Not allowing Wort to cool?

[benver]

Total newb here, on batch #5, with mild success.

Started poking around here last night and plowed through some great info.

My question is this... i had not read or herd anthing about allowing my wort to cool after my boil is complete. So far i have just been pouring my wort into
3 cold gallons of water through a strainer. Is there an advantage to racking rather than pouring at this point in the process?

Is this bad news? Is it too much of a shock to the wort? What is the worst case scenario with me not allowing the wort to cool? What are the advantages of letting it cool before mixing with water?

thanks in advance for the feedback!
fyi - I will probably have follow up questions.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

Total newb here, on batch #5, with mild success.

Started poking around here last night and plowed through some great info.

My question is this... i had not read or herd anthing about allowing my wort to cool after my boil is complete. So far i have just been pouring my wort into
3 cold gallons of water through a strainer. Is there an advantage to racking rather than pouring at this point in the process?

Is this bad news? Is it too much of a shock to the wort? What is the worst case scenario with me not allowing the wort to cool? What are the advantages of letting it cool before mixing with water?

thanks in advance for the feedback!
fyi - I will probably have follow up questions.

If you are pouring into COLD water and the mix is getting to the mid to upper 60's you are fine. And the splashing is something you SHOULD do after the wort is cooled down. As far as shocking the wort, I don't think that is possible until the yeast are added.

 

[marubozo]

Keeping the HSA debate aside... the big question is what temp are you ending up at by adding it to some cold water? In my experience, adding boiling water to a few gallons of relatively cold water will not get you to pitching temps. It's fine to add your wort to cold water, it's fine to use a strainer, but none of that matters if you're only bringing the water down to 100 degrees and then pitching.

You won't be shocking the wort, but you could be shocking the yeast. Worst case scenario is the wort is too hot and kills the yeast. Just as bad, even if the yeast don't die you'll be fermenting at such high temps you end up with a poor final product. Cooling the wort properly before pitching yeast and then maintaining that temperature are two of the most important things you can do if you want to make good beer.

 

[JNye]

puoring and straining is good because it aerates the wort which is necesary for the yeast before you pitch. as long as you are pitching your yeast when the wort is below 70* you are golden.

 

[benver]

some help from the midwest!!! gotta love it... I grew up in northern Illinois.

so splashing/pouring is a good things at this point, noted.

I waited for my wort to cool to below 75* as my yeast called for. This was actually about 8hrs.(my next upgrade in process will be some kind of wort chilling) to greatly reduce this time.

Could waiting this long to pitch have ill effects on the yeast and/or the final product?
my fermentor was sealed over the 8 hr span.

also just briefly looked into the hsa thing, does that relate to stirring while boiling? i have not been doing that after i have added the extract. I will look more into this.

I have been on this site for 24hrs and have learned more in that time than I did with 6months of tutorials, books, and word of mouth.

Thanks!
Ben

 

[ChshreCat]

I cool mine in a sink of cold water (takes 4 or 5 changes of the water to cool it in about 30-45 minutes) to get it down to around 90 or so, then I pour it through a kitchen strainer into my fermenter and top up with jugs of water that have been in the fridge. The fridge-temp water takes it right down into the 60's and I can immediately pitch my yeast.

 

[marubozo]

Hot side aeration has been an ongoing debate and most say it's more or less a myth that got blown out of proportion and is not of much concern at the homebrew scale. Stirring your wort during the boil is not something this would even be a concern with and if HSA exists, it would happen sometime after the boil and before the wort gets down to pitching temps, or if you're doing AG, possibly during the mashing to boil stage. That is, only if you believe it is really a concern at all. Personally, I don't pay much attention to HSA. I mean, I'm not going to go and stick an O2 pump into my wort while it's at 100 degrees, but during the cooling process I stir, swirl, and make quite a stir out of it while I'm cooling with the immersion chiller.

In terms of your lag time before pitching, well that all depends. If your sanitation was very good, then there's probably little to worry about. The problem with waiting that long is that gives contaminants like mold, bacteria, and wild yeast a greater opportunity to take hold before your yeast does. That's why it's always a best practice to get your wort cool and pitch the yeast as soon as you reasonably can.

 

[JNye]

i dunno about the HSA thing, just that it is highly debateable, I have read some people even argue it can be beneficial, me, i just don't worry about it. Personally i like to get the wort below 140 at a minimum as fast as posssible simply because hops utilization continues to occur until somewhere around there. What that means is if you cool very slowly you will end up with more bitterness. I have done "no chill" before but have moved to a chill below 140 or a bit lower and then let it cool naturally the rest of the way.(the rest of the way takes the most effort so its nice to just walk away for 8 hours, for me).

 

[copper]

In terms of your lag time before pitching, well that all depends. If your sanitation was very good, then there's probably little to worry about. The problem with waiting that long is that gives contaminants like mold, bacteria, and wild yeast a greater opportunity to take hold before your yeast does. That's why it's always a best practice to get your wort cool and pitch the yeast as soon as you reasonably can.

+1 on watching out for wild yeast and nasties having an opportunity to mortgage your wort before you pitching yeast does.
Getting your wort cool also helps achieve the "cold break" that should help clarify your beer in the finish.

 

[lumpher]

as long as you wait till below 80, it should be ok. higher than that, a lot of your yeast is

. stresses the remaining yeast, and the beer tastes off. i use a wort chiller, and it takes about 20 minutes. i let the runoff water go out to a soaker hose to water my hedges, so it all gets put to good use

 

[TheWeeb]

There are many good techniques to cooling wort. I have had success with pre-freezing distilled/purified water in sanitized two quart plastic bags; these huge ice cubes are thown right into the wort after boil. The last brew went from boiling to sixty in about 15 minutes. For aeriation, I pour the five gallons between two sanitized buckets ten times, adding the yeast on number eight. The wort gets so full of air it foams to the top of the bucket.

 

[lumpher]

There are many good techniques to cooling wort. I have had success with pre-freezing distilled/purified water in sanitized two quart plastic bags; these huge ice cubes are thown right into the wort after boil. The last brew went from boiling to sixty in about 15 minutes. For aeriation, I pour the five gallons between two sanitized buckets ten times, adding the yeast on number eight. The wort gets so full of air it foams to the top of the bucket.

good thought, and it aerates the hell out of it. and good exercise, too

 

[JJL]

I have done just about every extract partial boil batch using this same methodology. I usually let the batch sit in an ice bath for about 20 minutes. Not so much to chill the wort, but to let the break material settle to the bottom of the boil pot. Then I strain the hot wort into 2 gals of cold water. Then I top off using a 3rd gallon of cold water. I know the need to strain is debatable as well, but it's something I prefer to do. I just take a temp reading to make sure I'm below 80* before I pitch the yeast. Never had a problem.

As for letting your wort sit without pitching yeast, the other guys are right. You can let it sit, but sooner or later if the yeast isn't growing in the wort, something else will.

Also, I just wanted to point out specifically for the OP that you can't shock the wort. It's the yeast you are are concerned about stressing or shocking or killing with the temp of your wort. I know the rest of you guys mentioned yeast, but I wanted to clearly explain the difference to the OP.