Summer time brewing stinks

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DPBISME

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Well so I know the water coming out of my tap is to warm to bring down the wort temprature enough but I thought I had figured it out....


  • brought my wort down as low as it would go.
  • put one wort chiller in a bucket of 16 lbs of ice
  • connected it to the other wort chiller that went to the Brew Kettle.
  • and let it run until the ice was gone...

Well it sure did not do much... I still had to cast my yeast way over the temp recommended.

I put it in the fermentation chamber which was set at 35 Degrees but I know that it takes a long time for 11 gallons of wort to cool down...

after about 8 hours I set the temp on the fermentation chamber to 65 and then the next day to 68 hopping I have not "screwed the pooch"...

I guess if I am going to brew around "DC" this time of year I need to boil and freeze water to go directly into the wort when it gets to the lowest temperature… I have done this before when I did 5 gallon batches…

Boil a few gallons for 15-20 minutes,,,, put it in Ziplock Freezer Bags freeze it,,,, and then slice open the bag and drop the whole thing into the wort…

Other ideas Welcome….
 
I've been having a hard time bringing mine down to fermentation temps as well. I get it as low as I can, put it in the fridge, and wait. Usually end up pitching yeast the next morning.
 
I brewed outside on saturday and lost 5 lbs! It was SO hot. I have city water though so it don't seem to have a problem cooling wort. got it to 75 one pass through my plate chiller. Hopping to get my range hood this week for my electric brewery so I'll say goodby to outdoor browing other then times I feel nostalgic.
 
Hey I live in Baltimore so I feel your pain brewing in the summer. I have been able to get my wort down pretty fast by planning my brews for the mornings and evenings (read: not trying to chill wort with the sun and temps are at full blast) and using a submersible pump in a bucket of ice water.

After I get my wort down using hose/ground water to about 110 or 100, I hook the IC up to my submersible pump which is sitting in a bucket of ice water. I used about 20lbs of ice from 7-11 and dump into a drywall bucket with the pump in it fill with water and recirculate. I get 6 gals of wort to 65* in about 25-30mins when its 100* outside. PM if you went specifics about my set up.

Ryan
 
Great to hear I am not the only one... I was feeling kind-a silly... and then especially silly when my BRILLIANT plan to use two wort chillers failed…
Truth is in the past I usually have enough beer brewed before Summer and the fact than when I did I could use an “Ice Bath” (5 gallon batches) that I have not had this problem.
Most of the problem is moving to 10+ Gallon batches… those pots are to hot and heavy to move.
ONE OTHER THING:
There was a time a while back where I got it in my head it was OK to toss my Nottingham in at 80 Degrees… then let the wort cool down in the house… I did for a long time until one day I went back and re-read the Nottingham specs… Beer came out fine but 5 Gallons is a bit different than 10… a lot more heat is caught up in the fermenters and I am trying to brew other styles with different yeast.
Some folks have said they bring it down to as low as they can, then cool further in a Fermentation chamber, and cast the yeast the next day.
What I want to know.
When doing this method;;; has the wort been aerated?
 
Well so I know the water coming out of my tap is to warm to bring down the wort temprature enough but I thought I had figured it out....


  • brought my wort down as low as it would go.
  • put one wort chiller in a bucket of 16 lbs of ice
  • connected it to the other wort chiller that went to the Brew Kettle.
  • and let it run until the ice was gone...

It helps to have a bit of water in your pre-chiller as well, so you have an "ice slurry" in there.
 
This is how I cooled my wort quickly -
I took a garbage can, put a hefty bag in it, and filled that with some water and frozen containers, in advance of the wort being ready.
The garbage can acts as a form to hold the hefty bag in a roughly cylindrical sold shape.
The water was cooled down quite a bit.

Then after the wort was "cooled" to 90+, I put it in the fermentor (in my case a pail), pitched, and then placed the fermentor in another hefty bag, and placed that in the water filled garbage can.

The fermentor cooled to near 70 in less than an hour.

