Wort chilling question

[BaylessBrewer]

Those of you that chill your wort in your fermentation chamber prior to pitching yeast, what temperature do you set your controller to and is it ambient or do you attach it to your fermenter.
I'm wanting to do a multiple batch brew day and don't want to spend all day chilling with the ground water temps we have right now.
Any help will be appreciated

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

Those of you that chill your wort in your fermentation chamber prior to pitching yeast, what temperature do you set your controller to and is it ambient or do you attach it to your fermenter.
I'm wanting to do a multiple batch brew day and don't want to spend all day chilling with the ground water temps we have right now.
Any help will be appreciated

I use a thermowell and a BrewsBySmith temperature controller to read the actual wort temperature as it falls. I also have a temperature probe to measure the ambient air temperature inside my chest freezer, which will easily drop down below freezing.

I guess it takes about an hour to drop 10.5 gallons of 80F wort down to 65F before pitching my yeast, but I've never actually timed it. My tap water in summer is also very warm and using my counterflow chiller gets the boiling wort to around 80F without using too much water.

 

[BaylessBrewer]

I use a thermowell and a BrewsBySmith temperature controller to read the actual wort temperature as it falls. I also have a temperature probe to measure the ambient air temperature inside my chest freezer, which will easily drop down below freezing.

I guess it takes about an hour to drop 10.5 gallons of 80F wort down to 65F before pitching my yeast, but I've never actually timed it My tap water in summer is also very warm and using my counterflow chiller gets the boiling wort to around 80F without using too much water.

I don't have a thermowell so I just tape and insulate the probe on the outside of my bucket. I also use a immersion chiller but it takes a while to get the wort cooled down.
If I chill to around 100 and then put it in the ferm chamber will it be ok to leave it over night or say 8-10 hours to pitch?

 

[cooper]

I'll attach the probe to the side of the fermentor with tape and then set my temp to what I want to pitch it at. Usually 50 for a lager or 65 for ale. It's usually there in a couple of hours for a five gallon batch.

Then I'll pitch the yeast and just monitor the ambient temp for the 10 -15 days and then adjust the temp up to 65-70 to let it finish for a few more days before I check the final gravity. If it's done fermenting then I'll cold crash it down to 33, fine it with gelatine, then keg it about 2 days later and put it on 10-12 psi at 45 degrees where it'll sit for about a week before I start sampling.

 

[Bellybuster]

If I chill to around 100 and then put it in the ferm chamber will it be ok to leave it over night or say 8-10 hours to pitch?

I di this all the time, make sure if using an airlock you have minimal liquid as it will suck it back as it cools. Don't forget to aerate before pitching


Allow me to edit my post. My wort goes into my fermenter straight from the kettle, hot. Then into my fermenting chamber.

 

[blizz81]

For $30-40 or so and some ice, you could have a submersible pump and get down to whatever pitch temp you want pretty quickly

 

[kombat]

I di this all the time, make sure if using an airlock you have minimal liquid as it will suck it back as it cools.

Or just use an 'S' shaped airlock that allows air to flow both ways, without any suckback.

 

[m00ps]

agreed, in the summer its a pain in the ass to chill it below even 80. I get it below 100 to not leeach crap from the bucket, or shock a carboy into cracking, and seal it up stick it in the fermentation chamber. Wake up, aerate it for my morning exercise and pitch the yeast. I also like doing this because it gives my starter another 12hrs to settle for better decanting

 

[EtchyLives]

I set my brews by smith setup to whatever my initial fermenting temperature is and wait. Once I hit the target temp (I check periodically) I pitch the yeast.

 

[Natdavis777]

I cool my beer down to as low as I can get in the summer (usually 70F), then throw it in the ferm chamber with the temp set to freezing. The probe is taped to the side of the carboy, so the freezer basically runs until the beer hits mid to low 60s (which takes a few hours). The actual ambient temp stays around 30-40F (I have an old 419 that I havnt got rid of yet, so I let it measure ambient)