Why Would I Want a Wort Chiller?

[SisterThelonious]

You can get an immersion chiller from Jaybird @ California Brewing Company for $49.95 with tubing, hose clamps, and an adapter for your kitchen sink!

 

[tvtoms]

With a small submersible water pump you could just lay it in there and plug it in. voila done.
Hydroponics shops have them for cheap (lots of other food safe hoses, fittings and such as well).

 

[SumnerH]

The main reasons to chill quickly are:
1. To prevent DMS formation ("cooked corn"/vegetal/rancid flavors)
2. To get a good cold break (promotes beer clarity and long-term storage stability).
3. The longer it goes without being sealed up and having yeast in it, the more opportunity there is for infection.

In theory for (1), you want to chill it down as quickly as possible to below 140F (DMS still forms down to about 80F, but much more slowly. (1) is also why a lot of brewer--including Jamil--advocate immersion chillers over counterflow/plate chillers; while the latter get the entire wort to pitching temp faster, the former get the entire wort below DMS production thresholds faster.

In practice, it's a matter of debate how much any of 1-3 matters, and also how much they matter for your particular situation. DMS, in particular, is one of those things that some people are much more sensitive to than others; you can also drastically lower the number of available DMS precursors by doing a 90 minute rolling boil, and it's sometimes (depending on who you talk to) considered problematic only with pilsener malts.

 

[Soulrebel]

Clean up is a non-issue. Run your discharge water into a 5 gal bucket. when your done you have HOT water to clean up with. Dunk your immersion chiller in ther a few times, make sure thare are no hops stuck to it and leave it out to dry...takes 2 minutes.

You will only know the benefit of one after you go to the plumbing isle of your local big box store, buy the copper tubing, grab the fittings from the same isle, take it home and spend a half hour forming it around something round that will fit in your pot. Attach some left over siphon tubing and then RDWHAHB. You will pat yourself on the back after your next brewday. Please post afterward and tell me I'm wrong.

 

[doctorRobert]

a long slow cool down also changes the hop profile. a 20 min addition turns into a 40 min.

not if you use a hop bag, aka a nylon bag, and take it out before chilling...

 

[JKoravos]

I like to keep my hop aromatics in the beer and DMS out of the beer. That's why I use a chiller. My whirlpool chilling system gets 12 gallons of wort down to 140*F (DMS formation temp) in about 3 minutes and down to ale pitching temps in about 15 minutes (give or take a few minutes depending on the season). In the winter my groundwater is cold enough to get the wort down to within a few degrees of lager pitching temps.

If you already have the copper, it's really a no-brainer to make one.

 

[bgburdman9]

I built one about 9 months ago and used it once. The sink adapter leaked and sprayed all over the place and one of the fittings leaked also. I ditched it after 10 minutes and went and got a big bag of ice. Maybe ill try to fix it at somepoint.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

I built one about 9 months ago and used it once. The sink adapter leaked and sprayed all over the place and one of the fittings leaked also. I ditched it after 10 minutes and went and got a big bag of ice. Maybe ill try to fix it at somepoint.

teflon tape?

 

[SumnerH]

not if you use a hop bag, aka a nylon bag, and take it out before chilling... durrrrrrrrr

That's not going to stop the aromatics from being driven off; if you stay hot for longer, your flavor/aroma hops skew more toward only bittering (slightly) and impart less flavor and aroma.

The no-chill guys have been working on charts to compensate for this (along with extra dry hopping).

 

[LaurieGator]

As my wort is boiling I'm wondering how much purpose the chiller will actually serve tonight; with the 95 degree weather today the cold water is coming into the house at 77! This thing will be much more useful in the winter when I can actually lager in the basement!

I have a similar situation. Our outside temp right now is 110+ during the day. The cold water tap is over 100 during my brew day. I use an immersion chiller hooked up to a fountain pump that is in a bucket of ice water. I get my temps down in 20 - 30 minutes with this method and I use a lot less water. For ice, I usually use a 10# block and a 1 gallon milk jug frozen with water.

 

[jeffmeh]

I'm still No-Chilling here in Winpaks and very happy with the results. I do adjust the hope schedule to compensate for the slow cooling.

 

[Chuck_Swillery]

Having not read all the other replies...

I can tell you that the quality of beer I make since starting to use a wort chiller has improved significantly. You can still make very good beer without one but being able to cool that wort fast and improves flavor and clarity in my opinion.