One other thing I do is keepa gallon of cold water in the refrigerator and add it to the fermentor. This requires a boil ending up a gallon short, which you can target.


The other problem is keeping the beer cold since fermentation will add several degrees to the already warm ambient temperature.
 
This is how I cooled my wort quickly -
I took a garbage can, put a hefty bag in it, and filled that with some water and frozen containers, in advance of the wort being ready.
The garbage can acts as a form to hold the hefty bag in a roughly cylindrical sold shape.
The water was cooled down quite a bit.

Then after the wort was "cooled" to 90+, I put it in the fermentor (in my case a pail), pitched, and then placed the fermentor in another hefty bag, and placed that in the water filled garbage can.

The fermentor cooled to near 70 in less than an hour.

One other thing I do is keepa gallon of cold water in the refrigerator and add it to the fermentor. This requires a boil ending up a gallon short, which you can target.


The other problem is keeping the beer cold since fermentation will add several degrees to the already warm ambient temperature.

I don't have the problem with "keeping the beer cold since fermentation" since I have a Fermentation Freezer... BUT

I could do what you suggest but I would need help lifting an 11 Gallon batch in and out of the garbage can....

One person suggested a cold plate... I like that idea and I actually bought one years ago and may actually set it up for this... it is huge 12 by 24 inches and has enough connections for 5 or 6 kegs... I just never got around to use it for anything...
 
Hey I live in Baltimore so I feel your pain brewing in the summer. I have been able to get my wort down pretty fast by planning my brews for the mornings and evenings (read: not trying to chill wort with the sun and temps are at full blast) and using a submersible pump in a bucket of ice water.

After I get my wort down using hose/ground water to about 110 or 100, I hook the IC up to my submersible pump which is sitting in a bucket of ice water. I used about 20lbs of ice from 7-11 and dump into a drywall bucket with the pump in it fill with water and recirculate. I get 6 gals of wort to 65* in about 25-30mins when its 100* outside. PM if you went specifics about my set up.

Ryan

Ding Ding Ding! Submersible pump is the way to go. I'm in Texas and could not get my wort below 96 F in the summer time using just tap water. So I spent about $40 on a submersible pump. Dropped that baby in a cooler full of ice water, circulated that ice water through the chiller, and BAM! Now I get my wort down to 65 F. Takes about 45 minutes from the time I stop the boil. I chill it down to 100 F with regular water before I put the ice water through it.

I made a wheat beer for this last batch. After three weeks in primary I could look through the carboy and see my hand on the other side. I have NEVER seen a beer that clear in the fermenter.
 
Ding Ding Ding! Submersible pump is the way to go. I'm in Texas and could not get my wort below 96 F in the summer time using just tap water. So I spent about $40 on a submersible pump. Dropped that baby in a cooler full of ice water, circulated that ice water through the chiller, and BAM! Now I get my wort down to 65 F. Takes about 45 minutes from the time I stop the boil. I chill it down to 100 F with regular water before I put the ice water through it.

I made a wheat beer for this last batch. After three weeks in primary I could look through the carboy and see my hand on the other side. I have NEVER seen a beer that clear in the fermenter.

So not a hefewiesen yeast I would guess.

I would think if you made a Low Gravity Beer that since it ferments quickly (mine take two weeks and I have served them at 17 days) that the yeast has done its duty and floculates....

I will consider this or a chill plate in the future,

Thanks,

DPB
 
So not a hefewiesen yeast I would guess.

I would think if you made a Low Gravity Beer that since it ferments quickly (mine take two weeks and I have served them at 17 days) that the yeast has done its duty and floculates....

I will consider this or a chill plate in the future,

Thanks,

DPB

I used Wyeast German Wheat 3333 for a raspberry wheat. But this is not the first time I've made this beer. Usually the fermenter goes really dark when the yeast drops out, but never went clear for me before. I used a different kind of extract I bought from the LHBS this time. Usually in the past I've used the Northern Brewer wheat extract. So maybe that has something to do with it.
 
