Trouble cooling wort.

[bamamckay]

I live in Alabama and, I have trouble cooling , using an immersion wort chiller, the last 20-30 degrees. Could I use the ic to get down to 100-120 then just put the wort, in the fermenter, in the fermentation chamber until it reaches the correct temp (2-3 hours)? Any trouble doing it this way?

 

[android]

have you tried using a recirculating pump with ice water in it once you get it down to 100 with the hose water? if push comes to shove, you could do it the way you've outlined, i used to cold crash my lagers for like 24 hrs and rack the beer off the hops/trub before fermenting and it worked fine.

 

[bamamckay]

I thought about using a pump or just using another ic in an ice bath before the primary ic. Do not know which would be more effective,

 

[Caulerpa]

I'm really new at beer making and this may be terrible advice - but I usually try to make really concentrated wort so that I can just combine it with ice cold tap water in the carboy and then pitch the yeast immediately. The beer always turns out really good. I'm sure that's not the advice you wanted but there's my $0.02!

 

[CadillacAndy]

have you tried using a recirculating pump with ice water in it once you get it down to 100 with the hose water? if push comes to shove, you could do it the way you've outlined, i used to cold crash my lagers for like 24 hrs and rack the beer off the hops/trub before fermenting and it worked fine.

I do the same thing with my lagers. I was also having trouble getting down below 100F with my immersion chiller and was just running off in to the carboy at 120F-100F. I must have had a slight wild yeast contamination somewhere because the higher temps and cooling time really kicked off some bad phenolic flavors in the finished product. The longer the beer is hot/warm the more chance for bad stuff to run rampant.

 

[Rockn_M]

If you can get a pump to push ice water that will probably be the most effective. If not, cooling the wort as much as possible then out it in your fermentation chamber for a few hours will work. I live in Dallas and that's the process I use with pretty good results.

 

[CGVT]

This is my setup. A 25' 3/8" pre chiller in a cooler of ice and a 50' 3/8" chiller. I brewed yesterday. Air temp was 94*, my water coming out of my hose was 84*

I timed how long it took to go from boiling to 67*

12:32 ( I brewed alone and had to move the chiller and pre-chiller by myself. It probably would be faster with some help)