Wort cooling

[halister]

Hi I just wanted to share the way I cooled my wart and let me know if there is a reason why I shouldnt do it this way. I dont have (Made yet) a wort chiller and stupid me only had a half a bag of ice on hand.

.Flame out
.Wort pot went into the sink with the lame amount of ice. Didnt do much as far as temp.
.Placed a gallon of cold water in the pot and that cooled it down to about 150
.Poored the now 2 gallons into the fermentation bucket and added another gallon which cooled it down to about 80.
. the last gallon went in luke warm and that put it at about 70.

It cooled it down in less than 10 minutes this way. Is this a bad practice?

 

[DMartin]

On one hand, for safety you should only use distiller or pre-boiled and cooled water. Sometimes straight tap water can have bacteria in it.

On the other hand, I always used tap water and never had a problem.

You should also be boiling at least 2-3gal for a 5gal batch for the sake of hops utilization.

 

[unionrdr]

I agree. 10 mins for 1 gallon wort with 1G added isn't bad at all. But I use 2.5-3 gallons in the boil with 1.5-2lb's of DME for good hop utilization. That takes 20 minutes to cool down. Still good timing for little or no chill haze at that point come fridge time.

 

[halister]

This is my first ever kit so I'm using the lame excuse that's what the directions said. I will up it for next time. Now I have a brand new turkey fryer so would a full boil be better even though it's a kit?

I was told by more than few that here in buffalo has surprisingly good water so I didn't boil. Being so close to the fresh water lakes I'm sure has something to do with it..

 

[Bierliebhaber]

It might just be me but I think you should keep your wart out of your wort.

 

[unionrdr]

I neglected to mention that in the ice bath,I fill the empty space in the sink with ice,then Top that off with cold water. Chills down to pitch temp faster than using water then ice.

 

[halister]

So when chillen it out whats considered taking to long? im sure the danger zone is the same beer as it is for food 40 - 140

 

[bradford0113]

I just brewed my first ever batch this weekend. Boil volume was 2.5 gallons and I cooled mine down by placing the pot in one of those plastic "tubs" with the rope handles, adding about 10 lbs of ice plus water, then adding more ice once the initial 10 lbs melted. Wort was down to 62 degrees in about 15 minutes. I transferred the wort to the fermentor and added 2.5 gallons of 64 degree bottled spring water. Pitched my yeast (Nottingham re-hydrated for 20 minutes and brought down to 65 degrees) into 63 degree wort. Placed the fermentor in the basement where the ambient temp is 62 degrees and within 18 hours the airlock was bubbling away.

 

[unionrdr]

Well,in my experience,to answer your question halister,anything longer than 20 minutes gives chill haze at fridge time. But I wouldn't call it dangerous. It will settle out in the bottles at fridge time. Just takes longer for them to cold condition. In other words,clear up again after initial chill,& get the co2 well into solution.
That said,the shorter the wort chill time,the less chill haze at fridge time. Not to mention the more cold break with shorter times,which is a good thing.

 

[halister]

That makes sense...
I wish we had a real winter. I could just throw the lid on and stuff it in a snow bank ha ha
I have an old ice cream maker with a large ice bucket with the ropes...Thanks for jogging the old bean.

 

[unionrdr]

No problem man. We all need to get our thinkin right once in a while. now if this dang wind storm would quit playin hell with this site. Oh great,now lightning & thunder. Zeus & Thor must be at it again!...

 

[AdamPag]

the night before I bag the ice from both of my fridges (the both have ice makes FTW!!) and about 24 hours later the icemakers have replenished themselves so I have plenty of ice.

I go from flame off into the sink which is about half full of cold water with some ice already in it PLUS SALT!!!!! Remember, Salt is going to increase the heat transfer ability of ice water actually making it colder!!

I continually add ice into the bath stirring BOTH the bath AND the wort, Ive found that a slow stir the whole time releases a huge amount of heat fast as just leaving it in the bath is only cooling the sides and the bottom, not the center, so you need to move the wort to release the heat.

It takes me 15-20 mins to cool to approx 65* the additional 2gals added to the fermentor are similiar or slightly colder in temperature. I prefer to pitch a little colder than 68-70* just to be on the safer side.