Ding Ding Ding! Submersible pump is the way to go. I'm in Texas and could not get my wort below 96 F in the summer time using just tap water. So I spent about $40 on a submersible pump. Dropped that baby in a cooler full of ice water, circulated that ice water through the chiller, and BAM! Now I get my wort down to 65 F. Takes about 45 minutes from the time I stop the boil. I chill it down to 100 F with regular water before I put the ice water through it.
OK, I like this idea. Not to sound a like total d'bag, exactly how do you have this connected? Is the idea just to use the same water over and over or change the water often? How's the pump connected to the pump? I'm just not thinking clear enough to put all the parts of this together. Sorry. I'll probably figure it out once I'm clear headed but help a brother brewer out.
 
OK, I like this idea. Not to sound a like total d'bag, exactly how do you have this connected? Is the idea just to use the same water over and over or change the water often? How's the pump connected to the pump? I'm just not thinking clear enough to put all the parts of this together. Sorry. I'll probably figure it out once I'm clear headed but help a brother brewer out.

It's a piece of cake. The submersible pond pumps come with different sized male threaded barb fittings you screw onto the pump. It's just a hose barb connection so you jam the hose for your chiller on there. Doesn't have to be fancy.

I start out running regular tap water through the chiller to get the wort down to the 100-110 F range. Then I hook up the outlet to the chiller (since the inlet has the female hose connection) to the pump and drop the pump in a cooler full of cold ice water. Then I take the inlet to the chiller (which is now the outlet) and drop it in the cooler. So I'm just recirculating the ice water through the chiller and back to the cooler. The ice will melt pretty quickly in the beginning so you have to add more. But as the wort cools down the water coming back to the cooler isn't as hot so it won't melt the ice as fast. I used 30 lbs of ice last time, but I could have got by with 20.

Like I said, it was 95 degrees outside and my tap water was 85 degrees, but I was able to get my wort down to 65 F in 45 minutes with this technique. Actually had heavy condensation building on the side of my kettle. I could have gone colder if I wanted and got down to lager pitching temps. Would have helped if I had some kind of insulation to wrap around the kettle to avoid absorbing ambient heat.
 
Tough to win in the northeast - during winter hitting strike temps and boiling is a pain (as is brewing outside in 10 degrees), but chilling with 40 degree ground water is amazing.

My buddy just bought the therminator plate chiller and we're running a 10 gallon batch this weekend. Supposedly they're meant for high ground water temps ... I'll let you know if I works. At $10 bucks a brew for ice, it wouldn't take long to pay off.
 
What about putting the plate chiller in a bucket of ice water and closing the valve to just above a trickle - while still running the hose water thru it like normal?

I've been using a pre chiller, and I'm barely able to get it cooled to below 80F. I started putting ice packs on the chiller and was able to get to 75F.
 
Summertime cooling is a bit of a challenge, but you can easily get the brew down to 65 cooling in stages:

If using an IC, chill down to 90ish with groundwater, fill bottling bucket with ice water and run that through.

If using CFC, recirculate back into kettle until wort temps reach 90ish then use ice filled bottling bucket to slowly transfer wort from BK through CFC chilled with ice water.

If using plate chiller, immerse in ice water.

One fact is for certain: unless you have some way of prechilling water-it's going to take a while.

Or, just chill to 85-90 and place in fermentation fridge for a few hours set at 40 degrees until pitching temp is reached.

Edit- if using a bottling bucket, you will rely on gravity to do the work. The higher you can elevate the bucket, the faster the ice water flow will be.
 
OK, I like this idea. Not to sound a like total d'bag, exactly how do you have this connected? Is the idea just to use the same water over and over or change the water often? How's the pump connected to the pump? I'm just not thinking clear enough to put all the parts of this together. Sorry. I'll probably figure it out once I'm clear headed but help a brother brewer out.

So I know plumbing is easy... I mean the actual connecting of things... but since I don't do it ever I still like help from a buddy to pick out the correct parts. (There is a huge selection of them and I just don't know much about it).

I added some plumbing to my 3 tiered brew stand recently... it was easy to design but again I did not know what the parts were...

