Process: Cooling the Wort --> Primary

[jalgayer]

All -

I see a lot of posts about wort chillers and whirlpooling the wort before sending it to the secondary.

I am wondering how much that helps?

What I have been doing is cooling in a sink with a TON of ice, then straining the wort as it enters that carboy.

It seems to aerate and remove a lot of the material and the cooling I have the wort down to 90-100 in 15-20 minutes.

Do I need to improve?

 

[Frodo]

All -

I see a lot of posts about wort chillers and whirlpooling the wort before sending it to the secondary.

I am wondering how much that helps?

What I have been doing is cooling in a sink with a TON of ice, then straining the wort as it enters that carboy.

It seems to aerate and remove a lot of the material and the cooling I have the wort down to 90-100 in 15-20 minutes.

Do I need to improve?

I assume you mean "sending to the primary" not "secondary".

You really only need to change something if what you're doing isn't working for you or if you want a better product (and ya who doesn't want that?)... that said, it sounds like you're cooling it down pretty quickly, which is good.

From what I understand, cooling the wort quickly helps get a good cold break, and makes your beer clearer in the end due to less suspended proteins.

 

[SamuraiSquirrel]

I'm guessing if you are cooling in your sink then you probably have a 5 gallon pot.

Do you need to improve? probably not. My guess is that you will want to (for some reason I always feel the need to get new beer stuff)

If you decide to start doing full boils your pot will most likely no longer fit in your sink and gets awkward to life and move around so as a result you will likely make some changes.

It's all how much you want to spend, how much space you have, and how deep you want to get into it. You can have as much and as little equipment as you want and still make good beer in my opinion.

 

[Reelale]

All -

I see a lot of posts about wort chillers and whirlpooling the wort before sending it to the secondary.

I am wondering how much that helps?

What I have been doing is cooling in a sink with a TON of ice, then straining the wort as it enters that carboy.

It seems to aerate and remove a lot of the material and the cooling I have the wort down to 90-100 in 15-20 minutes.

Do I need to improve?

You need to chill your wort to pitching temperature, which is about 70 degrees or below. Wort chillers work great when the input water is cold. The whirlpooling just leaves some/most of the trub in the BK, and not in your fermenter. Your process will work, just get the wort temperature a little lower.

 

[jalgayer]

All -

1- Yes I meant primary not secondary
2- Yes its a 5 gall pot and I boil as much as I can fit
3- While I cool it to under 100, when I add to PRIMARY with 1-2 gall of water it gets right to the 65-68 to pitch

So - 15-20 min is ok for the cooling? I know its the quicker the better.... but just not sure how much quicker a chiller would be and if it really improves the beer that much.

I dont mind spending... But my initial thoughts were (1) It wont make it easier (2) it wont be much quicker (3) It will add another item to buy (4) It will add another item to sanitize

Just wanted to see if I was missing something in my initial thoughts

 

[Reelale]

15 to 20 minutes is excellent, IMO.

 

[Ohio-Ed]

As Yeast Infection said... if it's working for you then you don't have to change anything. 20 minutes to cool to pitching temps is probably ok.

Some reasons for a chiller...
... don't want to mess with ice.
... don't want to man handle their very hot Boil Kettle period.
... don't want to man handle the volume of their Boil Kettle.
... do full boils, so they don't get the advantage (and risks) you have with adding cool water.
And there are probably a bunch of other reasons I'm leaving out.

But all that said, you don't have to go down that path until you see a reason that tells you it's time.

Good Luck,
Ed

 

[pcollins]

Sounds like everything is fine.

I wasn't getting cooling times like you were so I moved to an immersion wort chiller. It wasn't that expensive or tedious to make and it works like a charm. Now I'm getting cooling times similar to yours.

As far as another item to sanitize, it's not that big a deal really. I just put my chiller in the boiling wort for the last ten minutes or so and it's sanitized. Put's it right where it needs to be for chilling, too!

Do you need to improve? If your beer tastes good to you and you're enjoying the process then there is no need to improve anything. RDWHAHB!!

Cheers

 

[pcollins]

Sounds like everything is fine.

I wasn't getting cooling times like you were so I moved to an immersion wort chiller. It wasn't that expensive or tedious to make and it works like a charm. Now I'm getting cooling times similar to yours.

As far as another item to sanitize, it's not that big a deal really. I just put my chiller in the boiling wort for the last ten minutes or so and it's sanitized. Put's it right where it needs to be for chilling, too!

Do you need to improve? If your beer tastes good to you and you're enjoying the process then there is no need to improve anything. RDWHAHB!!

Cheers

 

[Jmiltime]

Not to be redundant, but I agree with the 'if it ain't broke' philosophy. However, if you realize the purpose of a chiller (fast chilling = increase cold break = clearer beer, it also helps to minimize infection as bacteria doesn't thrive as well in cooler temps). And whirlpooling is simply a way to try to seperate as much cold break as possible from getting into your fermenter.

If you are happy with the clarity of your beer, don't feel you need to worry about infection, and are getting as much break matter out as you want, then what you are doing is great. You would only need to change if you wanted/needed better results in these areas.

 

[Nitrousbob]

I believe you can reduce dms by chilling quicker, and getting that wort to pitching temp quicker is always the best option. I always like to change the easy stuff in my brewing so i can mess up the harder stuff and still end up ok.

 

[jalgayer]

So how quick does a wort chiller "chill"?
Can they hook to a regular kitchen sink faucet?

 

[Nitrousbob]

They can cool very quick, and they have the ability to chill the entire wort down all at once vs a plate chiller that some wort is still sitting in the pot for a few minutes at less than ideal temps.

Here is good info on a chiller http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php
of course getting the whirlpool setup with a pump can be more expensive, you could still get a b3 style chiller or make one, and manually do a whirlpool.

Mine.

 

[Marsdude]

I noticed you said you get down to 90 - 100 degrees in 10 - 15 min.

I put my pot in a sink of cold water with frozen water bottles that I reuse and I also use a homemade immersion chiller. I reach 70 degrees in 10 - 15 min.

I also put water in my sanitized bottling bucket and cover it the day before I brew so the water gets up to room temp. After I add the water to the wort in the carboy the wort is right around 70 degrees and I can go ahead a pitch. Saves a lot of time.