Benefits of a Wort chiller?

[wolfgre]

I know that you need to chill the wort as fast as possible and the best tool to acomplish this task is a wort chiller. Other than the time what is the purpose of chilling the wort so fast. If you chill the wort fast does this result in a better tasting beer?

 

[HoppyMaltPoet]

It helps to settle the haze producing proteins in the wort. This helps clarify your beer.

 

[HoppyMaltPoet]

I think it also helps to maintain late addition hop aroma and flavor.

 

[doulovebeef]

chilling the wort fast results in a better cold break. proteins coagulate and sink to the bottom so you get clearer beer. Theres a debate going on about people who chill and those who dont about flavor, but chilling allows you to pitch your yeast sooner, so infection doesnt set in.

 

[XxonValdez]

Two main reasons, the first is to get your wort down to pitching temp as fast as possible to prevent any nastiness in the air a chance to infect it, and give the yeast as much of a head start as possible over them. The second is to get a cold break, as much as you denature unwanted proteins in the wort with heat, if you cool it down to slowly the proteins have the potential to "renature or refold" if you cool it down rapidly the more likely the majority of the protein will crash out or precipitate out creating the "cold break." The wort chiller is one tool used to accomplish this, but search around the site many have found other ways to rapidly cool their wort.

 

[tagz]

+1 on the reasons above.

That said, you can cool down wort pretty quickly by doing an icebath, and stirring the ice and wort simultaneously. The WC makes the process quick and painless.

 

[billc68]

is it possible to chill too fast?

I was looking at building a counter flow wort chiller, most are 15ft, what if I went 20-25 ft?

 

[XxonValdez]

is it possible to chill too fast?

I was looking at building a counter flow wort chiller, most are 15ft, what if I went 20-25 ft?

I don't think so, what can happen is you may miss your pitching temp, if the wort is to cold when you pitch it can stall the yeast and delay fermentation, leaving you at risk for infection (if sanitation isn't great that is).

 

[MRT888]

never heard of chilling too fast- some people say you can dump Ice in to achieve the right volumes but bacteria/dirty ice was the major concern for that- never heard anyone ever mention that it'd cool it too quickly

 

[wolfgre]

so chilling faster will result in a better taste or is this still up for debate?

 

[XxonValdez]

so chilling faster will result in a better taste or is this still up for debate?

up for debate, big time haha.

 

[wolfgre]

personaly i dont care how the beer looks as long as it tastes great!

 

[billc68]

I am going to make a longer one then... I can always reduce the flow for ales and increase for lagers.

 

[wolfgre]

so ales are supposed to chill slower?

 

[JJL]

is it possible to chill too fast?

I was looking at building a counter flow wort chiller, most are 15ft, what if I went 20-25 ft?

My chiller is either 20' or 25'. Never had an issue. It takes about 10-15 mins to chill 5 gals from boiling to pitch temps for ales.

 

[daugenet]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/no-chill-beer-chill-haze-ugh-127407/

i dont think chill haze is as big of a deal as people make it out to be. You can do about anything

 

[MRT888]

so ales are supposed to chill slower?

Lagers would presumably have a lower pitching temp so less need to make sure you dont over chill and overshoot your pitching temp.

I havent heard of that as a legit problem though, I think wort chillers (immersion especially) generally work slow enough to leave plenty of a time window to stop a little above pitching temp

 

[Hang Glider]

Wort Chillers are for getting the wort down to yeast-pitching temps - 62-65F -
You can let the wort sit there and cool for 24 hours if you want to - but that's no fun. You can sit the boil pot in a tub of ice water - that works too. The whole point is to bring your beer to the right temperature for fermentation - based on your yeast specifications.

Chill haze and other byproducts of a slower cooling period are still up for debate, but as a new brewer, don't worry about that stuff.

Worry about "How do I cool this mass of hot wort so I can add the yeast?"

 

[Got Trub?]

One issue not yet mentioned is the problem of DMS from pilsner malts. This produces a "canned corn" off flavour. Two ways to reduce the amount of DMS are to boil at least 90 minutes to drive off most of the DMS and to cool as quickly as possible below 140F at which point DMS production is minimal. The latter necessitates using a wort chiller.

GT

 

[billc68]

One issue not yet mentioned is the problem of DMS from pilsner malts. This produces a "canned corn" off flavour. Two ways to reduce the amount of DMS are to boil at least 90 minutes to drive off most of the DMS and to cool as quickly as possible below 140F at which point DMS production is minimal. The latter necessitates using a wort chiller.

GT

I have a pilsner like that now. I am so building a counter flow chiller...

Will time help by any chance?

 

[Got Trub?]

I have a pilsner like that now. I am so building a counter flow chiller...

Will time help by any chance?

It should if you warm the beer up to the 60's. Think of it as a delayed D-rest.

GT