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Author Topic: Wort Cooling - Air, equipment, ice bath, etc etc??  (Read 4571 times)

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Wort Cooling - Air, equipment, ice bath, etc etc??
« Reply #15 on: June 12, 2016, 07:31:31 am »
Nowadays I cool to around 80F with my IC, then use a submersible water pump in a bucket of ice water to cool to pitching temps. Works really well.
Jon H.

Offline majorvices

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Re: Wort Cooling - Air, equipment, ice bath, etc etc??
« Reply #16 on: June 12, 2016, 08:02:07 am »
I'm a new brewer.  New enough to NOT know enough about the process.  My first brew was an all grain German Hefeweizen from morebeer.com.  After boiling, I transferred the wort to my carboy, sat it in my sink with water and allowed it to cool to mid 70's which took around 15 hours. 

Just to re-emphasize, this practice is extremely scary. As someone else mentioned this could very easily cause you a broken carboy abd lost batch at best, a trip to the hospital or even death. I had a friend who got very close to death from breaking a toilet he was moving once and the same thing can happen with a carboy. I have also been very lucky, I once slipped and fell on a carboy and nearly lacerated my leg near an artery. Carboys are NOT tempered for heat and you got really lucky that is didn't break when you added boiling hot wort to carboy let alone tried to heat exchange the non-tempered glass in a kitchen sink. I would highly recommend not trying that again. Ever.

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Wort Cooling - Air, equipment, ice bath, etc etc??
« Reply #17 on: June 12, 2016, 08:56:52 am »
Just to re-emphasize, this practice is extremely scary. As someone else mentioned this could very easily cause you a broken carboy abd lost batch at best, a trip to the hospital or even death. I had a friend who got very close to death from breaking a toilet he was moving once and the same thing can happen with a carboy. I have also been very lucky, I once slipped and fell on a carboy and nearly lacerated my leg near an artery. Carboys are NOT tempered for heat and you got really lucky that is didn't break when you added boiling hot wort to carboy let alone tried to heat exchange the non-tempered glass in a kitchen sink. I would highly recommend not trying that again. Ever.



Yeah, definitely a really bad idea.
Jon H.

Offline jaioldham

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Re: Wort Cooling - Air, equipment, ice bath, etc etc??
« Reply #18 on: June 12, 2016, 11:45:40 am »
I want to start by saying that I have not personally used both methods however one of the guys in my local homebrew club has recently switched to no chill and his beers are still consistently great.  The key seems to be that you should use a sealed HDPE cube for chilling and then aerate and transfer to the fermenter once it reaches temp.

There is an exbeeriment conducted over at brulosophy where he actually compares the no chill method in blind triangle tests.  I have provided a link to this as well as another brewer who switched to no chill without telling anyone to see if his friends/beer judges would notice. 

I hope this is helpful

http://brulosophy.com/2015/11/09/cooling-the-wort-pt-1-no-chill-vs-quick-chill-exbeeriment-results/#more-6073

http://brulosophy.com/2015/02/09/a-year-of-no-chill-lessons-from-a-secret-xbmt/#more-2760


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Offline kpfoleyjr

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Re: Wort Cooling - Air, equipment, ice bath, etc etc??
« Reply #19 on: June 12, 2016, 01:36:22 pm »
I bought a Hydra chiller last year, and I connect it to my old chiller in a brew pot full of ice cubes, and run the water through the ice cube pot before the Hydra.  Cools things down from boiling to pitching temp in around  10 minutes or less.  I like my Auber temp controller for my 10 cu ft refrigerator fermentation chamber too.  I use my old Johnson controller with a chest freezer for lagering.


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Offline stevecrawshaw

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Re: Wort Cooling - Air, equipment, ice bath, etc etc??
« Reply #20 on: June 12, 2016, 02:40:15 pm »
If you use an HDPE jerry can (AKA "cube") you will be fine. You can dunk it into a bin full of water to cool it. Make sure the cap is on tight. I have used plate chillers and immersion chillers and I have now settled on this approach. The wort will be sterile in the sealed container. Just wait till it is at pitching temp, then pitch. I have done dozens of batches like this now with results as good as if not better than using a wort chiller. Save yourself water and time, keep it simple.
cheers
steve
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Offline erockrph

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Re: Wort Cooling - Air, equipment, ice bath, etc etc??
« Reply #21 on: June 12, 2016, 03:35:31 pm »
If you use an HDPE jerry can (AKA "cube") you will be fine. You can dunk it into a bin full of water to cool it. Make sure the cap is on tight. I have used plate chillers and immersion chillers and I have now settled on this approach. The wort will be sterile in the sealed container. Just wait till it is at pitching temp, then pitch. I have done dozens of batches like this now with results as good as if not better than using a wort chiller. Save yourself water and time, keep it simple.
cheers
steve
Not to nitpick, but boiled wort isn't sterile. Boiling temps are not high enough to kill Clostridium botulinum (aka, botulism) spores. I'm not discounting that many brewers use no-chill and I have yet to hear of any reports of botulism, but if we're talking no-chill then I think that point needs to be made so everyone can decide for themselves if they are willing to accept that level of risk.
Eric B.