 

[TheBroonery]

I built one about 9 months ago and used it once. The sink adapter leaked and sprayed all over the place and one of the fittings leaked also. I ditched it after 10 minutes and went and got a big bag of ice. Maybe ill try to fix it at somepoint.

1st rule of plumbing: keep the water inside the pipe

 

[NewBrewB]

I use two wort chillers... one in an igloo with a large block of ice to pre-chill the water from the hose and the other to submerge in the beer and chill the batch... LOVEe my pre-chill system. I go from boiling to 80 degrees in about 15 mins... other than a closed system, it's the best way I've seen to prevent introducing anything 'funky' to the brew.

 

[smata67]

Hey, maybe this isn't important, but I'm doing a 2 1/2 gal boil then dumping into water at 70 F. Aren't I getting instant chilling down to about 140 F? I can see how you would almost need a chiller to cool down a hot 5 gallon boil, but that is not what I'm asking, I apologize for not being clear, but I've learned alot about the thing reading the posts, so much gained. If I chilled I would set in an ice bath and use a pump to circulate the ice bath through the coil. Using tap water would put things under pressure and be quite wasteful. I certainly don't want to destroy the planet just to make a bit of beer...

 

[JNye]

making beer uses a ridicuolus amount of water, everything you consume/use does. I would guess I use AT LEAST 10 times as much as water I yield beer, ie 120 oz of waste water per 12 oz beer, sad but true. If you water the plants with it you haven't wasted anything.

 

[Yooper]

Hey, maybe this isn't important, but I'm doing a 2 1/2 gal boil then dumping into water at 70 F. Aren't I getting instant chilling down to about 140 F? I can see how you would almost need a chiller to cool down a hot 5 gallon boil, but that is not what I'm asking, I apologize for not being clear, but I've learned alot about the thing reading the posts, so much gained. If I chilled I would set in an ice bath and use a pump to circulate the ice bath through the coil. Using tap water would put things under pressure and be quite wasteful. I certainly don't want to destroy the planet just to make a bit of beer...

Well, you might get better results chilling the boiling wort in a water bath to 100 degrees or so, then dumping it into colder water. I'm sure if you add 2.5 gallons of boiling wort to 70 degree water you won't be even close to pitching temperatures. Ideally, you'd pitch the yeast when the wort is around 62-65 degrees for most ales.

When I did partial boils, I would chill the 3 gallons down to 90-100, then add cold (45 degree) water to get to the low 60s.

If you're doing partial boils, I doubt a wort chiller would be all that valuable to you, especially if you did a quick short ice bath before topping off.

 

[Beer_Guy]

You must do a weighted average based on volumes of the liquid combined.

Doing a weighted average based on volume you get:
2 gallons of wort at 100*F (38*C)
Plus 3 gallons of cold water at 45*F (7*C)
Will result in a total of 5 gallon at 67*F (20C*)

2 at 100*F + 3 at 45*F = 67*F
and
2 at 112*F + 3 at 45*F = 72*F

or (for our *C friends)

2 at 38*C + 3 at 7*C = 20*C
and
2 at 45*C + 3 at 7*C = 22*C

[Figures were rounded for simplicity.]

Here is a link to a simple spreadsheet I made to do the calculation for you.

http://community.mrbeer.com/images/fbfiles/files/Temp_Calculator.xls
[Right Click and "Save Target as..."]

 

[smata67]

I think I've got myself a plan. I will pre-boil my 2.5 gallon and store overnight in the fridge the day before boiling. That way I can get the 45 F water your talking about. Dump the boil into it, end up pretty close to pitching temp right off the bat. No wort chiller needed.

 

[Beer_Guy]

I think I've got myself a plan. I will pre-boil my 2.5 gallon and store overnight in the fridge the day before boiling. That way I can get the 45 F water your talking about. Dump the boil into it, end up pretty close to pitching temp right off the bat. No wort chiller needed.

You will wind up with a 128.5*F wort by mixing equal amounts of 212*F wort with 45*F water.

Sorry, not a good plan.

 

[onemanlan]

Proteins have defined levels structure ranging from primary, secondary, to tertiary. Some even have multi-complex quaternary structures. Depending on the heat addition and acid condition sof the word proteins can unfold into their secondary and primary structures(think of it like a ribbon). When you drop the temperature proteins can spontaneously fold back to their original form or whatever structural form is at the lowest energy state. In the case of dropping the temp very quickly you don't give the proteins the 'chance' to spontaneously fold back to their original form, which may be water soluble, so that they will coagulate together into the lowest energy form and precipitate together rather than as individual parts out of solution as a mass.

