Cooling the Wort

[apcoach]

I've brewed two batches so far. In the first one I boiled three gallons then cooled the wort by pouring it over two gallons of spring water that was frozen. On the second batch I boiled 5 gallons and used an immersion chiller of my neighbors but it leaked close to a gallon of water into the wort. I know that the immersion chiller, if fixed is the best option, but how effective is placing the kettle into an ice bath? I would think it would cool quickly enough. Am I wrong on that?

 

[Sambecker1]

I fill up one of those round beer/keg plastic containers about 1/4 of way with water and then load with ice. Place brew kettle in that and I'm down to about 75 deg in 20 min. I'll rotate the kettle around to recirculate cold water and stir wort every few minutes. This is my method until I build brewstand. Works for me.

 

[Shaneoco1981]

You can always build a counter flow chiller. I use it, coupled with an immersion chiller that the water goes through in an ice bath. It cools the wort to 60 in about 5 minutes, if even that long.

 

[BlackSheep92]

Just finished my first batch and was surprised at how fast and efficient the ice bath was

 

[kevinb]

I use the ice batch method in the sink. It works great for me.

 

[apcoach]

When using the ice bath method, is it necessary to cover the wort?

 

[cullen]

Yes, you should cover the wort while chilling if possible.

Before I knew any better, I would add the hot wort to cold tap water. If it wasn't down to pitching temperature, I'd let it sit several hours (covered) before pitching the yeast. In the winter it would usually get down below 80 immediately and I'd go ahead and pitch.

I worked this way for maybe, what, 25 batches of beer. And it worked fine - the beer came out great.

Now I use a water/ice bath to cool my hot wort. I add it to the remaining cold top off water. The temperature ends up somewhere around 70 degrees, so I pitch immediately. And that works great as well.

I understand there are those who do a "no chill" method - after a full boil the hot wort is put in a sealed container and allowed to cool over hours or days. I'm told that works great as well.

Rapid cooling is much more important for all grain brewing, as I understand it.

 

[CAUK]

When using the ice bath method, is it necessary to cover the wort?

Actually, I've read that covering hot wort causes condensation on the lid of your brew kettle, which contains fruity-smelling esters that fall back into your wort. I'm not a fan of banana-beer, so I leave my brew kettle uncovered in an ice bath, which cools in under 20 minutes. When I used to chill with the lid on, the ice bath took upwards of 40 minutes to chill.

 

[MMJfan]

I've brewed 3 batches and for the first 2, I did an ice bath in the sink which worked but it was kind of tight with my 7 gallon brew kettle. Then I forgot that I still had one of those round plastic keg containers that I found in my basement so I used that for my 3rd batch and it worked beautifully!

Oh, and I found the wort cools much faster with the lid off...

 

[jmprdood]

I've been doing the ice bath method for a long time and like it. I first fill the sink with cold water and stir the wort, it'll give off a lot of heat to the plain water usually down to about 100F. I then drain and fill again and this time add the ice - works well for me.

Cheers!

 

[cullen]

I'll rethink the lid. I've left it on in the interest of preventing stuff from falling into the wort, and figured that most of the esters came out in steam during the boil. However, it does make sense that taking the lid off will speed up cooling.

 

[BlackSheep92]

No need to cover, you'll want to stir the worth to ensure cooling, may have to add additional ice to the bath, NOT the wort...

I'm thinking of starting a thread about lessons I've learned with every batch so far that might help out and answer questions for any other beginner brewer that had the same questions/issues that I had.