Brand New...Wort Not Cooling

Hello Board,

Just started trying to home brew tonight and everything was going well until it was time to chill the wort. First I put the kettle in a sink full of water and ice, then drained it and did it again, and then again. Long story short, it's been an hour and a half and my wort is still at 90 degrees. Should I just toss this out because it's going to suck? I'm so frustrated! Now I've just got it sitting in the bathtub full of cold water...Not sure what to do

toestothesun said:

Hello Board,

Just started trying to home brew tonight and everything was going well until it was time to chill the wort. First I put the kettle in a sink full of water and ice, then drained it and did it again, and then again. Long story short, it's been an hour and a half and my wort is still at 90 degrees. Should I just toss this out because it's going to suck? I'm so frustrated! Now I've just got it sitting in the bathtub full of cold water...Not sure what to do

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Keep it on ice water and stir it. You're almost there. It'll be fine.

It won't suck, and you didn't screw up. Just keep cooling it til mid 70's, then pitch your yeast, install the airlock, and ferment in a location where temps will remain under 70, preferably around 65.

I'll bet a wort chiller is lookin pretty attractive right now, huh?

Reelale said:

Keep it on ice water and stir it. You're almost there. It'll be fine.

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I've been reading up and now I'm worried about DMC? Not sure if I have the acronym right or not but it sounds like it's the "homebrew" taste. I'm brewing an IPA and I wanted it to come out good So does this mean it's going to suck and myself or anyone who drinks it is going to get headaches?

o4_srt said:

It won't suck, and you didn't screw up. Just keep cooling it til mid 70's, then pitch your yeast, install the airlock, and ferment in a location where temps will remain under 70, preferably around 65.

I'll bet a wort chiller is lookin pretty attractive right now, huh?

Click to expand...

oh, you're absolutely right. I was thinking about buying one but I had already spent so much money that I couldn't begin to think that I was going to spend more. I had all my ducks in a row and thought this first brew would be great...Now I'm not so sure.

What is the purpose of draining the ice water? Had the ice completely melted.
If not the water should still be cold enough. When you drain and add tap water that tap water is warmer than the ice bath and thus the heat gradient will be less.

toestothesun said:

Hello Board,

Just started trying to home brew tonight and everything was going well until it was time to chill the wort. First I put the kettle in a sink full of water and ice, then drained it and did it again, and then again. Long story short, it's been an hour and a half and my wort is still at 90 degrees. Should I just toss this out because it's going to suck? I'm so frustrated! Now I've just got it sitting in the bathtub full of cold water...Not sure what to do

Click to expand...

also, I suppose I could be screwing things up by placing my sanitized thermometer in the wort to check temps?

toestothesun said:

I've been reading up and now I'm worried about DMC? Not sure if I have the acronym right or not but it sounds like it's the "homebrew" taste. I'm brewing an IPA and I wanted it to come out good So does this mean it's going to suck and myself or anyone who drinks it is going to get headaches?

Click to expand...

It's DMS. And you'll be fine. The beer will be fine. Ferment at the correct temperature and the world will be fine. Do a search here on no-chill. Some folks leave their wort in winpacks overnight to cool to pitching temperature. They swear that DMS is a boogey man.

ed_brews_now said:

What is the purpose of draining the ice water? Had the ice completely melted.
If not the water should still be cold enough. When you drain and add tap water that tap water is warmer than the ice bath and thus the heat gradient will be less.

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Hi ed, the reason I drained the ice is because the ice had all melted and the water had become warm

toestothesun said:

also, I suppose I could be screwing things up by placing my sanitized thermometer in the wort to check temps?

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Nope, if it's sanitized, you're good to go.

You can make a simple wort chiller for less than $50, visit the DIY subfoum, there are several how-to's.

Your beer will be perfectly fine, trust me. I've done several "no chill" batches that use nothing but air temp to cool down, which is around 24 hours. It's actually quite difficult to screw up making beer, you'll be fine.

Bro, if it was that easy to make killer brew...it wouldnt be that much of a hobby there is something about it that cant be articulated...even though u read it over and over-You just have to brew and keep brewing until you get it, til it works for you

o4_srt said:

Nope, if it's sanitized, you're good to go.

You can make a simple wort chiller for less than $50, visit the DIY subfoum, there are several how-to's.

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Ok, good to know srt, definitely appreciate the direction. I'll look into making one for the next batch.

