No need for a wort chiller tonight !

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pokerfreak2

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I just finshed brewing a Piloncillo Porter from AHS. It's 3 degrees outside so I just set my brewpot outside in the snow. I bet it wont take to long to get to 65.
 
no I don't suspect it will lol. If it makes you feel any better today in wilmington, nc it only hot up to 57f.
 
I just finshed brewing a Piloncillo Porter from AHS. It's 3 degrees outside so I just set my brewpot outside in the snow. I bet it wont take to long to get to 65.

I'll take that bet. It will take hours. Water can hold heat for a long time.
 
dayumm... it's supposed to be illegal for it to get that cold in texas. never seen it that cold here, but close last week. i see it's 1 degree there now; did we get moved to canada?
 
I'll take that bet. It will take hours. Water can hold heat for a long time.

I'll that that bet too. I'm an engineer and should have known better. But I tried this once and was pretty disappointed. The real issue is that heat transfer from the kettle to the air is very inefficient (air is a good insulator). I think the stats were like this: 10 F ambient air, took 45 minutes to get from 212 to 140 F.

I put mine in snow too, but the problem is that the snow will melt fast and you'd have to keep packing it up against the kettle. I don't think you want to spend that much time outside.
 
but the groundwater will be cold, so it should take 10 minutes to cool 10 gallons to 70 or thereabouts. if no chiller, just keep piling snow up around the bk
 
I just finshed brewing a Piloncillo Porter from AHS. It's 3 degrees outside so I just set my brewpot outside in the snow. I bet it wont take to long to get to 65.

Let us know how the beer turns out. I've thought about pulling the trigger on the Piloncillo Brown. Good luck!
 
Use a tub of water and throw snow in it. Works like an ice bath then. I've been using the "outdoor freezer" for my starters all winter since the chiller is too big, works great.
 
I throw my BK into a tote filled with snow, and ran cold water into it at the same time... does a pretty solid job...
 
A snow slucshy in a pre-chiller works good,too if you want to move inside. We have more snow on the way in Atlanta.

It was really cold this morning as I was driving to work. I noticed the guys waiting at the bus stop had their pants pulled up!
 
Wow it took an hour and a half to cool 5 gal from boiling. I know we didn't put money on it but would you accept a beer for payment on that bet. At least I saved 2 bags of ice.
 
Even the snow acts as insulation...its called the igloo affect. Best bet is to add the snow to a tub of water and set the kettle in that.
 
It was 5 degrees outside Chicago last night. I set my spring water outside for two hours before adding it to my wort. 2.5 gallons of cold water + snow/water for the slush effect. I put it in the slush and added cold water, it cooled my wort down to 80 in 8 minutes, my fastest cool down yet.
 
Yeah this never works. I live in Canada and have put 5 gallons of wort out in a snowbank on particularly brisk -50F evening and even spent the better part of an hour outside packing and repacking snow along the kettle.

Not only did it still take an hour and twenty minutes to chill, but I lost nearly a gallon of volume which evaporated into the extremely dry frozen air.

Check out this video for an example of how quickly water evaporates in air this kind of cold:

 
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Yeah this never works. I live in Canada and have put 5 gallons of wort out in a snowbank on particularly brisk -50F evening and even spent the better part of an hour outside packing and repacking snow along the kettle.

:off:Ahhh Saskatchewan.....Big Buck Heaven.
 
Also, off-topic, but this is only Big Buck Paradise. I don't really know where they go after I shoot'em ;).
 
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