Rookie question

Hey everyone, quick question from a newbie. Just did first solo batch (helped a friend last week with one), doing a pale ale from an extract kit. I bought an immersion chiller last week, but I had no idea how long it would take to chill the wort even with it.

I've now been running it about an hour or so and am only at 83 degrees. I'm paranoid about contamination, so here's the question:

what's the lesser of two evils, to go ahead and pitch at this temp, or to let the fermenter sit open and potentially getting contaminated for the next hour?

Do you guys have some way to close off the fermenter while you chill? I need to figure something better than this out, have read about pumps in ice water and such but didn't think this would be such a problem.

Thanks in advance

woopig said:

Hey everyone, quick question from a newbie. Just did first solo batch (helped a friend last week with one), doing a pale ale from an extract kit. I bought an immersion chiller last week, but I had no idea how long it would take to chill the wort even with it.

I've now been running it about an hour or so and am only at 83 degrees. I'm paranoid about contamination, so here's the question:

what's the lesser of two evils, to go ahead and pitch at this temp, or to let the fermenter sit open and potentially getting contaminated for the next hour?

Do you guys have some way to close off the fermenter while you chill? I need to figure something better than this out, have read about pumps in ice water and such but didn't think this would be such a problem.

Thanks in advance

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It only takes me about 20 minutes to chill my wort with a wort chiller- but I have cold ground water. If you gently stir the wort with a sanitized spoon, it'll chill much faster.

You really want to use your chiller in your brew kettle, not in your fermenter. [Edit: I may have misunderstood your post... you don't have the chiller in the fermenter, do you?]

Put the chiller into the brew kettle during the last 15 minutes of the boil, to sanitize the chiller.

How long it takes to chill, depends on the temperature of your tap water.

If you've already put the wort into the fermenter, close it up and let it sit in an icewater bath until it gets down to pitching temperature.

Told you I was a rookie, yes, the chiller is in the fermenter. Didn't realize this was a problem, I had it sitting in the Iodophor the entire time so thought it was clean enough.

Is this a big enough deal that I should bail out on this batch, learn from the mistake, and start over? Thanks again, guys

woopig said:

Told you I was a rookie, yes, the chiller is in the fermenter. Didn't realize this was a problem, I had it sitting in the Iodophor the entire time so thought it was clean enough.

Is this a big enough deal that I should bail out on this batch, learn from the mistake, and start over? Thanks again, guys

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Well, it's not really a problem. You want to chill the wort. Then, you add it to the fermenter with any top-up water. If you took hot wort, and then put it in the fermenter, you would risk aerating it before it was cool. (That brings up hot-side aeration, which isn't really an issue but many people talk about that as the reason to not aerate hot wort).

Also, if you have done a partial boil, adding your top up water before the wort is cool just means that you have more volume to chill.

Next time, put the chiller into the boil with 15 minutes left to sanitize it. Then, when the boil is over, turn on the water to the chiller. Stir gently with a sanitized spoon, to maximize cooling, then pour into the fermenter. Pouring also helps to aerate the wort.

Okay, well, as long as it was sanitized it probably won't be a problem. Just use it in the kettle next time.

At this point, if it's still not down to pitching temp, pull the chiller outta there, put the lid on, and put it in a sink of ice water. It'll be down to temp in no time.

P.S.: Beer is a *lot* more resilient than you might think. It's hard to mess it up. It'll be fine.

I doubt your beer is ruined so you might as well finish it up. As Rick said, put the fermenter in a water bath to help bring the temp down and get that yeast pitched. Wait for 3 to 4 weeks and you should be able to bottle it up.

Welcome to HBT!

I appreciate the tips, guys. I got it to 78 degrees and went ahead and pitched it. I read a post on the "Did I ruin my beer"/"Should I dump my batch" sticky and saw that a few people said pitching at this temp wasn't a huge deal.

Lessons for next time:

1. Obviously, using the wort chiller appropriately (in the kettle as you all pointed out), and
2. Start with cooler top-off water (in the fridge for a while first?). I had boiled it, then kept it covered in an attempt to keep out contaminants. Not the best idea in retrospect, it was probably around 100 degrees so that didn't help things.

Thanks for such quick responses, great forum!

I don't generally boil/sanitize top off water. It's just right from the tap. I don't really have the gear to do all that boiling. If I did, I'd just be doing full boils.

For future reference, get 2 or 3 gallons of water (88 cents ea) and stick them in the freezer to use as top off water. Or you can always pour over sanitary ice.

nurmey: did you say to wait three to four weeks because of my situation, or is that just how long you ferment in general? the kit said about a week.

dantose: you don't worry about the chlorine thing, then? or just not an issue where you are? not sure if it is here, i was just being overzealous with it perhaps.

jebckr: you put them in the freezer? just let the wort thaw it out? makes sense, i suppose.

