Chilling wort help needed

[Iceman6409]

So. I live in Rochester NY. It has been, as I am sure it has benn for much of the country, a very warm summer so far. I have always used a homemade wort chiller to chill down the wort to 70 and then pitch yeast. During these brutal hot summer months I don't I can get down to 70 as the ground is hot which causes the water to warm up a bit, I'm thinking I might be able to get down to 80 give or take. Is 80ish ok to pitch yeast? If not what other methods could I employ? I thought about an ice bath but I do now have any container to hold a carbpy nor do I have any way of producing mass ice and would prefer not to purchase either for one or two batches of beer. I do have access to a small chest freezer with a temperature thingy in there where I can choose what temperature I want the freezer at. And yes it will set up to room temperature if I want it to. Any ideas? Thoughts? I'm kind of hoping pitching at 80 is viable but I am curious to your thoughts.

 

[Rodent]

you want to pitch at, or slightly below, initial fermentation temp

I chill my wort with an immersion chiller, then rack to a carboy. the carboy sits in my temp controlled cooler until it stabilizes at fermentation temp, and then I pitch yeast. it typically takes 2-3 hours to stabilize in the cooler

 

[LittleRiver]

You can put it in your temp controlled chest freezer to do the last bit of cooling.

Another option for final cooling is to recirculate ice water through your immersion chiller. You'd need a cooler full of ice & water, and a water transfer pump. That's what I do, and it works great. I do my initial cooling by recirculating from a 5gal bucket of tap water, and save the resulting hot water for post-brew cleanup.

 

[wepeeler]

You can put it in your temp controlled chest freezer to do the last bit of cooling.

Another option for final cooling is to recirculate ice water through your immersion chiller. You'd need a cooler full of ice & water, and a water transfer pump. That's what I do, and it works great. I do my initial cooling by recirculating from a 5gal bucket of tap water, and save the resulting hot water for post-brew cleanup.

+1

Exactly what I do. I can cool to 90-100F with just tap water in about 10-15 minutes. Then drop ice in a cooler full of water and recirculate using a pond pump. From boiling to under 70F in 25-30 minutes.

 

[jtratcliff]

Plastic party tub? around $7-8.... Frozen water bottles for ice?

 

[wepeeler]

Plastic party tub? around $7-8.... Frozen water bottles for ice?

I've tried that, and it doesn't work well. The ice melts quickly inside the bottle, and then the ice isn't in contact with the water inside the tub. I thought it was a good idea too, until it wasn't.

 

[El Nino]

I use the wort chiller to get it to around 90 degrees (hawaii basically has 70-75 degree tap water year round), then ice bath it for 90 mins using 3 frozen gallon water jugs in the sink. Gets it to around 65 degrees, and during those 90 mins I just take care of other things around the house or just watch a movie.

Why would you need another container to give it an ice bath? I just cover the kettle and put it in the sink with the water / frozen jugs.

Before, I used to not do the ice bath and put it in the chest freezer, but that wasn't good if i already had a batch fermenting (would chill the other vessel to the 50s range lol). And it also took 3-4 hours to get to pitching temp, faster to use the sink.

 

[jtratcliff]

I've tried that, and it doesn't work well.

hmmm... Works decently for me.... I have small basement that stays around 70F in the hot SoCal summers (supposed to be 102F today ) and I can keep a fermenter around 65-66-ish (according to a stick-on fermometer) during active fermentation. I do drape it with a towel hanging in the water to wick up and evaporate. And I change out water bottles 2-3 times per day for the first 3-4 days.

The melting ice shouldn't be the issue, though. The ice is still in contact with the melt water inside the bottle, which will be 32F, and that water is in contact with the plastic bottle, so heat will still be transferred. I mean, sure not as efficiently as if the ice were directly in the tub, but you should still get some cooling action even as the ice melts in the bottle.

I do let it "overnight no/slow- chill" to ambient 70ish F before putting in the swamp cooler, though. So maybe that's difference. I'm not trying to bring it down from 80 or 90 F to pitching temps... Just from 70 to 65F.

 

[wepeeler]

hmmm... Works decently for me.... I have small basement that stays around 70F in the hot SoCal summers (supposed to be 102F today ) and I can keep a fermenter around 65-66-ish (according to a stick-on fermometer) during active fermentation. I do drape it with a towel hanging in the water to wick up and evaporate. And I change out water bottles 2-3 times per day for the first 3-4 days.

The melting ice shouldn't be the issue, though. The ice is still in contact with the melt water inside the bottle, which will be 32F, and that water is in contact with the plastic bottle, so heat will still be transferred. I mean, sure not as efficiently as if the ice were directly in the tub, but you should still get some cooling action even as the ice melts in the bottle.

I do let it "overnight no/slow- chill" to ambient 70ish F before putting in the swamp cooler, though. So maybe that's difference. I'm not trying to bring it down from 80 or 90 F to pitching temps... Just from 70 to 65F.

I was talking about chilling to pitching temps, not holding fermentation temp. The OP was having issues chilling his wort, not holding ferm temp. Hope that clears it up.