So I have heard two schools of thought about chilling wort with an imersion chiller:
1. Do not touch it when its cooling. Let the cold break, hops and other solids fall to the bottom of the kettle and either drain or syphon off the clear wort. This clears out the wort leaving the sediment behind, you do not need hop bags because all the hops fall to the bottom during chilling, yet it takes a lot longer to chill 5 gallons of wort.
2. Stir the wort, which chills the wort faster but leaves the sediment suspended when you add the wort to the carboy. I use hop bags because with stirring the wort, you are keeping the hops in suspension (especially whole hops). I have also heard that the yeast needs proteins and nutrients for a healthy fermentation so is this method better, even though it looks as if the beer is going to be cloudy?
What are your thoughts fellow homebrewers? Which one is better? Is there a preference? Does stirring the wort actually effect the haze and clarity of the final brew? Hop bags versus hops place directly in the kettle?
Cheers
Nate
1. Do not touch it when its cooling. Let the cold break, hops and other solids fall to the bottom of the kettle and either drain or syphon off the clear wort. This clears out the wort leaving the sediment behind, you do not need hop bags because all the hops fall to the bottom during chilling, yet it takes a lot longer to chill 5 gallons of wort.
2. Stir the wort, which chills the wort faster but leaves the sediment suspended when you add the wort to the carboy. I use hop bags because with stirring the wort, you are keeping the hops in suspension (especially whole hops). I have also heard that the yeast needs proteins and nutrients for a healthy fermentation so is this method better, even though it looks as if the beer is going to be cloudy?
What are your thoughts fellow homebrewers? Which one is better? Is there a preference? Does stirring the wort actually effect the haze and clarity of the final brew? Hop bags versus hops place directly in the kettle?
Cheers
Nate