No, I'm not saying to let them freeze solid. Just let them get nice and cold.

woopig said:

nurmey: did you say to wait three to four weeks because of my situation, or is that just how long you ferment in general? the kit said about a week.

dantose: you don't worry about the chlorine thing, then? or just not an issue where you are? not sure if it is here, i was just being overzealous with it perhaps.

jebckr: you put them in the freezer? just let the wort thaw it out? makes sense, i suppose.

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Three to four weeks is a good rule of thumb for almost all beers. Trust us on this- don't listen to the kit instructions!

The reason is pretty simple- if the kit said "Only 6-8 weeks to great beer!", they'd sell alot less kits. A week is hard enough to wait when you're getting into the hobby. But, in one week, the beer won't be clear. It won't be finished cleaning up all of the off-flavors. You will have more sediment in the bottle. If you wait three weeks before even looking at it again, you'll have better beer. I promise!

Some people have very good tap water with no flavor/smell of chlorine. If you don't, boiling is a very good idea. Just get it cold, and use it to top off. Cool the wort first to under 80 degrees, then pour it into the fermenter with 60 degree water, and you've got a perfect pitching temperature in less than 1/2 hour!

No one has said yet i think so i will, rdwhahb. and welcome to the hobby your brew should come out fine with a little wait which has been said before tends to be the hard part. keep asking questions

Ok, all great info. Will definitely let them sit a few weeks, I'm in no hurry. Might have to pick up another primary so I can make another batch soon, but otherwise no hurry at all.

Thanks for the welcom, artyusmc. You said to keep asking questions, so here's another that came up today. I made 2.5 gallons of the BTF Iodophor (in my bottling bucket). Placed wort chiller, spoon, air lock, and hydrometer in it. Then poured probably half of it into the primary to clean it. By that point it was already clear, which I'm pretty sure means it's basically spent. Does this sound right? I had the impression it lasted a good bit, and I found myself making another batch right away.

Again, thanks for all the help, guys.

The sanitizing solution should be clear almost immediately due to giving it a little stir after you add it to water. Iodophor will never be "spent"...unless maybe you've stored the sanitizing solution in a bucket for 2-3 months. I just keep one bucket of sanitizing solution on hand while I'm brewing. You should only have to make one "batch" of sanitizing solution per brew day.

Also, you shouldn't really use the bottling bucket as a sanitizing bucket because certain items (such as the wort chiller) could potentially scratch the inside of the bucket. Scratches inside of your plastic fermenter or bottling bucket can harbor infectious bacteria that could contaminate the wort.

Thanks, McBrewski. That actually makes a lot of sense, will definitely get a separate bucket for sanitizing. Glad to know the iodophor wasn't spent that quickly!

One other method of cooling that a lot of folks do is to cool hot wort w/ the hose connected to the IC until it gets to about 110 or so. then hook the "in" hose into an aquarium pump which is submerged in a cooler filled with ice and water. The aquarium pump, pumps ice water into your IC and will take you from 110 to pitching temp in a few minutes.

check this thread if you are interested https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/immersion-chiller-pump-recommendations-132846/

re: top off water. When I do partial boils, I put the jugs in the fridge the night before (I don't have to boil my H2O, since my tap water is good here, but YMMV). They get down close to 40* by the time I'm adding them. So if you have, say, 3 gallons of wort, and are adding 2-2.25 gallons of top-off water, you only have to chill the wort to close to 80* before you add the top-off water. The mixture (make sure you mix well!) will get you to pitching temps.

woopig said:

Placed wort chiller, spoon, air lock, and hydrometer in it.

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The wort chiller is sanitized by boiling in the wort for 15 minutes so there's no need to sanitize. The hydrometer and the hydrometer sample tube should be cleaned but there's no real need to sanitize as they never go in the fermenter.

The only things you need to sanitize are things that will come into contact with cooled wort: airlock, fermenter, funnel and wine thief.

A spraybottle with Starsan solution comes in very handy.

carbon111 said:

The wort chiller is sanitized by boiling in the wort for 15 minutes so there's no need to sanitize. The hydrometer and the hydrometer sample tube should be cleaned but there's no real need to sanitize as they never go in the fermenter.

The only things you need to sanitize are things that will come into contact with cooled wort: airlock, fermenter, funnel and wine thief.

A spraybottle with Starsan solution comes in very handy.

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How do you fill your hydrometer sample tube without submerging it into the cooled wort?

Sanitized turkey baster. Or wine thief.

Just to close this one out, I wanted to say that this beer turned out just fine. A little overly bitter finish, but it's only been in the bottle seven days (I just couldn't wait), so hopefully that will even out. Could have been a lot worse considering my newbie mistakes. Thanks for all your help.