Cooling Wort

[mikey_rog]

Hi all,

I am brand new to brewing beer (other than full wort kits). Just did my first extract brew yesterday with a recipe from The Joy of Home HomeBrewing (whiteys gone fishing pale ale). The recipe called to mix the hot wort with cold water in the fermenter and get down to 70 F to pitch yeast. I guess my water wasn't cold enough and the wort did not cool to the right temp for roughly 24 hours. Unfortunately I didn't have any sanitary ice on hand and had to leave for a wedding so couldn't take any further action.

Is my batch ruined with risk of bacteria growth or am I ok? I recognize I'll probably have a cloudy beer but I can live with that for a first batch as long as it won't make anyone sick!

Thanks all!

 

[SOB_OCDAVE]

Not ruined as long as your fermenter was properly sanitized and sealed during the 24 hour period. Go ahead and pitch your yeast and let it ferment. The only way to know if it has an infection is to taste a sample in a week or two. Cheers![emoji481]

 

[KRASHED]

I've 24hr chilled more worts than less than 24 hours due to not having the equipment to do so.

Wouldn't worry about ruining it. Mine have tasted as I expected them to without any noticeable off flavours

 

[mikey_rog]

Great! Thanks for expertise! Can't wait to give it a try in the coming weeks

 

[Jim311]

It will be fine. When extract brewing I used to buy jugs of water at the store and put them in the freezer like 6 hours before brewing so that water was VERY cold, almost frozen. Then when I poured it into the wort it would bring the temp way down almost immediately. Adding 2 to 3 gallons of nearly freezing water is the fastest method of chilling you could choose I think.

 

[Addiktion]

I built a recirculating wort chiller for not to much money using a pond pump and coolers so I don't have to be tied to a hose. Maybe like 150. As far as the beer goes you can send a sample to white labs in San Diego and they will do a full work up on it and tell you everything that's in the beer. It cost 30 per sample.