I'm living in Africa for a couple years and my hose water temp is about 85-90 degrees, sometimes more. I've only brewed my first batch after a 15+ year hiatus and was successful in using my copper coil and then lifting the brewpot into an ice bath. I got the temp down to about 80 before transferring to the fermenter and pitching. I did see a fair amount of StarSan get sucked back into through the airlock as it cooled and so I'm trying to come up with better ways to chill the beer better to avoid having airlock liquid end up in the wort..
With more ice, I could get the temp down a bit, but I'm not wholly comfortable lifting a brewpot full of beer. I only had 4 gallons last time as well, so once I figure out my boil off, I'd have 20% more liquid in the pot, ie more issues with lifting.
I'm considering going with some PET bottles that have been scrubbed cleaned, frozen and then sanitized but I'm still leery of putting them in my wort unless absolutely necessary. I am using untapped Ale Pale fermenters and I'm think it would be better to use the coil to cool as much as possible and then transfer via autosiphon or pump to the fermenter and then chill that some more. I'd put the lid on and put in ice (more surface volume in contact with the cold water in a fermenter) for a bit, then open it, pitch the yeast, and close it up for good with the airlock.
Does that sound reasonable?
With more ice, I could get the temp down a bit, but I'm not wholly comfortable lifting a brewpot full of beer. I only had 4 gallons last time as well, so once I figure out my boil off, I'd have 20% more liquid in the pot, ie more issues with lifting.
I'm considering going with some PET bottles that have been scrubbed cleaned, frozen and then sanitized but I'm still leery of putting them in my wort unless absolutely necessary. I am using untapped Ale Pale fermenters and I'm think it would be better to use the coil to cool as much as possible and then transfer via autosiphon or pump to the fermenter and then chill that some more. I'd put the lid on and put in ice (more surface volume in contact with the cold water in a fermenter) for a bit, then open it, pitch the yeast, and close it up for good with the airlock.
Does that sound reasonable?