 

[DMartin]

This is my first ever kit so I'm using the lame excuse that's what the directions said. I will up it for next time. Now I have a brand new turkey fryer so would a full boil be better even though it's a kit?

I was told by more than few that here in buffalo has surprisingly good water so I didn't boil. Being so close to the fresh water lakes I'm sure has something to do with it..

You are ok with just a 3gal boil, until you get a really good cooling process worked out. I moved up to full boils at the same time I got my wort chiller.

(don't tell anyone, but I used to chill by putting a lid on the pot and sticking it in the freezer for 4 hours. It worked out ok!)

 

[halister]

Oh never thought about the salt. I'm going to stick withe 2 gallons for now. A buddy gave some old plate chillers. Ideas on how to use them as a wort chiller?

 

[Calichusetts]

Salt! Why didn't I think of that...great call...though i'm rocking out 1-gallon batches so ice-bath chilling has never been an issue for me

 

[unionrdr]

I've thought about trying the salt thing myself,since my daughter's ice cream maker used salt on the ice surrounding the ice cream bin to make it freeze faster.
What I do now is put the BK in the sink,Then fill the empty space with ice,then top off with cold water. Usuallt chills down to 67-70F in 20 minutes.

 

[BobC]

I'm currently in Singapore. I have a wort chiller but the water here is warm so the best I can do is chill it down to about 90. I then let it sit overnight under the air conditioner, with an airlock, till the next day. by then it's at the proper temperature to pitch the yeast. No problems with the beer and it tastes great. There is no time limit to adding yeast to wort. You just have to get the temp down on your wort to stop any chemical changes in the sugars caused by heat.

 

[unionrdr]

Chilling it down in 20 minutes or less also reduces/eliminates chill haze at fridge time.

 

[halister]

I think I'm just going to get 8 feet of copper and make one. Besides I will need it if I go full boil which I want to.
I've read about hop reduction and placing malt extract in at different times?

 

[unionrdr]

Not sure what you mean by hop reduction? But late extract additions are getting more common. I do it all the time. I usually use 3lb bags of plain Dme in my recipes with an LME can. Half the DME (1.5lbs) goes into the partial boil for hop additions. At flame out,I add the remaining half of the DME & all the LME. Hop utilization is good,& color lighter,flavors cleaner.

 

[lemmiwinks]

I think I'm just going to get 8 feet of copper and make one. Besides I will need it if I go full boil which I want to.
I've read about hop reduction and placing malt extract in at different times?

May want to go to 25' of the soft copper.
I built an IC myself a few weeks ago and 25' was the perfect amount to be coiled and have the spouts clear the top of my 5 gallon kettle.

 

[whis121surfing]

I agree, I have a 25ft and a 50ft copper wort chiller and the 25 just does the trick on a full boil but the 50ft takes care of it no problem. I live in FL and it is tough to get the water from the hose to cool my wort down below 70 so I will start out with just the tap water running through the wort chiller in the kettle then once the temp starts to drop slower, around 90, I use the other chiller as a prechiller in a bucket of ice and water. It gets me to whatever temp I want. :rockin:

 

[halister]

I meant 18 ha ha 8 wouldn't get me far. Yeah 25 I should go for the few extra bucks.

 

[lemmiwinks]

I meant 18 ha ha 8 wouldn't get me far. Yeah 25 I should go for the few extra bucks.

Got mine at HD.
It was $18, IIRC for 25' already coiled in a box.
Should be on the shelf near the copper piping for plumbing.

If you don't have one, a pipebender makes the job real easy. They should have a set of 4 different sizes in the general area for about $10.

 

[lemmiwinks]

I agree, I have a 25ft and a 50ft copper wort chiller and the 25 just does the trick on a full boil but the 50ft takes care of it no problem. I live in FL and it is tough to get the water from the hose to cool my wort down below 70 so I will start out with just the tap water running through the wort chiller in the kettle then once the temp starts to drop slower, around 90, I use the other chiller as a prechiller in a bucket of ice and water. It gets me to whatever temp I want. :rockin:

I'm still rollin' stovetop and my 25' got a 4 gallon boil to 70° in about 15 minutes.
Probably wait till spring to bust out the turkey fryer and brew outside and then I'll see how well my garden hose does the job.

