Wort cooling

Hi all, currently i am still planning my first brew and in the getting equipment stage. Ive decided to go light to start with to save money and see how a few small batches (1gallon) go. So i will just use a large pot that i already have and do BIAB.

My question is, when chilling the wort to pitch the yeast, how long is "ok" to leave it cooling? I was going to try and save on buying a wort chiller so am wondering, can i start my brew with 1gallon of water, and then at the end when the wort is transferred to the fermentor, can i make up for the boiled off water by putting ice in the fermentor? this would definately cool the wort faster.. but i dont know if thats ok or not?

 

When I did my first brew I added ice at the end to cool it...I haven't done it since and I really wouldn't recommend it unless you know the ice is from water that is completely clean. You don't want to add anything when the wort is cooled that can cause your beer to become infected.

In your case I would just put some ice in the sink with water and put your pot in the ice bath and swirl it around. This should cool a gallon off very quickly.

 

Ok, thanks for your reply.. I was thinking of Ice that i made myself from spring water (the same id use for making the wort) and first sanitizing the ice trays

 

Rule of thumb is, sooner the better for pitching yeast.

I would not recommend adding ice to the fermenter. Ice itself is can be a little "weird" tasting, wouldn't want that to go into my beer.

Myself, I would top of the 1 gal boil with 4 + gal of bottled water in the fermenter and perhaps use and ice bath.

It has been a very long time since I did my first batch but if I remember correctly, I just let it sit until it came to pitching temp. No internet in those days, would have been great to have HBT back then.....

 

Thanks for your reply, quick question.. you mention topping off my 1gallon of wort with 4gallons of water, so in essence creating a 5gallon batch from only actually "cooking" 1 gallon? SO i have to assume that the initial 1gallon batch i would do by using the ingredients total for a 5gallon batch otherwise the end result will be a very watered down beer correct?

 

If your intent is to get started in brewing, consider your first experience(s) as the means for establishing good habits. The key one in this case being, once the kettle is off the stove and you're cooling, it's sanitary time. Nothing goes in that's not sterile or sanitized. Spoons and thermometers, but only after dipping them in Star-San. No ice.

Back when I did partial boils I was cooling about 2.5 gallons by filling the sink full of ice and putting the pot down in it. Took about 30 minutes of stirring and a whole bag of ice, but when you're on a budget it's pretty much your best option. For 1 gallon, should be a lot easier.

If you need to replace the boil-off, just add distilled water after cooling. You can even chill it beforehand so you can drop the wort a few degrees further.

 

I'm only 4 batches deep but I used an ice bath for each one and it cools fairly quickly. You can purchase 3-4 bags of ice or if you have an ice maker on your fridge, start emptying that into bags to save for the big day. I got a big tub with rope handles from Walmart for a decent price.

My last batch I used less ice but kept 3 new gallons cold in the fridge and used that to help cool the wort when stirring in the ice bath. Boiled 3 gallons and added what was needed to get to a little over 5 gal

 

If you are starting out as a small batch brewer only doing 1 gallon batches there would be no top off water used if you are doing BIAB. Since your finished volume is basically 1-1.5 gallons, simply place the pot in an ice bath in the sink and it will chill down pretty quick with that small a volume

 

No way you can have a one gallon boil, add 4 gallons of water and still have beer. to get a 1.050 OG your gallon of boiled wort would have to have an OG of 1.250.

There are many people doing no chill, just putting a lid on it after the boil and waiting till morning when it will have cooled down to pitching temp.

But if you want to get it done and get cleaned up then the ice bath is the cheap and easy way, especially for small batches such as a gallon.

 

What you can do is get bottle water (2-3 gallon) jugs and put in the freezer once you start brewing, by the end of your boil, it should be super cold but not frozen.... This is what I did for my first brew. Poured that in to make up my boil off/trub loss difference and cooled my wort super fast.

 

Thanks for all the great replies guys!! some very useful information for me!

Im not totally on a budget i just thought i should probably not spend too much first before i know i can actually brew a drinkable beer.. the wort chiller isnt that expensive here anyways so maybe i should just go for it.. cause, id like to start with a few small batches but may also do a couple larger also

 

Thats what I do on small batches, and it works great. Actually, I put the pot in a cooler full of ice water. Swirl the pot with a sanitized spoon and separately swirl the icewater. It cools nice and fast.

 

Good to know, i will definately do this with my first brew when i get around to it.

 

Another thing, as where i live it will be difficult keeping the beer between 18-24 degrees whilst fermenting, in another thread someone mentioned putting the fermentor in a bucket of water and have some bottles of water frozen and keep changing them to keep the beer cold.. just how easy is doing that? I imagine that fluctuating temperature is also bad for the beer whilst fermenting, so how can i control that with the bottles of iced water when sleeping or out at work for example?

 

Its called a swamp cooler and it is quite effective, usually have to swap the frozen bottles twice per day, you can do a search, there are countless threads on this subject

 

cept that is how I did my first batch, I had a very small kettle for the extract. It was drinkable, well, who doesn't drink their first batch.
Salute!

 

Thanks again for the replies.. on a side note, es anyone know of a digital thermometer type device that i can say put in the place where i am thinking of leaving my fermentor and able to leave the thermometer there for say a week and actually be able to see some kind of output showing me the highs and lows in temperature over the specific time? Computer based reporting would be great.. I ask the question because i cant think of what to call this device when trying to search

 

I was not thinking extract. I stand corrected. You could do a 5 gal batch with a gallon boil by making a 1.050 or so wort with extract, boil it with hops, then add the remainder of the extract when you put the hot boiled wort into the fermenter.