I just read the interview with homercidal and he feels that his wort chiller is his most sacred piece of equipment. I have been using a wort chiller for a while now because...well you're supposed to. But why? In my last several batches I have moved to no chill simply because I'm tired of dumping 30 gallons or more of water into the yard. I Let the wort sit in the kettle for a couple hours then dump it in a sanitized bucket and put in in the basement for 24 hours before pitching yeast. What effect does chilling wort quickly have on the finished beer?
To chill or not to chill
- Thread starter zoomzilla
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Chilling quickly helps with the cold break... clearer beer. See Yoopers most excellent recent article...
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Weezy
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Bitterness is a biggy. At temperatures above ~175°F or so, isomerization of the alpha acids rom the hops is still going on. You can either adjust your hopping schedule to account for this or still chill the beer to get it into the mod 100s before you let it sit. Some beer styles probably aren't very well suited to no chill. Like anything with a lot of flavor and aroma additions. I'd expect some of that to get lost with the long chill process. for single hop addition beers, I'd try hopping later in the boil. I wouldn't no chill an IPA.
There's always risk of bacterial infection. The bugs love the warm temperatures above pitching temps and below mash temps.
There's always risk of bacterial infection. The bugs love the warm temperatures above pitching temps and below mash temps.
zoomzilla
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I hop in a fine mesh bag- which does still leave micro particles but not nearly the scale of adding them naked. I also transfer into my bucket well above mash temp and leave behind the last half gallon or so which contains the hop particulates. Do these steps help with the above issues?
boydster
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I've been no-chilling since the beginning of this year. You have to adjust your hop schedule, but that's the biggest issue and it's pretty easy to overcome with a little experimentation (and who doesn't love a little brewing experimentation?). For malt-forward beers, it's just a matter of accounting for a little bit extra of a bittering contribution. For hop-forward beers, you also need to keep in mind that the wort will stay above 180 for much longer than with a quick chill. That means you'll want to add your late kettle hops later, sometimes even after flameout but while the temp is still about 180. For your whirlpool/hopstand hops, you wait until the wort temp comes down below 180 (no additional risk of infection here, since the temp is still well above flash-pasteurization temperature).
As far as clarity goes, cold break still forms, it just forms more slowly. I cold crash my beers, which I'm sure also helps prevent chill haze, but I can't say that I've had any issues with chill haze in my cold crashed beers vs. the beers I made using my IC.
Contamination issues are easy to mitigate. If you ferment in buckets, you can transfer wort that is at boiling temps without hurting the integrity of the plastic - #2 food grade buckets are rated to 250F. If you use glass, that's not an option, but you can seal the wort in your kettle overnight with some aluminum foil or plastic wrap around the lid, then transfer and pitch your yeast like you would normally do.
All-in-all, it's a different approach that has its own pros and cons, so whether you do it or not is entirely a personal preference.
As far as clarity goes, cold break still forms, it just forms more slowly. I cold crash my beers, which I'm sure also helps prevent chill haze, but I can't say that I've had any issues with chill haze in my cold crashed beers vs. the beers I made using my IC.
Contamination issues are easy to mitigate. If you ferment in buckets, you can transfer wort that is at boiling temps without hurting the integrity of the plastic - #2 food grade buckets are rated to 250F. If you use glass, that's not an option, but you can seal the wort in your kettle overnight with some aluminum foil or plastic wrap around the lid, then transfer and pitch your yeast like you would normally do.
All-in-all, it's a different approach that has its own pros and cons, so whether you do it or not is entirely a personal preference.
Weezy
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No, the hop oils are already in the wort.
boydster
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Nope, not personally. I have done some very light bodied beers with grain bills consisting entirely of base grain and very little hops, and I've not had any problems with DMS. I haven't done any brews using pilsen so that may be a different story for all I know, but I've used pale US 2-row, Maris Otter, and Golden Promise in both single malt brews and together in various combinations with light hopping (sub-20 IBUs) for fizzy yellow cold beers to share with people that aren't big craft beer drinkers.
