Cool wort in stock pot or primary?

[mrgstiffler]

I've seen people doing different things here. I'd imagine there's no difference. It seems that cooling the wort before you strained it into the primary would make life easier by preventing hot splashes. The only downside I can see to cooling in the stock pot is there could be some burned extract on the bottom of the pot.

 

[woollybugger2]

generally your bucket isn't designed for high temperatures, and a glass carboy will shatter!

cool the wort in your pot....besides metal conducts heat better than plastic...

put it in an ice bath in the sink

 

[ArcaneXor]

Pouring hot wort into a glass carboy can cause it to crack. If you have a Better Bottle, it would melt. Not sure how temperature-resistant buckets are, but I wouldn't pour boiling-hot wort in there.

I believe cooling in the pot is standard procedure for the vast majority of homebrewers, either in an icebath, by direct addition of ice made from pre-boiled water, or using some sort of wort chiller.

 

[shawnbou]

Cooling in the pot is also easier for those of us who have big primary fermenters and small sinks. Also, 1-2 gallons of boiled wort in the pot (for those of us who do partial boils) cools much faster than an entire 5-6 gallons of boiled wort and top-off water.

I've heard that cheaper aluminum pots might warp if you take them from hot burner to cold sink too fast, but I use plain old stainless steel and have had no problems.

 

[The Pol]

Ale Pails are HDPE, they can handle boiling wort with no problem. OR, you could use an HDPE fermentor.

Glass will shatter
Better Bottles will melt

HDPE will hold boiling wort with no issue at all.

 

[mrgstiffler]

Sounds good. I will use my pot for my next batch. That will make things a lot easier for me.

 

[cvstrat]

I'm guessing you don't have an immersion chiller. If that's the case use the pot, put it in salt-ice-water and wait for it to cool. I would imagine it would take a few years to cool simply sitting in the carboy, and if you use glass and put hot wort in the carboy, and chill that, it might break.

 

[mrgstiffler]

I'm guessing you don't have an immersion chiller. If that's the case use the pot, put it in salt-ice-water and wait for it to cool. I would imagine it would take a few years to cool simply sitting in the carboy, and if you use glass and put hot wort in the carboy, and chill that, it might break.

For my first batch I strained the wort into my primary (White bucket), which had 2 gallons of solid ice in it, and put that in an ice bath. Was nice because it only took 10 minutes to get below 80F. But sucked when I splashed myself with boiling hot water. I might make an immersion chiller in the next month or two. Would be a fun project.

 

[Arkador]

+1 for chilling in the pot

 

[Zenman]

+1 for chilling in pot as well. To speed it up in my kiechen we put 2 empty pots in an ice bath on each side of the split kitchen sink. We then pour the partial boil into each pot (wife and i coordinate with big old oven mitts to be burn free). We do salt the ice and fill with tap water. Average time to 70 degrees is about 18 minutes, we then pour each cooled wort pot through a cheese cloth in a spaghetti strainer to remove as much trub as possible. Keep in mind I am doing 2 gallon partial boils, the other 3 gal is in the fermentor already at room temp. I wouldn't recommend this with any larger volume of boil due to burn dangers.

 

[ajf]

generally your bucket isn't designed for high temperatures, and a glass carboy will shatter!

Glass will shatter
HDPE will hold boiling wort with no issue at all.

Sorry to disappoint you both, but a glass carboy will not necessarily shatter.
Don't ask how I know this, and don't try it just to prove me wrong.

-a.

 

[HoppyDaze]

+1 for chilling and pot

 

[dec]

Was thinking about this the other day. I happen to have a dorm room fridge at work that I don't really use anymore. I was thinking about taking it home and incorporating it into my brewing.

I don't have a wort chiller currently but what if I sanitized the inside of my fridge and after boiling transfered the wort into a pot with sanitized ice water and placed both in the dorm fridge with the wort lid off.

 

[mrgstiffler]

Was thinking about this the other day. I happen to have a dorm room fridge at work that I don't really use anymore. I was thinking about taking it home and incorporating it into my brewing.

I don't have a wort chiller currently but what if I sanitized the inside of my fridge and after boiling transfered the wort into a pot with sanitized ice water and placed both in the dorm fridge with the wort lid off.

If you do that too much, you're going to burn out the little fridge, and it really wont work all that well. A fridge is made to keep things cold, not cool them.

 

[The Pol]

Was thinking about this the other day. I happen to have a dorm room fridge at work that I don't really use anymore. I was thinking about taking it home and incorporating it into my brewing.

I don't have a wort chiller currently but what if I sanitized the inside of my fridge and after boiling transfered the wort into a pot with sanitized ice water and placed both in the dorm fridge with the wort lid off.

You are a perfect candidate for NO CHILL brewing. Get a 6 gallon HDPE container from USPlastics and just let it cool in ambient air.

 

[Vuarra]

I do partial boils as well, but I use three methods of cooling... metal pot in cold water bath in kitchen sink, with a few cups of frozen store-bought water (my water is so high in iron that the toilet looks rusty) straight from the freezer to the wort, and I chill the water I use to top up the wort to as cold as I can.

 

[eelpout]

I've seen people doing different things here. I'd imagine there's no difference.

But if you cool in the pot you can keep alot of the gunk (forgot name) out that settles to the bottom when you chill it

 

[The Pol]

But if you cool in the pot you can keep alot of the gunk (forgot name) out that settles to the bottom when you chill it

Trub and break material. The thing is, it doesnt hurt to keep it in ,and yeast use trub as nutrient.

 

[BillyVegas]

You are a perfect candidate for NO CHILL brewing. Get a 6 gallon HDPE container from USPlastics and just let it cool in ambient air.

Now, I've thought about the no chill cooling process and read somewheres that was a bad idea... something about when the work hits a certain temp and enters the... I don't remember... say the 170-100f range... undesirable taste compounds are more susceptible to forming....

Please tell me thats bunk, and you've made great beer doing a NO CHILL method... cause to me that would be great... as the bath full of ice and salt seems like a PITA...

 

[MMW]

Please tell me thats bunk, and you've made great beer doing a NO CHILL method... cause to me that would be great... as the bath full of ice and salt seems like a PITA...

There's a big old thread around here about just that. I'm going to try it as soon as I can get my hands on a suitable container.

 

[timmystank]

Does nobody use there bath tub. I sure as hell dont use it to takes baths. As far as Im concerned it was built for cooling wort. A little ice in it, whirlpool in and around the pot and your cooled in 20 mikes or less.

 

[khiddy]

Bathtub is good, but uses a lot of water, and not everyone has a tub. An immersion chiller is super simple to make. About $30 worth of materials at Lowe's, and you're all set. It takes about 20 minutes to make, and you'll get to 80* in about 20 minutes.

I ramped it up a notch by purchasing a submersible fountain pump at Harbor Freight, to which I attached some hose, and now I recirculate the water from a bucket full of icewater through my immersion chiller. I went from using 30+ gallons of water to chill the wort down to using 3 gallons + ice. It's the "green" way to chill out!