Cooling wort..

[bgrayson726]

I heard that if you cool your wort in an ice bath with the lid on, you will get tannins. I have also heard that you MUST cool the wort with the lid on to prevent infections. Which one is true?

Also if I have a glass lid (instead of stainless steel), would it prevent me from getting tannins?

 

[Arneba28]

The lid doesnt help or hurt anything with tannins, glass or plastic or nothing. Tannins are either present or not. And if your not using a wort chiller and just doing an ice bath you should probably put the lid on so its not exposed for super long. just dont snap the lid down or put anything in the airlock. as your brew cools it will start to suck back pressure on the airlock.

 

[bgrayson726]

Well I'm not using an airlock for my next batch. I'm using a blow-off tube into a growler of sanitized water.

As far as tannins go, what makes them present (or not)?

 

[Captain Damage]

Under certain conditions, such as high temperature and low pH, tannins can be extracted from the grain hulls. If you're boiling your grain you can pull tannins out - that's why we don't boil grain. There are some myths about tannin that have proven to be false; under normal brewing conditions it's not that easy to get an objectionable quantity of tannin. You will not extract tannins by squeezing your grain steeping bag or mash bag. And as Arneba28 says, keeping the lid on or off has nothing to do with tannin.

FWIW, I chill my partial mashes in an ice bath. I clamp the lid on the kettle with binder clips. I've got my thermometer probe in the kettle, and I spin the kettle in the ice bath periodically until I get to pitching temp - usually in less than 15 minutes.

 

[Danbreeze]

When I cool my wort in an ice bath I usually leave the lid off for the first 3-5 min and stir the wort while it is chilling in the ice bath. Then I put the lid on for the rest of the time since it is more prone to bacteria closer to yeast pitching temps.