Why can't we just ferment right in the boil pot?

[Ike]

DEFINITELY one for the beginner's forum, because I'm sure there's a painfully obvious answer, it's just escaping me.

I've been reading up on "how to improve" my process and was quite surprised by the number of people who say full boil batches are a big improvement over partial boils, even for extract brewing. I was just thinking to myself how awesome this was since WAY back in the beginning I'd made the investment in an 11gal SS pot for brew day. The only issue for me is that I tend to use a glass 6.5 gal carboy for primary, so I'll need to pick up a wort chiller (or buy a LOT more ice) to get the wort cooled. But...

How come we can't buy some flat teflon gasket material or something similar, apply it to the lid on our boil pots, clamp that sucker down or even just weigh it down, and ferment right in there? So many folks are drooling over SS fermenters, why not just use the pot? I'd have to drill a slightly larger hole to accomodate an airlock or blowoff, but no problem there.

ETA: thinking about it more, head space would be an issue, no?

Again, it's too easy, I know. If there wasn't a reason it wouldn't work, we'd all be doing it. I'm just overlooking it.

Thanks!

Ike

 

[flars]

You can do it. Head space would be one of the considerations. Wouldn't work for me though. I often have three fermentors going at the same time, and only have one boil kettle.

 

[1977Brewer]

You can do it. Head space would be one of the considerations. Wouldn't work for me though. I often have three fermentors going at the same time, and only have one boil kettle.

Exactly. Fermenters are cheap, kettles cost real money.

 

[paperairplane]

Here's your simplest brew session:

BIAB, No chill, Ferment in Brew kettle.

The only real issue, as mentioned above, is you tie up your pot. But could always rack to a carboy after a week to let it finish.

It's been done, it works.

 

[1977Brewer]

Here's your simplest brew session:



BIAB, No chill, Ferment in Brew kettle.



The only real issue, as mentioned above, is you tie up your pot. But could always rack to a carboy after a week to let it finish.



It's been done, it works.

Hmm. My kettle is aluminum. I'm thinking the low pH of the fermenting beer would pit it to heck.

 

[Ski12568]

This may help you out

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f258/diy-stainless-steel-fermenters-490055/

 

[Ike]

INTERESTING! I agree that it will tie up the pot, but at the rate I drink my beer (and the fact that I'm the only one in the house doing so), it may be interesting to try it for a batch once in a while.

Thanks again to all!

 

[Ike]

This may help you out

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f258/diy-stainless-steel-fermenters-490055/

Yeah! The tubing around the lip would be even easier than the teflon tape. Great thread! Bookmarked!

Ike

 

[Zepth]

It'll work. For a primary you can just set the lid on top and not worry about a gasket for a little while. Covered open fermentation if you will. Main problem that a lot of people would have with it (aside from the already mentioned using up the precious kettle) would be that all break material and hops are in the fermenter. Others wouldn't really couldn't care less.

I have a friend who admitted to fermenting in the kettle before, said there was no noticeable difference in the end product.

 

[madscientist451]

Sure you can ferment in your brew pot. But for a few more bucks you can get a plastic bucket and then your can get another brew started while your first one is finishing up. I siphon from my brew pot to the fermenter and the wort gets aerated in that process. But everyone has their own ways, so if that works for you, then go for it.
A word about wort chillers: A brewer in my brew club brought in some ale he made using "no chill". He let the brew pot sit in his garage overnight, transferred to fermenter next day (it was still warm)
let it sit some more, and pitched about 24 hrs after brewing.
The beer came out great.
I do a variation of this but use a washtub with water and frozen milk jugs and pitch the next morning. One advantage is I reserve 1-2 quarts
of wort, chill in an ice bath in the sink and make a starter with the beer's own wort, then pitch the whole starter the next day.
If you are in a hot climate this may not be a good method to try.

 

[azazel1024]

The perks of using a wort chiller are

1) Faster cooling.
2) Because of faster cooling, less chance of an infection
3) Cold break
4) lighter wort
5) Loss of hop aromatics
6) harder to aerate

Taking a long time to cool down can darken the wort some (how much, darned if I know, I know it is one of the things that can happen).

When you use a wort chiller, you can/do get cold break, which helps clear the beer (its the one BIGGEST thing I've done that has improved the clarity of my beer).

The longer the wort is hot, the more aromatics from hops (or from spices, fruit, etc.) get driven off/broken down.

It is harder to aerate, as hot wort won't hold oxygen in it, so you'd want to try to aerate once it has cooled down and before the yeast gets going/is pitched.

The worst is letting an infection take hold before the yeast has had a chance to start and begin producing alcohol as well as reducing the O2 levels in the wort (some bacteria need O2). The longer the wort sits there in an oxygenated environment, warm with no alcohol and all of that simple sugar, the more likely it is that it'll get infected.

That isn't to say you can't do it, but it does have draw backs.

I used to use simple sink cooling. Drop the pot (6 gallon) in my sink, sill it with water, let stand for 10 minutes, drain, fill repeat. For the final one I'd dump some ice packs in with the water. Overall took around 45 minutes and probably 20 gallons of water to cool my wort from boiling to 80F where upon I'd pitch my yeast and let ambient temp pull it down to proper fermentation temps.

With my simple immersion worth chiller, it takes about 10 minutes to go from a boil to 75F and maybe uses 12-15 gallons of water. Less loss of aromatics (I did notice a big difference in hop aromatics between the two cooling processes when I was doing a hop addition at flame out) and much better beer clarity.

It does obviously take more time than just covering it and letting it cool on its own though, but a lot faster than sink cooling.