It is basically a single peice of PVC pipe with a hose connection at the bottom.

  1. Midway I added a brass faucet for a hose and wort chiller to connect to.
  2. just above that I added a valve.
  3. and above that I added a two right angle turns with som pipe so it is pointed down in the the Hot Water Pot..
  4. So now I don't have hoses all over the place and I don't have to get up on a chair to add water to the Hot Water Pot.
 
try freezing 2L soda bottles filled with water. sanitize the out side of the bottle and drop them in your wort
 
cadillacandy said:
What about putting the plate chiller in a bucket of ice water and closing the valve to just above a trickle - while still running the hose water thru it like normal?

I've been using a pre chiller, and I'm barely able to get it cooled to below 80F. I started putting ice packs on the chiller and was able to get to 75F.

This is what I've recently done. Got a pre chiller and after the main chiller gets it to about 100, I then ice the pre chiller and can get it below 80 but just barely. It's all I've got for now.
 
I had the cooling problem last week also. Wow I never thought of making a wort chiller-chiller.

I will be making this on my work from home day tomorrow. :rockin:

I have a 12v boat bilge pump (but a harborfreight submersable fountain pump may be better), I hook it up to a garden hose to pump out the kids pool. I will attach that hose to the chiller with a short garden hose. Drop the pump into a 5 gallon bucket and fill with frozen soda bottles. Put the chiller out into the bucket. Wow that sounds too easy. If the pump pressure is too high I can use a manafold to bleed off the extra pressure back to the bucket.

So first cool to about 100*F with garden hose, ground water temp is 75*. Then go to the ice setup.

If all goes well on thurdays or saturdays brew session I will take photos.
 
when it's really hot outside I do this. I fill up the keg tub/swamp cooler that I use to help regulate my fermenation temps about half way with water and a lot of ice. Then I put my stock pot in that and use my wort chiller as normal. This helps cool it down a lot faster, plus I have cool water already in my swamp cooler for when I pitch my yeast. Easy, yet effective and efficient.
 
OK, I like this idea. Not to sound a like total d'bag, exactly how do you have this connected? Is the idea just to use the same water over and over or change the water often? How's the pump connected to the pump? I'm just not thinking clear enough to put all the parts of this together. Sorry. I'll probably figure it out once I'm clear headed but help a brother brewer out.

Hey -- I bought this pump, its a little overkill but works great. And if my basement ever floods Im good to go. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X05G1A/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It has a garden hose adapter. Once my wort is down to about 100-120 F I screw my IC onto the hose adapter drop the contraption into a 5 gal bucket, fill with ice then fill with water and put the water outflow tube into the bucket and let go. So Yes to recirculate -- only change the water to dump out enough to put more ice in. I need about 16 lbs of ice for 6 gallons and if I don't pay attention it will get my wort down below 60. I have found that stirring the wort helps drop the temps too.

If you plan I've found that WalMart = Cheap Ice. for 16lbs I pay $3.80 at 7-11. I can get to 7-11 and back in about 10 minutes, so it works. To justify the cost I wash and re-use my yeast and boom ice is paid for.

If you are going to build something from scratch I would look into Jamil Z's whirlpool wort chiller. just google it.
 
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Hey -- I bought this pump, its a little overkill but works great. And if my basement ever floods Im good to go. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X05G1A/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It has a garden hose adapter. Once my wort is down to about 100-120 F I screw my IC onto the hose adapter drop the contraption into a 5 gal bucket, fill with ice then fill with water and put the water outflow tube into the bucket and let go. So Yes to recirculate -- only change the water to dump out enough to put more ice in. I need about 16 lbs of ice for 6 gallons and if I don't pay attention it will get my wort down below 60. I have found that stirring the wort helps drop the temps too.

If you plan I've found that WalMart = Cheap Ice. for 16lbs I pay $3.80 at 7-11. I can get to 7-11 and back in about 10 minutes, so it works. To justify the cost I wash and re-use my yeast and boom ice is paid for.