Finally got around to starting a homebrewing blog: The Hop Whisperer

Offline Stevie

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Re: Wort Cooling - Air, equipment, ice bath, etc etc??
« Reply #22 on: June 12, 2016, 04:06:42 pm »
+1 to Eric

I'm sure overnight or two days is fine, but I wouldn't go any longer than that.

Offline jimmykx250

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Re: Wort Cooling - Air, equipment, ice bath, etc etc??
« Reply #23 on: June 13, 2016, 02:44:48 am »
If you use an HDPE jerry can (AKA "cube") you will be fine. You can dunk it into a bin full of water to cool it. Make sure the cap is on tight. I have used plate chillers and immersion chillers and I have now settled on this approach. The wort will be sterile in the sealed container. Just wait till it is at pitching temp, then pitch. I have done dozens of batches like this now with results as good as if not better than using a wort chiller. Save yourself water and time, keep it simple.
cheers
steve

I second this approach to chiling. Saves time and water and something else to clean. Ive never had a problem just keep the cube clean and i keep around a gallon of starsan in there when not in use give the can a shake on brew day and dump and away you go. This and the BIAB method allows me to keep my brew days in the 3 to 4 hour range easily. 
Jimmykx250

Offline jaioldham

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Re: Wort Cooling - Air, equipment, ice bath, etc etc??
« Reply #24 on: June 13, 2016, 08:24:23 am »
If you use an HDPE jerry can (AKA "cube") you will be fine. You can dunk it into a bin full of water to cool it. Make sure the cap is on tight. I have used plate chillers and immersion chillers and I have now settled on this approach. The wort will be sterile in the sealed container. Just wait till it is at pitching temp, then pitch. I have done dozens of batches like this now with results as good as if not better than using a wort chiller. Save yourself water and time, keep it simple.
cheers
steve
Not to nitpick, but boiled wort isn't sterile. Boiling temps are not high enough to kill Clostridium botulinum (aka, botulism) spores. I'm not discounting that many brewers use no-chill and I have yet to hear of any reports of botulism, but if we're talking no-chill then I think that point needs to be made so everyone can decide for themselves if they are willing to accept that level of risk.
There is very little risk of botulism, if any, using no-chill as long as you pitch active yeast the next day or as soon as your wort reaches pitching temp.  The bacteria can create enough botulinum toxin to make you sick (or kill you) in three days.  As long as the PH of the wort drops below 4.6, which happens when yeast does its thing, the bacteria will become dormant and will not release the toxin. 

Offline wittyyetdumb

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Re: Wort Cooling - Air, equipment, ice bath, etc etc??
« Reply #25 on: June 13, 2016, 02:14:19 pm »
I really appreciate everyone offering advice on chilling!  So much nicer than reading random websites and getting more confused.  I just brewed yesterday and I did use the wort chiller.  I could only get the temp down to 80.  I loaded to the carboy and then ice bath to 66.  It was after midnight before I could pitch.  I made a 5 gallon batch of Dunkleweizen.  I missed the OG by .06 (1.044 was supposed to be 1.05 to 1.055) but I'll post that problem on a different thread.

Thanks again fellas and it really is a lot of fun making the most expensive free beer I've every had!   

Offline erockrph

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Re: Wort Cooling - Air, equipment, ice bath, etc etc??
« Reply #26 on: June 15, 2016, 12:25:33 pm »
If you use an HDPE jerry can (AKA "cube") you will be fine. You can dunk it into a bin full of water to cool it. Make sure the cap is on tight. I have used plate chillers and immersion chillers and I have now settled on this approach. The wort will be sterile in the sealed container. Just wait till it is at pitching temp, then pitch. I have done dozens of batches like this now with results as good as if not better than using a wort chiller. Save yourself water and time, keep it simple.
cheers
steve
Not to nitpick, but boiled wort isn't sterile. Boiling temps are not high enough to kill Clostridium botulinum (aka, botulism) spores. I'm not discounting that many brewers use no-chill and I have yet to hear of any reports of botulism, but if we're talking no-chill then I think that point needs to be made so everyone can decide for themselves if they are willing to accept that level of risk.
There is very little risk of botulism, if any, using no-chill as long as you pitch active yeast the next day or as soon as your wort reaches pitching temp.  The bacteria can create enough botulinum toxin to make you sick (or kill you) in three days.  As long as the PH of the wort drops below 4.6, which happens when yeast does its thing, the bacteria will become dormant and will not release the toxin.
I don't disagree with any of that. I have heard of no-chill brewers holding their wort for weeks or even months before pitching, and that scares the bejeebus out of me. Like you said, there is very little risk in the short term, but boiled wort isn't inherently sterile and shouldn't leave anyone with a false sense of security for extended warm storage.
Eric B.

Finally got around to starting a homebrewing blog: The Hop Whisperer

Offline panfriedcharlie

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Re: Wort Cooling - Air, equipment, ice bath, etc etc??
« Reply #27 on: June 27, 2016, 07:03:10 pm »
I have a stainless steel coil chiller that I use to bring the wort below 26C. Then I splash it into the fermentation vessel and pitch the yeast. Works for me!

Takes fifteen minutes and I have to clean the chiller, but IMO it beats an infected batch or -- worse, as others have pointed out -- an exploding glass carboy.