 

[halister]

Even if it's little small still has to do a better job than ice in a sink.

 

[unionrdr]

speaking of ice in a sink,here's a duh moment for me. I was filling the sink with water,then adding ice. It took an average of 40 minutes to get down to pitch temp. by reversing that paradigm,& filling to the top with ice,then topping off with water,I get it down to pitch temp in 20 minutes. Wort chillers are at the mercy of the water temp at any given time of year. winter easy,summer not so easy.

 

[halister]

Well this is the newb section

 

[Esmitee]

Hia, I would boil n pre freeze my top off water before brew day.

This is how i did it;

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/wort-cooling-ice-262909/#post3175283

Try it, ya mite like it ........

 

[mux]

Hia, I would boil n pre freeze my top off water before brew day.

This is how i did it;

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/wort-cooling-ice-262909/#post3175283

Try it, ya mite like it ........

That's a good idea.

 

[iron_city_ap]

That makes sense...
I wish we had a real winter. I could just throw the lid on and stuff it in a snow bank ha ha
I have an old ice cream maker with a large ice bucket with the ropes...Thanks for jogging the old bean.

Don't stick it in a snow bank !!!! It will work for a few minutes, but the snow closest to the pot will melt then refreeze and actually insulate the pot. Think igloos. Salt in an ice bath works great if you don't have a wort chiller.

 

[Esmitee]

That's a good idea.

Yes it is. But the best thing is, It works very well if your not doing Full Boils and don't have an IC ! It's easy too

 

[JeffoC6]

Sorry if this has already been posted in this thread, but for those of us without any wort cooling equipment other than an ice and cold water bath, did you know that adding salt to ice lowers the freezing temperature, and actually increases the "coldness" of the ice? I plan on doing my next ice bath with a bunch of salt, and I think that should cool my wort faster. Just a head's up to all ya'll

 

[unionrdr]

It's the same priciple as salt on the ice surrounding the ice cream frezzer's aluminum pale. Makes it colder. I'm gunna try that this weekend to time how fast it works.

 

[JeffoC6]

It's the same priciple as salt on the ice surrounding the ice cream frezzer's aluminum pale. Makes it colder. I'm gunna try that this weekend to time how fast it works.

Yep. I'm trying it too. Last week it took me 10 minutes with just a sink full of water, ice packs, and ice. I'm going to do the same thing, but add a bunch of salt. See how much faster it is.

 

[unionrdr]

Then we can report back here with the findings. Good stuff to pass on,potentially.

 

[SwivelHips]

The snowbank method takes FAR longer than you might think...2.5 hrs in -20 temps for less than 5 gallons, in my experience. What can I do to minimize chill haze later?

 

[Tiredboy]

I actually need to cool to below ambient temperature (85F) to reach a good yeast pitching temperature. I realised on my brew last weekend a way round the problem. The cheapest way to buy bottled water ifor me s a 5 gallon watercoller bottle. I poured what I needed in my brew pot to make the wort, then placed the bottle containing the remainder in the chest freezer at 60 degrees. When the boil was done, I cooled it down as much as possible in a water/ice bath then put wort in fermenting bucket with water from freezer (conveniently total volume was close to 5 gallons now - not as close as it should be but close enough for me). It was still a bit warm (low 80s) so I put it back in the freezer for a bit before pitching. All in all I managed to get 5 gallons of bottled water for a good price and found a way to cool my wort quickly.

My next job is to work out what bung I need so I can use the water bottle as a primary fermentor once before returning it to the store for a replacement!

 

[unionrdr]

The snowbank method takes FAR longer than you might think...2.5 hrs in -20 temps for less than 5 gallons, in my experience. What can I do to minimize chill haze later?

to minimize or eliminate chill haze at fridge time,you need to get the wort chill down to pitch temp in 20 minutes or less. Last time,I filled the empty space around the BK to the top of the sink with ice,then topped off with cold water. Stirred wort occasionally,with floating thermometer in the wort. Just don't try to stir with it! It chilled to 70F in 20 minutes flat. I'm thinking the salt addition to the ice may cut that time significantly.

 

[halister]

Hmmmm it's 20 deg and I have made ice cream in them. I'm going to boil some water and see how long it takes just to fill my curiosity..