Yesterday I had a mistimed brewday. I had put my 2l starter on the stirplate Friday morning. This was my first starter made from pressure canned starter wort rather than the 10 minute DME boiled on the stove starter wort. Anyway after 48 hours I still had a bit of activity going in the flask as opposed to a fully complete fermentation. I am of the let the starter go to completion and pour off the liquid school of thought. I figured Oh well, my kettle to plate chiller to Better Bottle path is quite sanitary, I'll just leave the wort in the BB to wait until the starter is finished. Well the tap water is getting a bit warm here in LA, so getting even close to 70 deg F in the fermenter requires that I really choke off the flow through the Shirron plate chiller. After running maybe a gallon into the fermenter and thinking about how friggin long this was going to take, I thought well, I'll just run the flow full bore and take whatever temperature I get, after all, I still have to wait for the starter to finish. I can cool the wort in my fermentation chiller while I'm waiting. Then it hit me. Why don't I do this every time? If I have a sanitary transfer and can wait before adding my yeast, why not cool my boiling wort as quickly as possible, even if it is to a temperature above where I would want to pitch my yeast? I'll get the wort off boiling quicker and avoid letting it sit and produce more DMS as well as cooking off the aroma hops.
Waddaya think?
I still haven't gotten around to building myself a whirlpool immersion chiller. ( http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php ) This is definitely at the top of my to do list now. Hmmm... or maybe one of those trick chillers made out of an old air conditoner and a glycol cooling loop!
Waddaya think?
I still haven't gotten around to building myself a whirlpool immersion chiller. ( http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php ) This is definitely at the top of my to do list now. Hmmm... or maybe one of those trick chillers made out of an old air conditoner and a glycol cooling loop!