Demon said:

Your beer will be perfectly fine, trust me. I've done several "no chill" batches that use nothing but air temp to cool down, which is around 24 hours. It's actually quite difficult to screw up making beer, you'll be fine.

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Wow, you don't understand how great this is to hear Demon I'll just continue to be patient and toss the yeast in once it's ready

MilesLong said:

Bro, if it was that easy to make killer brew...it wouldnt be that much of a hobby there is something about it that cant be articulated...even though u read it over and over-You just have to brew and keep brewing until you get it, til it works for you

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I'm sure you're 100% correct Miles, I don't doubt that point whatsoever. I wasn't expecting it to be phenomenal by any stretch but I do want it to be solid you know. I was just totally worried that it was destroyed. We'll see what happens!

I didnt read all the posts since my giant wort is boiling right now, so this might be a repost. When i do extract, i boils 2.5 gallons and stick the other 2.5 in the freezer when i start my brew session. When the boil is done i stick it in the sink in an ice bath, takes about 15 min to get to 100 degrees. Mixing the 100 degree wort with the chilled water in my freezer gets it well below pitching temps.

Brasco20 said:

I didnt read all the posts since my giant wort is boiling right now, so this might be a repost. When i do extract, i boils 2.5 gallons and stick the other 2.5 in the freezer when i start my brew session. When the boil is done i stick it in the sink in an ice bath, takes about 15 min to get to 100 degrees. Mixing the 100 degree wort with the chilled water in my freezer gets it well below pitching temps.

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that's great info...thanks Brasco

Here is what you should do. Let it chill to 60-68f. Pitch your yeast. Let it sit at that temp for 3 weeks.

Next: Send it to me. I will help you dispose of it properly.
It is really the only option at this point.

Seriously though: If you are doing a partial boil, you can always freeze some pre-boiled water and put it in your wort as a big chunk as it cools in the ice bath. I do that and it has been working great. On a half batch, I can get to 60-65 in 8:30 min. On a 4 gal boil, I can get there in 25 min. (Still want a wort chiller for Father's Day though :rockin

Cheers and Welcome to the insanity!

You bet dude.

joetothemo said:

Here is what you should do. Let it chill to 60-68f. Pitch your yeast. Let it sit at that temp for 3 weeks.

Next: Send it to me. I will help you dispose of it properly.
It is really the only option at this point.

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sure no problem. I'm sure you'd do a great job of disposing of it properly

See it through to bottle-there is experience value in every batch
Brew another batch and change the detail you have any questions about. Fine tuning.
I chilled with ice in a plastic tub...like three 10 pound bags of ice and filled with some water-it chilled quick. I think your sink wasnt deep enough. a good ice bath WILL chill it down fast especially with a 2-3 gallon boil.

took me over 3 hours to get my first batch cooled.

I stupidly poured it into the fermenter without cooling the kettle whatsoever. (extract recipe)

When you guys speak of no chill, are you letting it cool with the lid off?

Get some icecream salt or kosher salt, and add that to your ice bath. It causes your ice to melt more quickly giving a greater thermal exchange. This will greatly reduce your cooling time. BTW/ Welcome to our obsession.:rockin:

I made a chiller before my first batch. Cost me around $30.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/wort-chiller-build-231734/

.

RDWHAHB!

It can take a while to cool off. Next time try to tweak your process to make it better, that's part of the fun!

I just got done with my first brew last night, and here is what I did to chill the wort and it only took maybe 30 minutes for ~2 gallons of wort.

Put ice in the bottom of the sink
Put the pot with the lid on on top of that
Packed ice around the pot.
Kept repacking ice around the pot *Note, my sink is barely large enough to accomodate the 22qt pot I used.
Periodically checked temps with a sanitized thermometer until I got down to 100degF

Put the 100deg Wort in the 6gal carboy
Topped up to 5gal with cool water
wort temp 70deg


Took maybe 30 minutes, i was actually surprised how well this worked considering my sink is so small. I plan to make my own wort chiller before my next brew.

Yeah, I think I'll try making a wort chiller for the next brew or changing my ice bath method a little bit.

Thanks everyone for the help

As far as using ice water, you can add salt to it and get the temp down to about 25 degrees. Trick I learned years ago for fast chilling of beer in cans and bottles. Same reason you use salt to the ice when making ice cream.