If you are going to build something from scratch I would look into Jamil Z's whirlpool wort chiller. just google it.

Yes, I should have added that stirring the wort is a big help with immersion chillers.

As for the ice problem, here is a suggestion. I have a small coffee shop near my church that sells smoothies as well, but they're not a big ticket item for them. Anyway, they have an ice machine in the back that makes way more ice than they need. I got to talking to them about it and asked if I could bring my cooler by and fill it up once in a while. They didn't have any problem with it. FREE ICE!
 
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Hey -- I bought this pump, its a little overkill but works great. And if my basement ever floods Im good to go. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X05G1A/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It has a garden hose adapter. Once my wort is down to about 100-120 F I screw my IC onto the hose adapter drop the contraption into a 5 gal bucket, fill with ice then fill with water and put the water outflow tube into the bucket and let go. So Yes to recirculate -- only change the water to dump out enough to put more ice in. I need about 16 lbs of ice for 6 gallons and if I don't pay attention it will get my wort down below 60. I have found that stirring the wort helps drop the temps too.

If you plan I've found that WalMart = Cheap Ice. for 16lbs I pay $3.80 at 7-11. I can get to 7-11 and back in about 10 minutes, so it works. To justify the cost I wash and re-use my yeast and boom ice is paid for.

If you are going to build something from scratch I would look into Jamil Z's whirlpool wort chiller. just google it.

Ya I have been useing 16 pound for 11 Gallons... proabably not enough ice... I also use my pump to circulate the wort as it cool, the goal is to Whirlpool it and it work fairly well.

I just don't want to buy ice...

Maybe I will stick with Belgians for the rest of the Summer,,, some of them can be up in the 80s...

DPB
 
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You know what would really suck?

Going an entire summer and NOT brewing :(

Summer happens regardless, beer won't make itself
 
Thanks for the info. I definitely get it now. :)
I wish I wouldn't need so much ice. 30 lbs is about another $10 which adds up quickly.

The last time I did this I only needed two bags of ice. This time I've started collecting the ice from our ice maker. Hopefully by Friday I'll have the equivalent of 3 bags.
 
You know what would really suck?

Going an entire summer and NOT brewing :(

Summer happens regardless, beer won't make itself

What really sucks is standing outside in below freezing temps on a windy day brewing. Or chilling your wort in a snowbank at 1am.
 
What really sucks is standing outside in below freezing temps on a windy day brewing. Or chilling your wort in a snowbank at 1am.

You say that....

I'm in a garage in texas when it's 105 on a good day. I look forward to getting back up to Rochester to brew in the winter a few times. As a lifestyle though, no thanks, that sounds horrible :/
 
neosapien said:
You say that....

I'm in a garage in texas when it's 105 on a good day. I look forward to getting back up to Rochester to brew in the winter a few times. As a lifestyle though, no thanks, that sounds horrible :/

A teeny, tiny micro gloat: since switching to all electric, I brew in air conditioned comfort any time! Groundwater temp is the only thing currently beyond my control.

My buddy has an air conditioned garage, I found that to be very cool.
 
I just brew last weekend in my kitchen and was it ungodly hot in there. I was sweating so much there was a puddle on the floor. Next time i am going to do the frozen soda bottle idea and also freeze my "wort chiller chiller bucket".
 
A teeny, tiny micro gloat: since switching to all electric, I brew in air conditioned comfort any time! Groundwater temp is the only thing currently beyond my control.

My buddy has an air conditioned garage, I found that to be very cool.

Where the hell is the "unlike button" this guy needs to be beaten...

On top of that now I have to go do reasearch on Electric Brewing and see if it is cost effective.

Getting a propane tank filled is 12 bucks... so much cheaper than trading in at the Home Depot....

DPB
 
It's been a pretty hot summer in the Green Bay area and I haven't had a horrible cooling wort experience really. I am more fearful of my first winter brewing outside, or in garage. I turn off of spigots so I don't know how I will tackle the cooling process. Just stick the pot of wort in the cold weather...? :)
 
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