Putting wort in fridge before pitching?

[vanwolfhausen]

Has anyone chilled down to say 60 then put in fermentation fridge to chill down to 50 before pitching? Just wondering how long in a 50 degree fermentation fridge would it take to get down to 50? I was thinking 2 hours.

 

[Bentpirate]

I do that especially in the summer; it can take several hours. I peak every now and then but it has taken me as long as 8-12 hours. There is a lot of heat in the volume that needs exchanged out.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

I sometimes drop the carboy into my garage chest freezer. Wort is at about 80 and it gets down to low 60's in a few hours.

 

[Frank99]

My IC will only get my wort down to 80, then I usually put in the fermentation chamber (chest freezer) and it takes 2-3 hours to get down to the low 60s. If your not in a big hurry this should work fine. Otherwise I'd do the ice bath thing or try pumping ice water throught the chiller.

 

[vanwolfhausen]

What about putting temp probe inside so you know when wort is exactly temp you want? I am guessing if I have fermentation freezer set at 50 that it will take at least 6 hours to get 60 down to 50.

 

[deezy]

My last batch I chilled to 85* with IC then put in fridge for 2 hours, still was high on temp so put it in my swamp cooler bin with lots of ice and water. Got things going down pretty fast and I was able to pitch rather quickly. Not wanting to do this again I just bought a submersible pump to run ice water through my garden hose IC now from my swamp cooler vessle.

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-half-hp-clear-water-pump-with-float-94648.html

 

[vanwolfhausen]

See I run ice water thru pre-chiller then to my plate chiller. Even then it seems to only get down to 60. Maybe I will try it again this weekend and try to get down to 50. But, if not I was thinking of putting in my fermentation freezer at say 48 for 6 hours or so. I don't want to set freezer too low because I need it back to 50 after I pitch and thing is soo efficienct might take some time before I can get freezer warmed up to 50.

 

[Bensiff]

What about putting temp probe inside so you know when wort is exactly temp you want? I am guessing if I have fermentation freezer set at 50 that it will take at least 6 hours to get 60 down to 50.

It will take a long time to get the temp to normalize to the environment, why not crank your freezer to speed up the cooling then reset your therm to 50 and keep the lid open a few minutes to let it warm up to fermentation temp. It seems like that would be much faster than waiting for the wort to come into balance with the environment.

 

[david_42]

I will do this with lagers, but I pitch warm (~70F) and set the fridge to 50F. That way, the yeast can start growing faster, but I don't have to worry about runaway temperatures.

 

[vanwolfhausen]

It will take a long time to get the temp to normalize to the environment, why not crank your freezer to speed up the cooling then reset your therm to 50 and keep the lid open a few minutes to let it warm up to fermentation temp. It seems like that would be much faster than waiting for the wort to come into balance with the environment.

That is what I was thinking to do. But, how will I know when wort is exactly 50? That is why I am thinking of putting the thermometer probe inside.

 

[Bensiff]

That is what I was thinking to do. But, how will I know when wort is exactly 50? That is why I am thinking of putting the thermometer probe inside.

Yeah get a thermowell and put in a digital probe to monitor it as it drops. It would do good to occassionally gently shake it too as this will help it cool faster and keep from having really cold wort near the carboy walls and warmer wort where the probe is.

 

[vanwolfhausen]

I set fridge to 38 and put my 60degree lager wort in for 5 hours. I put a probe on side of fermenter with bubble wrap around it. It was at 49-50 so I aerated and pitched. Worked out really well. I ordered a thermometer and some parts to put it on out part of plate chiller. That way I will know what temp wort is coming out of chiller.