as an IC but works nonetheless.
 
You need a wort chiller. For one, tranfering hot wort to a glass (if it is glass) carboy can cause the carboy to crack (not good, or safe). second, In the summer, it will not chill fast enough without some help. The well water thing is a problem, you could freeze bottles of water and then sanitize the outside and put them in the wort. Alternatively you could save yourself the headache and just buy a good immersion chiller. Im sure you can find somewhere else to conserve water. If water conservation is more important than the quality of your beer then you probably should buy comercial beer, because brewing is very water intensive. (btw, this is a friendly suggestion, not a "bit your head off" comment)
 
Unless you are doing full boils, you really don't need a wort chiller. Otherwise, yes. It gets really dry here in the summer, so I just run the water out to my garden. I guess if you have a fairly shallow well, you could make a French drain & let it percolate back down.
 
It really depends on your boil volume. I have been doing partial boils (2 or 3 gallons) for the past year and I have been just doing cold water baths to cool down my wort. I can get down to 80 degrees in 10 to 15 minutes A wort chiller hasn't been necessary. If running your water is an issue, just try a cold water bath and add ice every 5 or 10 minutes. I freeze a bunch of water in old water bottles and just switch them out. As they cool and thaw, I just grab those everyday to drink so I don't waste water.

I plan to start doing full boils this summer so I am currently looking for a wort chiller. I don't think I could get the wort chilled enough in a short time with 5 to 6 gallon boil.
 
You need a wort chiller. For one, tranfering hot wort to a glass (if it is glass) carboy can cause the carboy to crack (not good, or safe). second, In the summer, it will not chill fast enough without some help. The well water thing is a problem, you could freeze bottles of water and then sanitize the outside and put them in the wort. Alternatively you could save yourself the headache and just buy a good immersion chiller. Im sure you can find somewhere else to conserve water. If water conservation is more important than the quality of your beer then you probably should buy comercial beer, because brewing is very water intensive. (btw, this is a friendly suggestion, not a "bit your head off" comment)

And taken as such. I am just worried about running the well dry. It will come back but it takes time.

Looking at some of the other posts I am probably not that bad off. #1 I do partial boils so I think one thing I can do is get the water that I put in the fermenting bucket as cold as I can, then try an ice bath.

So, what is too long in waiting for the wort to cool?

Thanks all.
 
I Just bought myself one for Christmas...I gotta say that it does take time off from your brew days...even when doing 2.5 gallon stovetop boils there's something nice about having it cool in 10 minutes as opposed to an hour in an ice bath...

And there is the thing about getting a good cold break for clarity...

It's not necessary, I brewed for a long time without one...BUT it sure is convenient.

And like everyone else said, when you get to larger boils it will greatly reduce the time.
 
If you want the ghetto solution, just fill 3-4 cleaned 2 liter soda with water. Freeze 'em. When your boil has finished, put a soda bottle in your no-rinse sanitizer bucket briefly, then drop in right into your pot. I'd put in 2 at a time. Once they thaw out & warm up, swap out the next 2. When you're done, rinse them off & put 'em back in your freezer & you're good to go next time. Really minimal water usage this way.

Now, you will get much better cooling with a wort chiller, but this will work as a no cost, quick & dirty substitute.
 
Sometimes I am really slack with my ice bath and let the wort sit in there (covered) for a long time. What is thedownside to this? Maybe I need to be more aggresive with the cooling or get a wort chiller too.
 
I believe the down side is that you are running the risk of infection the longer is sits without an air lock.
I tend to agree though that the risk *seems* like it would be minimal.
 
Well I found my answer. I brewed Friday night and used the method discussed here, I believe it was referred to as the 'ghetto' solution. When the partial boil was done I brought in the two and a half gallon container of water that had been in the garage fridge since Wednesday and also the 4 -12 ounce Dasani water bottles that had been in the freezer all day. I put the 2 1/2 gallons of cold water in the bucket, poured in the wort and then added the four bottles that had been soaking in the sanitizer for 10 minutes or so plus filled the sink that the bucket was sitting in with ice and tap water. The whole thing cooled down to about 66 degrees in 20 -30 minutes at which time I racked it to the carboy and pitched the yeast. And sometime from 1:00 am until I got up this morning the magic started. Thanks all.
 
Was the 2.5 gallons of water from the fridge previously boiled or sanitized in some way? If not, I think 9 times out of 10 you'd be fine doing this. However, because this cools down the wort so fast, there may not be enough time for the heat of the wort to kill any bacteria in the water. So this may increase your chance of infection.
 
I use a IC and use a small aquarium pump to push ice water through it. I'd say I use 5-7 gallons to cool 5 gallons of wort in about 15 minutes.
 
The day before my last batch I pre-boiled 3 gallons of water and (once it cooled a bit) I poured it into my (sanitized) fermenting bucket and closed the lid. I then placed it in my garage refrigerator over night to cool (it just happens to fit). The next day, when my wort was done boiling, the pot went in my bathtub of cold tapwater to start the cooling process. I took the temp of the 3 gallons in the fermenter which was 38F. I wanted a final temp of 75 to 80F, so by calculating a weighted average, I only needed to cool the 2 gallons of wort to 140F before dumping it into the fermenter. It didn't take long for the wort to reach 140. Ultimately I was able to pitch the yeast within about 15 minutes of completing the boil.

By the way, this was only my second batch, so someone here might still inform me that I am screwing something up with this method?!?! It seems to make good sense though.
 
Sounds like a good method to me. I doubt there's much chance of infection in the way you're doing it. I am sure some people might be a little hesitant to leave that water sitting over night, but I think it will be ok.
 
Yep, I think you're fine doing this. No reason to expect an infection developing in cooled boiled water and a sanitized bucket. Nice way to go if you aren't doing a full boil.
 
Was the 2.5 gallons of water from the fridge previously boiled or sanitized in some way? If not, I think 9 times out of 10 you'd be fine doing this. However, because this cools down the wort so fast, there may not be enough time for the heat of the wort to kill any bacteria in the water. So this may increase your chance of infection.

No, the 2.5 gallons were store bought in a closed container.
 
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