Wort sat overnight. Problems?

Hi All,

Had an issue cooling my wort on first batch and had to let it sit overnight (covered) in a water bath to come down to temp before adding yeast this morning. How big of a problem is this? Can I expect some off flavors?

Definitely getting a wort chiller before next batch...

Not a problem IMO, not ideal, but you certainly did right by not pitching warm!! Be advised a wort chiller will only get you down so far depending on the temp of your tap water. They work well in the winter, or if you are on well water.

Mike

I always have a gallon of water in the fridge from the night before. It will be about 38 degrees so it will knock out the last 15 degrees.
You should be able to get the wort to 100 easily with a simple water bath in the sink for 5 minutes. Then add the gallon of cold water and boom you are down to 85.

Forrest

No Problem at all.
As long as it's still clean...Good To Go!

Austinhomebrew said:

I always have a gallon of water in the fridge from the night before. It will be about 38 degrees so it will knock out the last 15 degrees.
You should be able to get the wort to 100 easily with a simple water bath in the sink for 5 minutes. Then add the gallon of cold water and boom you are down to 85.

Forrest

Click to expand...

Does the water bath include ice?

Not to be the squeaky wheel, but.... Possibly. You might have some off flavors. Cooling wort quickly is somewhat important, and inability to chill quickly plagues all of us at some point. It changes flavors in hops, on an all-grain batch it can lead to excessive DMS....

*BUT* It's done now, and the best thing to do is let your little yeasties have their meal, and see how it comes out. I would suspect that all will turn out just fine. Cheers!

I don't know what the results will be. I'm assuming that it sat in a sanitized container all night, and then yeast was pitched at room temperature. I think it'll be ok, but I'm just not sure. Many people have had fine results doing that, I think.

If it were me, though, I'd be very cautious. I wouldn't eat spaghetti sauce that stayed out all night for example, but that's probably a different thing. I guess it would depend on how long the wort stayed in the 85-120 "dangerous zone". I'm probably over cautious, though. Many times we pitch the yeast, and it takes up to 2-3 days to get going with no harm to the wort.

rowespencer said:

Hi All,

Had an issue cooling my wort on first batch and had to let it sit overnight (covered) in a water bath to come down to temp before adding yeast this morning. How big of a problem is this? Can I expect some off flavors?

Definitely getting a wort chiller before next batch...

Click to expand...

I have done it once!! It should be fine. (I fell a sleep hahahahaha)

Let me tell you what I do now. (so I don't fall a sleep)

1. I fill my sink with ice and water.
2. I leave my wort in my brew pot and place it rite in the sink with the ice and water.
3. I may change the water and ice bath once or just add more ice as the old ice melts.

Usually with in 15 minutes I have my wort cooled to 72-77 degrees. I then add it to my fermenting buck and top off with water and my temp is 70-73 degrees.

I am only doing extract at the moment and this method works great for me.

As mentioned, above, DMS and contamination are your biggest concerns. If you are using extract, and you did a typical, sixty-minute boil, then DMS probably is not much of an issue. If you pitched properly, then contamination probably is not a concern.

Since you did not get much of a cold break, you may have some clarity and stability problems down the road, as well, but nothing too severe.


TL

Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement. Yeast is pitched and the airlock was bubbling away within an hour. All we can do now is let it run its course and see how it ends up. I'll report back on this one in about 6 weeks!

Thanks!

Rowe~

I struggled with this my first batch... took a looooooong time to get it cooled down. Instead of getting a wort chiller (not ready for that step yet) I do what others in this thread have mentioned - throw 20lbs of ice in the sink, fill it with water, BUT THEN... 2-3 tablespoons of salt as well. Melts the ice down a bit and gets the water much colder. I had 85 degree wort in 10mins using this method last time... then i just throw in the necessary water for the last few degrees.

Cpt_Kirks said:

Does the water bath include ice?

Click to expand...

You shouldn't need to use ice. Fill the sink with cold tap water and then put the pot in it. After about 5 minutes the water has absorbed a lot of the heat. Drain and refill. You can add some ice if you have it, just don't use it on the first go around because it won't last. It is real easy to get to 100 degrees this way in about 10 minutes. If you have 3 gallons of wort to cool and you add a gallon of 38 degree water once it reaches 100 degrees it will be at 85 degrees and then transfer to your primary and add enough cold water to get to 5 1/4 gallons. You will be sub 80 degrees and ready to pitch.
It is a good idea to pitch close to room temperature to prevent temperature shear.

Forrest

Rhoman said:

throw 20lbs of ice in the sink, fill it with water, BUT THEN... 2-3 tablespoons of salt as well.

Click to expand...

A waste of salt and ice. Start with 2-3 changes of cold tap water (which is MUCH, MUCH colder than hot wort) and then (only then) pull out the ice, which is MUCH, MUCH colder than warm wort. If you were trying to make hopped malted barley sorbet, you might need salt - if trying to make 85, 68 or even 50 degree (F) wort, no need at all.

Stir the pot, and the sink too (different spoons - or you can use the pot to stir the sink - pick it up a few inches and set it down). You need the hot wort to contact the sides and bottom of the pot, which will quickly develop a layer of cooled wort when the pot is in the sink of cool water. You need the cool water to contact the outsides and bottom of the pot, which will quickly develop a layer of heated water.

If you use ice at all, don't even bother with water (after doing the easy cooling from hot to warm with cold water - even if your cold water is not all that cold, because you live in a hot place and don't have a deep well). After you've cooled what you can with water, drain the sink and put the stopper back in, dump in your ice, and set the pot on top of the ice. Stir. The ice will go to cooling your wort (and the sink) rather than to cooling your not-very-cold cold water as well as those things. As the ice melts, you'll get some cold water to work with.

What about making a small batch of wort from dme boiled in water a day or so
before brew day, putting it different gladware containers, freezing them,
and dumping the frozen blocks in for cooling?

eh sounds like too much trouble to me, I usually do 2 gallon boils so what I do is take my other 3 gallons of water and put it in the freezer and let it get really cold, almost frozen cold. Then I put that in my fermenter and then pour the wort onto it. Every time gets my wort down below 80 right out of the pot.

Ecnerwal- hey man, to each his own. my method worked very well for me - don't tell me it's a waste. I've tried something very similar to what you mentioned and it didn't work as well. 20 lbs of ice is $3... not a big investment for a fast cool.