wort chilling

[smonteton]

I do not have a wort chiller . Will i get off flavors for not cooling fast enough? i leave my hops in the wort . i feel like i get extra ibu's because of this. any comments would be appreciated.

 

[Tommyb52]

No, you'll get off flavors if you pitch your yeast at too high a temperature. Splurge for copper coil wort cooler you'll shorten your brew day time, and lessen the chance for infection. I'm not sure if heat will do anything for IBU's.

 

[schiersteinbrewing]

When I first started I didn't have a chiller either, I just filled the sink with ice water and set my brew kettle in the sink and very gently stirred it with a sanitized spoon.

I have also done some experiments with no chill batches. After flame out, cover brew kettle with foil, then set the lid over the foil, make sure the lid is seated firmly, let it sit over night then transfer to fermenter and pitch yeast. I didn't notice any off flavors in doing this, just my nerves were shot due to worrying about infection.

 

[BigFloyd]

Until you decide to build or buy a chiller, you can always do partial boils. Do 2.5 gallons in the kettle. Chill that in an ice bath in the sink to under 90*F.

Combine that in the fermenter with 2.7 gallons that you previously chilled for several hours in the fridge. That should get the final mix down to about 60-62*F which is an excellent temp at which to pitch most ale yeasts.

 

[ShaneHed13]

My first (and only) brew had some off flavors (bananna) and I'm pretty sure it was caused I pitched my yeast too soon. I've read (may not be right) but just cooling it naturally is okay but I plan on using the big snow bank in my front yard to get to 65ish.

It does matter thought, but things I've read vary on how long it takes and what impact it makes, obviously the quicker the better to prevent other **** from gaining a hold in ur brew


Brewsume
Muntons Nut Brown - started December 15th, 2013, bottled January 3rd, 2014 - Mild off flavors suspected from high pitching temp, overall, a good first batch!

Muntons Irish Style Stout, brew day March 9th, 2014

 

[Jim_Holmes]

i do the caveman wort chilling style myself, still collecting brew tools. getting them together on a budget so it will be a while before i get a high tech chiller.

 

[dkevinb]

I'm still chilling in cold water in the sink. It works fine for me, but I'm usually chilling 2-3 gallons of wort. From what I've read the 2 biggest problems with not chilling fast enough are the increased risk of infection (it's better to get it cool and pitch the yeast as fast as possible) and not getting a good cold break (getting some of the proteins to coagulate and settle to the bottom of the kettle) which can cause chill haze.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

I plan on using the big snow bank in my front yard to get to 65ish.

Just keep in mind snow is a great insulator. Your pot will melt a hole around it and it won't chill like you want it to. You would so better to throw the snow into the water your using for chilling than setting the kettle in the snow bank.


Sent from somewhere to someone

 

[derekj427]

One month ago I filled the bath tub with snow then cold water and dropped the pot in there. It worked awesome. Using a snow bank didn't work as well add you may think. You're better off just putting it outside then the bank due to insulating effects of snow.
Ever been in an igloo, it kinda warm.

Sent from my SGH-I757M using Home Brew mobile app

 

[BigFloyd]

I'm still chilling in cold water in the sink. It works fine for me, but I'm usually chilling 2-3 gallons of wort. From what I've read the 2 biggest problems with not chilling fast enough are the increased risk of infection (it's better to get it cool and pitch the yeast as fast as possible) and not getting a good cold break (getting some of the proteins to coagulate and settle to the bottom of the kettle) which can cause chill haze.

While that's indeed true, don't let the anxiety about infection cause you to panic and pitch into wort that's not sufficiently chilled (like into the low 60's). Taking some extra time before pitching could slightly increase the contamination risk. Pitching into wort that's too warm will almost always cause flavor issues.

Get your top off water cold. Just above freezing. That will really help.

 

[RM-MN]

We really need a thread on here showing the infections that people have gotten in the primary fermenter because I think all the pictures I have seen of infections have shown the beer in secondary. It's fairly hard to infect the primary unless you leave it open for quite a while. It takes bacteria time to settle and begin growing and the usual case is that before they have a chance to get a good start someone dumps in a couple hundred billion yeast cells that quickly overwhelm the bacteria and create conditions that are very inhospitable to bacteria.