Adjusting recipes for counterflow chiller

[rayhutchinson]

After increasing batch sizes from 5 to 10 gallons, I elected to upgrade from an immersion chiller to a counterflow chiller. It is a very effective chiller for the price. I have made a number of good batches with the new equipment and for the most part I have been pleased. My only issues involve the hops. The beers, especially PAs and IPAs, have a lingering bitterness and fall short in the aroma department even with heavy hop additions at flameout. After reading a couple BeerSmith blogs on late hop additions, in particular http://beersmith.com/blog/2013/01/21/late-hop-additions-and-hop-oils-in-beer-brewing/, it got me wondering. If it typically takes 25 minutes to run the worth through the counterflow chiller, am I loosing some of the essential oils? Additionally, if the wort remains above 200 degrees for 25 minutes, does that impact the the overall IBUs of the recipe? It seems to me that I may be squeezing more out of my mid and late addition hops than the design accounts for. Not sure if anyone else has encountered this problem or can offer any advice. My initial "fix" is to create a cooling whirlpool through the counterflow chiller for 15 minutes allowing the wort to drop to 150, then transferring through counterflow into the fermenter. Even then I am not sure if my recipes need to be adjusted. Thoughts? Advice?

 

[rklinck]

You are thinking along the right lines. This is an issue that I have hard professional brewers discuss (Jamil Z talked about it on a podcast I listened to at one point). Much of the aroma will be driven out of the wort that is sitting in the kettle for 20+ minutes waiting to go through the chiller. This is where a hopback would come in handy. That way, you are running the work through the hops for aroma between kettle and chiller.

But I think the solution you have come up with is the best short term solution.

 

[tootal]

We had the same problem. We threw hops in at flame out and then vorlauf/whirlpool for 15 minutes before we started running it through the chiller and into the fermentor. Now we are chilling and whirlpooling at the same time. This also helps capture the cold break in the kettle. So after we have vorlaufed/whirlpooled for 5 minutes hot, just to keep the big chunks out of the plate chiller, we then vorlauf/whirlpool/chill for 15 minutes before we switch to the fermenter. We are getting more aroma doing it this way and the wort is very clear.

 

[rayhutchinson]

Thanks for the feedback. Tootal-are you able to leave the coldbreak in the kettle when using a counterflow chiller by doing a cooling whirlpool? What is your target temperature at the end of your whirlpool?