Brewed my first beer - chilling takes a long time

[Saunassa]

Well I brewed up my first beer last night. A 3 gallon Pale Ale extract kit and it was fun but also aggravating at the end. Heating the water and specialty grains and the 15 minute boil took 45 minutes which flew by. Cooling it in the sink with cold water and some ice took over an hour maybe an hour and a half. Decided not again so ordered up the stainless steel wort chiller today. Did not want to invest this much but I think the beer and hop flavor must turn out better cooled faster.
Long post but happy so far, cannot wait to taste it.

 

[AzOr]

An immersion chiller is a good investment. You’ll be happy especially if you eventually move to all grain.

 

[Saunassa]

I had not thought about that, all grain will be down the road a piece of i do.

 

[whiskeyjack]

With extract you can hold back a portion of the water and have it ice cold to help speed up the cooling process. Get it down to 100 and the top up with ice cold water to chill it

 

[JimEb]

When I did extract's in the kitchen I would take some boiled RO water a day or two prior and freeze it. When cooling the kettle in the kitchen sink I'd than put that chunk of ice in my wort (since I needed top off water anyway). It worked well, but I was always paranoid about causing some contamination doing that.

 

[BeerTooth]

Congratulations on your first Brew. I just did my first recently too and loved it. As said above, you will really like an immersion chiller. I cooled my 10 gallon batch in 15 minutes flat.

 

[DownstairsBrewing]

I haven not seen empirical proof of it, but supposedly hop utilization is actually better with the slow cooling.

 

[Saunassa]

Lots of good ideas which would have sped things up. Question, when I was pouring it into fermenter about half of the green sludge (is that considered trub) went into the fermenter. Is that a problem?
Btw took just over 20 hours and the airlock is bubbling away. Smells good.

 

[whiskeyjack]

No its fine if you got some in. Its trub, break material and hops. Some studies have shown this materisl is good for the yeast so no worries. I pour from the kettle as well and stop when as much wort as I can get in and it starts getting into almost pure trub

 

[Lefou]

I haven not seen empirical proof of it, but supposedly hop utilization is actually better with the slow cooling.

Same can be said of first wort hopping.
I adjust the bittering with low alpha noble hops and in low gravity, low ABV beers you don't get a noticeable hop bitterness up front, but a slightly lingering hop flavor on the back of your tongue that's noticeable after the beer is swallowed.

 

[Saunassa]

This is 15 minute boil, one ounce Amarillo at start, one ounce Cascade with 5 minutes left and one ounce Mosaic at flame out. They say short boils so takes more hops. We will see if it is hop bomb after slow cooling.
Btw, cheap vodka does not foam out the airlock like starsan when fermentation starts, oops

 

[Saunassa]

Well the airlock was really bubbling Sunday Monday and Tuesday but now today it has really slowed down. We had some hot temps over the holiday weekend and the basement hall door was left open and ambient air was 75 degrees. I hope that will not mess it up. I tucked it under the steps this morning where it stays constant 67. US-05 is the yeast. Do these do the initial fermentation fast and then slow down?
Oh and my immersion chiller arrived. It felt like Christmas.

 

[DownstairsBrewing]

Well the airlock was really bubbling Sunday Monday and Tuesday but now today it has really slowed down. We had some hot temps over the holiday weekend and the basement hall door was left open and ambient air was 75 degrees. I hope that will not mess it up. I tucked it under the steps this morning where it stays constant 67. US-05 is the yeast. Do these do the initial fermentation fast and then slow down?
Oh and my immersion chiller arrived. It felt like Christmas.

Three days of really vigorous fermentation is about normal, slowing down in that time frame does not sound like anything to worry about it. US-05 is a fairly rugged yeast.

 

[El Nino]

Ice bath for chilling does take a long time. It took quite a while when I brewed my first brew, and it was only a gallon batch! I couldn't imagine 3-5g. After that, I upped my batch size to 2.5, and the time it took to cool even 1 gallon with an ice bath, I quickly went online and ordered a wort chiller. It's probably one of the best investments for brewing, as it makes chilling a pretty simple process.

Since the water temp here in hawaii is around 78, I use the wort chiller until the wort is around 85, then stick it in my chest freezer until it hits my desired fermentation temp. Then from there I'll pitch the yeast and let it do its thing. Easy peasy

 

[Lefou]

Nor'easter storms are a regular occurrence during March in NJ so I took the opportunity to brew the last batch during a three-day weekend storm. While the kettle cooled down in a pile of slush and ice water fed with snow I was out shoveling my driveway.
Didn't need the immersion chiller when there was loads of free snow to use!

 

[bleme]

Another benefit of the stainless wort chiller is that it can have so many uses. If you out-grow it as an immersion chiller, you can use it as a pre-chiller, in a HERMS system to maintain mash temps, in a jockey box to serve cold kegs on the go, or so much more. It's a really solid investment.

 

[Saunassa]

Been watching airlock bubbles far apart. It has been a week since vigorous fermentation started and a few days since it quieted. I will test gravity tomorrow and then Thursday. If done how long does it take for a pale ale to clarify or will I need to use a fining agent?

 

[AZBeer]

w/r/t the clarifying/ fining...it depends. At one week out, I'd probably just let it do its thing for another week. That's just based on my own experience, take it FWIW. I have done faster turnarounds, but haven't been as pleased with the results.

If you don't have a good way to control the temp on the fermenter yet, I'd just let it ride. Another week will give the yeast some time for cleanup. Easier said than done when you are itching to taste your first homebrew.

I prefer to fine with gelatin (http://brulosophy.com/2015/01/05/the-gelatin-effect-exbeeriment-results/), but for best results that does require the ability to cold crash the beer.

 

[Saunassa]

I have it in the under the stairs basement closet. Stays around 63 in there due to concrete floor and walls. I should have had it there to begin with.

I have the St. Paul beer fest next weekend so I cannot bottle until sometime after that. The itch to taste the brew is stronger than when I made the mead.

 

[z-bob]

I have copper immersion chiller, made with way too little tubing and too small a diameter. It will quickly chill down about 95 or 100 degrees, then gets *really* slow after that, even in winter when the tap water is running in the 40's. I may get a decent SS chiller someday, but I've found several ways to deal with it. Wipe the outside of the kettle with a cold wet rag (when the immersion chiller stalls) really speeds up taking another 5 degrees or so off. Still too warm, but now we're getting close.

1. In the winter, I transfer the wort to an ale pail (with a lid) and put in outside for a few hours. I often get it too cool, but I've never had one freeze
2. When it's not cool enough outside to do that, I put a couple of frozen sealed 1L bottles of water in the bucket and that drops it down to pitching temperature. I rinse the bottles with StarSan before dropping them in.
3. And last, I recently bought a pack of Kveik yeast that you can pitch at 100 degrees; gonna try that next time I brew.

 

[portguy]

I bought an immersion chiller months ago...But honestly: i don't use it! Takes about 40 minutes to chill the wort (yea it's a crappy one), plus i spend a lot of water. So..i just go no chill route (did it before i bought the immersion chiller and really love it). As i do BIAB, i just put my kettle/bucket lid on after my flame out hop additions and pitch whenever the temps are good. Usually after 15 hours. I have no issues and cannot spot a difference between methods.