That's my best guess, but I'll read more and try to let you know.

Thats my best guess.

 

[Homercidal]

I built a CFC out of a length of copper and an old garden hose. It works like a charm.

I've also done a no-chill beer last winter. I simply placed the kettle in the snowbank and brought it back in the next day to warm up to pitching temps. The hops were stronger than they should have been, and I got dinged for it at a homebrew competition this spring, but even so it scored a 42.5 out of 50, so I'm not complaining. It was an American Stout, so I have no idea if doing no-chill had any detrimental effect on clarity.

I'll still use my chiller. I'd go no chill if my water was warm here, bu it's plenty cold even in the heat of summer. What I do want to do is set up some QD's in the garage, so I can just plug in. It's a pain having to run the hose into the garage and mess around with all that.

 

[Beer_Guy]

Proteins have defined levels structure ranging from primary, secondary, to tertiary. Some even have multi-complex quaternary structures. Depending on the heat addition and acid condition sof the word proteins can unfold into their secondary and primary structures(think of it like a ribbon). When you drop the temperature proteins can spontaneously fold back to their original form or whatever structural form is at the lowest energy state. In the case of dropping the temp very quickly you don't give the proteins the 'chance' to spontaneously fold back to their original form, which may be water soluble, so that they will coagulate together into the lowest energy form and precipitate together rather than as individual parts out of solution as a mass.

That's my best guess, but I'll read more and try to let you know.

Thats my best guess.

Whoa!!! To much info…head hurts…must turn away.

Seriously though. It sounds like the rate at which the wort cools is important. Too slow and the hop profile changes, too fast and the mouth feel changes.

This needs more fine testing. I know adding a little ice to my wort caused a LOT of gummy stuff in the bottom of the pot and I am sure it will affect how my latest brew turns out.

 

[Beer_Guy]

…
I've also done a no-chill beer last winter. I simply placed the kettle in the snowbank …

Wouldn’t the snowbank chill it down just like placing it in ice water? If you did no-chill hop additions, that may be why your hop profile was off.

 

[Homercidal]

Wouldn’t the snowbank chill it down just like placing it in ice water? If you did no-chill hop additions, that may be why your hop profile was off.

I'm sure it chilled faster than a standard no-chill, but I did not plan on doing it that way. They were the standard hop additions. I just decided at the last minute to get it out of the way so I could clean up.

And the beer was great IMO. The national judge noted that the beer was too hoppy, but also noted "Who cares! " Still got knocked points for being slightly out of style, and did not win BOS, but got to the final round.

At any rate, I'm sure it took more than the standard 10-15 minutes of chill time that I normally see with the CFC.

In fact, it worked so well, that it may become SOP for me in the winter.

 

[Beer_Guy]

Glad to hear it did so well. Congrats!!

 

[jeffmeh]

I have no problem achieving excellent clarity with no-chill. I use a 6 gallon Winpak and go two to three weeks until fermentation is basically done, then dry hop for about a week, then cold crash for a week or until I am ready to rack to keg, sometimes adding gelatin after a few days. I rack with a paint strainer bag on the input side of the siphon. I also use Irish moss in the boil.

So, in my experience, no-chill does not prevent achieving a clear beer. Perhaps if I wanted to go from grain to glass in two to three weeks I would have a problem achieving clarity, but that is not something I really care about.

 

[TheBroonery]

I did the snowbank method last February when we had all the crazy snow here on the east coast. It seemed like the snow just acted as an insulator because it still took over an hour despite it being 30 outside.

 

[smata67]

I'm loving the hell out of this thread. No matter what you do: chill, not chill, bury it in a snowbank, shoot it off into space; the end result is drinkable beer. I can't lose. "Relax and have a homebrew" seems to make a great deal more sense to me now. Thanks guys.

 

[smata67]

Wouldn’t the snowbank chill it down just like placing it in ice water? If you did no-chill hop additions, that may be why your hop profile was off.

No. You would get convection flow in an ice bath which would accelerate cooling and result in a different cooling time constant. An icebank would not be as an efficient cooler. But maybe that's the ticket. You want quick cooling? Go with a plate heat exchanger with turbulators. Would cool that wort in a matter of minutes. Might not be ideal, though. Molecules can't hang around and say "hi" to each other before being thrust into a lower energy state. Like yours truly when he samples the end results of his tedious labor.