How to cool a wort without the need of coils

[Nil]

I wanna share with you how I achieve 68- 75 degrees F. This applies only to full extracts.

I prep my full extract by using 1.5-1.75 gallons of water as usual and using a 22 qts SS pot. I placed the remaining 3.5 gallons of water in the freezer, using a wide-mouth plastic buckets with lid (total of 4, 1-gallon each). I leave this water to chill up to 32 degrees F. I once in a while squeeze the buckets in order to break any ice formed. Time? It will take 3-4 hours depending in the freezer temperature setting. So, be sure to put the water at least three (3) hours before staring the brewing process.

Once I finish cooking process, I add the 3.5 gallons of iced water to my wort. The temperature drops to 68-75 degrees F instantaneously. I have to perform some stirring to melt the remaining iced crystals. No coils, no pot immersion in iced water. Then, I transfer to the primary fermenter.

As a final note, I do add some of the cooled wort first (about 1-2 gallons), adding next the re-hydrated yeast, and finally adding the remaining wort into the fermenter. In this way, I help with oxygenation and yeast dispersion.

Thanks, Nil

 

[mbird]

Thanks! A good tip. How do you sanitize the cold water? Do you boil it first?

mark
Beer Diary...

 

[Zamial]

You will also need to use more hops... because this will adjust the gravity so much that the IBUs will also massively decrease.

 

[thegerm]

yeah if you're not boiling that water first before you chill it, you could be introducing a lot of bacteria. otherwise like zamial said, you should keep in mind that your hop utilization will be lower.

 

[Nil]

Most of the time, I filter the water the same day. I usually dont boil the water. I am not really worry about hops. I taste them anyway.

BTW, my understanding is that the faster you decrease the wort temperature, the better. Please tell me more about your concerns.

Thanks, Nil

 

[Homercidal]

To each their own. Some would prefer to be able to accurately measure the amount of IBUs in their beer in order to the right amount of bitterness.

Also some would not be able to simply chill their water and not have an infection. It lucky that you are so fortunate. It would be a simple matter to boil the water ahead of time before you put it in the freezer in case you wanted to help your odds out a bit.

 

[FantasticBastard]

Very interesting. Will definitely be trying that next batch!

 

[Rev2010]

There are so many reasons why people move away from the adding freezing water idea and to full boils / chill with an IC that I won't even begin to explain here. It's been discussed to death.


Rev.

 

[Oddball]

Can someone explain how adding ice effects the hops/bitterness. I guess as a new brewer this is not so obvious to me. Thanks...

 

[year2beer]

Can someone explain how adding ice effects the hops/bitterness. I guess as a new brewer this is not so obvious to me. Thanks...

Nothing too complicated. Less volume, less to break down the oils/release acids in hops. Thus, less utilization... this basically means you are watering down your Wort when you don't do full boils.

Will it make beer? Yes. Could it be far better...? Def.

But that's why each style fits each Brewer differently. I think that those who embrace the full culture of being a homebrewer will eventually taste a beer that puts theirs to shame. That is usually when people realize their methods need improvement.

 

[unionrdr]

I don't think it would effect hop utilzation,since the hops were boiled into the wort. I don't think the ice could separate the two.
The thing,is even filtered water when freezing won't kill the nasties,just make them go dormant. Having said that,quick cooling down to pitch temp is good for reducing/eliminating proteins that cause chill haze. At least reduces them to where they don't effect things so much.

 

[Nil]

Accurately measure IBU's? I am under the impression that one do not "measure" IBU's. Instead, there a rough mathematical formula that allows us to calculate the "most probable" IBU value. The heart of the estimate is the "utilization", which it is a wired response in function with wort temperature and gravity. I tried to develop a model using JMP and the mathematical formula is very complex and predicts utilization with a 5% error. If I am missing something, please let me know....

Thanks, Nil

 

[cooper]

Can someone explain how adding ice effects the hops/bitterness. I guess as a new brewer this is not so obvious to me. Thanks...

It's not the ice that affects the hops/bitterness. It's the amount of water that you add before it goes into the primary that would affect the hops/bitterness because there is less hop utilization when you only boil 2 gallons than there would be if you were to boil 6.5 gallons. Make sense? It's not a big deal really unless you're finding that your brews just don't seem to have as much hop character as you would like. At least you're not experiencing any infections and you enjoy your beer.

 

[unionrdr]

This subject having been disscussed so many times (even in my time here),It seems it does make some difference,but not as much as was thought. I do 3G boils,wind up with 2.5-2.75G,& I get plenty of hop flavors. I prefer dry hopping for aroma. I top off to 5 or 6 gallons,depending on the recipe. But there are calculations that will help allow for top off. Many kits are designed that way.

 

[Kosch]

It's not the ice that affects the hops/bitterness. It's the amount of water that you add before it goes into the primary that would affect the hops/bitterness because there is less hop utilization when you only boil 2 gallons than there would be if you were to boil 6.5 gallons. Make sense? It's not a big deal really unless you're finding that your brews just don't seem to have as much hop character as you would like. At least you're not experiencing any infections and you enjoy your beer.

I'm curious on this one, does the utilization depend on the amount of hops? i.e. if I'm doing a lightly hopped beer will the utilization be fine in a smaller boil, but will be lower as the amount of hops goes up?

I ask because I've only been doing partial boil extract brews for 5 gal batches, with maybe 2-3oz of hops. If I took my same recipe and did a full boil, would the higher utilization be extremely noticable?

 

[Oddball]

Thanks y2b and coop, I guess it just seems to me that as long as the final amount of water ends up to be the same, it wouldnt matter that much. Wouldnt a 2-3 gallon boil just be more concentrated and topping it off bring it to the same concentration as a 5 gallon boil? is this not the case?

 

[unionrdr]

I think it goes up mesurably,but it won't turn a pale ale into an IPA. Just subtle differences,to my understanding & experience. Not to mention being in many such discussions. It can be allowed for,so top up brings it to where you want it. 2-3 oz of hops will make a 5,even 6 gallon brew quite good,ime.

 

[Skelator]

If you run your recipe through a calculator like hopville and edit your boil and batch size... you'll be fine.

 

[Skelator]

Wouldnt a 2-3 gallon boil just be more concentrated and topping it off bring it to the same concentration as a 5 gallon boil?

yes. All you're doing when making partial boils is making a concentrated wort that you're diluting.

 

[HexKrak]

I used to do this, and make great beer. I use an IC and full boils and I still make great beer.
When I used this method I added more hops (as indicated by my beer calculator), and I often had more carmelization of the wort due to the thicker consistency lending it's self to "browing" in the pot.

Understanding what's happening is the key, you don't have to make better/worse beer if you do.

To help you understand utilization (though these processes are completely different the end result is pretty much the same), when you were a kid did you ever put so much sugar on a cereal that it stopped dissolving? It's because you reached the maximum solubility of that solution. With hops, something very similar is happening. Less solution means that the hops acids wont have as much to attach to (I can't remember the exact process, but I think it's isomorphizaion).

 

[cooper]

The other thing to consider when doing a full boil for extract batches is the steeping grains. It's important to steep the grains in 1.5-2 gallons depending on how much specialty grains you're using because it's easier to extract tannins when the water to grist ratio is too high.

Some people may not have a problem with this but in my experience i've extracted tannins and had astringency issues when steeping specialty grains at 150F in 6.5 gallons of RO water.

 

[Oddball]

At this point I am still working off of my electric stove top. So until next summer when I can designate a brew space in my garage, I will have to make due with partial boils...