Tips for cooling wort

[nanoBrewer]

I need tips for cooling my wort.

I just brewed a 3 gallon batch with a 1/2 gallon boil added to 2 1/2 gallons of cool water, and I could not get the temp down to 78 degrees to pitch the ale yeast. After an hour in a cold water bath I just gave up and pitched the ale yeast at 85 degrees and left the fermentor in the bath.

I had the lid off the pail for over an hour.

Will my beer have off flavors due to oxidation, spoilage (bateria) and the higher pitching temperature?

 

[rcbrew]

one of the best purchases so far in my brewing hobby was a wort chiller.....but since you are in Toronto, things are looking better...snow is on the way in a few months. Before I had my wort chiller, I used snow banks and after that, used an ice bath instead. Doesn't take long with a snow bank or an ice bath to get those temps down. Water baths, especially at the beginning when chilling, warm up real fast and you have to replace with cold water often. So, my suggestion, buy or make a wort chiller, but until that time, use ice baths and replace ice often.

 

[rcbrew]

as for oxidation, O2 is good at the time of pitching so that is not an issue.
Bacteria.......not sure of your sanitation, but anything somewhat reasonable, you should be ok
Pitching at a higher temp will affect the number of live yeasties that are available for duty. Taste is more of a fementation temperature issue.

 

[Noldar]

Here's how I cool my wort in 15 - 20minutes without a Wort Chiller.

I feel up my 2 sinks in my kitchen with water and add just a small amount of ice to begin with. Stick the pot in one side, wait for the water to get warm, then move it to the other side. While it's in the other side, I drain and add more water with just a little more ice. I continue that process of draining and adding a bit more ice for about 10 minutes. By this time the wort is about at 130 - 150 degrees. This is when I add *A Lot* of ice in the sink and wait for the ice to melt.

Along with this, I use a sanitized spoon to stir the wort each time I move it to the other side of the sink.

This process has worked wonders for me, though I'll be looking into a Wort Chiller after Winter is through just to make life easier.

 

[nanoBrewer]

Next time, I'll be better prepared and have more ice on hand to for my bath.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[God Emporer BillyBrew]

I've got a super-simple solution for you. Freeze a gallon of clean water the night before you brew. Put it in the wort the minute you pull it off the stove. Go ahead and do an ice bath, it helps. This method requires very little effort and will cool your wort very fast. Plus, you can leave the lid on and not risk contamination.

 

[Glibbidy]

Keep in mind if you use an immersion chiller, the wort is only gonna get as cold as the ground water running thru your pipes.

This would be one of the pro's of using a Counter flow chiller instead, since you can run the wort thru an ice bath.

 

[nanoBrewer]

Keep in mind if you use an immersion chiller, the wort is only gonna get as cold as the ground water running thru your pipes.

This would be one of the pro's of using a Counter flow chiller instead, since you can run the wort thru an ice bath.

Good point. The main reason I could not cool my wort was the ground water wasn't very cold (and I did not have enough ice on hand).

 

[the_bird]

Some people have built pre-chillers, as well. Still not as cool as a CFC, though!

 

[fezzman]

Here's how I cool my wort in 15 - 20minutes without a Wort Chiller.

I feel up my 2 sinks in my kitchen with water and add just a small amount of ice to begin with. Stick the pot in one side, wait for the water to get warm, then move it to the other side. While it's in the other side, I drain and add more water with just a little more ice. I continue that process of draining and adding a bit more ice for about 10 minutes. By this time the wort is about at 130 - 150 degrees. This is when I add *A Lot* of ice in the sink and wait for the ice to melt.

Along with this, I use a sanitized spoon to stir the wort each time I move it to the other side of the sink.

This process has worked wonders for me, though I'll be looking into a Wort Chiller after Winter is through just to make life easier.

That is pretty much the same way I do it...with one exception. I have two 1/2 gallon milk jugs that I freeze water in. I can fit these into the sink with my pot and they don't melt nearly as fast as cubes do. I just transfer them to the other side when the water starts to warm up.

I think I will eventually freeze two more so that I can keep two in each side of the sink. My stupid sink is barely out of level. Otherwise, I would just use one side and let the water trickle and overflow to the opposite sink. Instead though, it pours out onto the counter.

 

[the_bird]

Go back to the OP, though:

Adding 2.5 gallons of cool water to only a boil of only 0.5 gallons? How is that difficult at all? Keep the water in the fridge, it'll be 40-50 degrees. The half gallon of wort is going to cool off itself pretty quickly, even without *any* kind of water or ice bath. A little bit of a cool water bath, you should be down to 160 in no time.

You're then adding five times the volume of cool water. If that water really is cool, I'm really confused how this could be a problem. The challenge most extract brewers have is in trying to cool down the wort when only adding an equal volume (+/-) of cool water, not 5x.

Remember, it's a LOT easier to go from 200 degrees to 120 than it is to go from 85 to 70. If you can get the half-gallon wort down to 140-150ish, adding that much cool water should get you pretty close to where you need to be.

 

[Bobby_M]

When I did my first 5 gallon batch last night here's what I did.

The night before, I pre boiled some water and sterilized 3 cool whip containers. Put the water in the freezer and made 3 solid ice pucks.

Brew day; 3 gallon boil, immediately put into the sink filled with cold water and bag of ice. Stir the wort, stir the sink water (no, not with the same spoon). It took 12 minutes to get the wort to 128dF.

Throw the 3 ice pucks into the primary (6.5gallon bucket) and poured the 128dF wort onto it. Put the lid on and give it a few minutes to melt the ice. I ended up short about a gallon which is why I also had some preboiled water in a gallon jug in the fridge. After adding this cool water, the wort was down to 68dF.

I think I could get 1/2 gallon boil down to 70dF in about 3 minutes with a simple salty ice water bath.

An alternative to buying a bunch of bags of ice is to freeze water in a bunch of tuperware containers and use those in your ice bath. The key is being able to eject the ice into your water. Using water bottles doesn't give effecient access to the ice once some of it melts inside the bottle. Also, throwing rock salt into the water can get it down into the 15dF temps as opposed to 32dF with ice only.

Bobby

 

[OG1068]

Counter Flow is the way to go! I use this to take 30 gallons from the boil pots and chill down it into six carboys. An amazing thing this. Goes from boilin' hot to 68 then I pitch. I used an immersion when I was brewin' 5 gallons and before that, sat it in the sink. Made the counter flow, it's not so hard( when your dad is a plumber ).