Chilling wort before the boil

[Sambill]

I'm hoping to make a series of Smash beers, a gallon of each.
As I only have a couple of pans for the boil, I'm thinking about making a 5-6 gallon base malt in a single mash, chilling this quickly to stop enzyme activity, and then boiling gallon batches over a couple of days.

Are there potentially any detrimental effects this would have on the beer? Providing that the chilling process is sterile I would guess that the chance of infection would be low.

My main concern would be DMS, would chilling the wort preboil somehow 'set' the DMS in a way that produces off flavours?

Has anyone tried this?

All comments appreciated!

 

[fury_tea]

I don't know about the DMS question, never heard of it setting in a brew, maybe someone else can help with that, but I wouldn't worry about it too much myself. The thing I would be concerned about is that your mashed wort probably wouldn't have got to the temperatures needed to kill off all bacteria, which could become a problem over a few days. Maybe bringing the wort to a boil for 10-15 minutes before you chill it could be an option? That way you could sterilise everything (and your immersion chiller) then chill it and be sure there's minimal risk of nasties?
As long as you keep the chilled wort at a low enough temperature to guard against any wild yeast or bacteria taking up residence I can't see a problem though. Boiling for that 15 minutes more may increase your final ABV if you don't take it into account though.

 

[Cwrw666]

Mash temperature just happens to be the same as pasteurising temperature so as long as your post-mash regime is hygeinic you should be ok.

 

[dan125]

Maybe a good 10 min mash out at 75-80C would help ensure its pasteurised and stop the enzymes.
Not sure about the DMS though

 

[Nicks90]

DMS is formed during kilning in pilsner malts and when the wort is brought to 80c according to milkthefunk.
So as long as you use something like MO and don't hit 80c, then you should avoid DMS issues without having to boil.

 

[Sambill]

Thanks for these replies. It doesnt sound like there is anything too concerning with this approach. It looks like either:
a. mash out and chill with a coil thats been boiled in water
b. boil the wort and coil for 10-15 minutes then chill

I think i'd be tempted to go with b as i could transfer a portion to the 2 pans i have for the first 2 SMASH beers. Looking forward to this, any more info welcome, i'll let you know - hopefully get a brew day done in the week.

Edit: MilkTheFunk Wiki looks like a whole new world!

 

[Sambill]

Hi,

For anyone who is interested, i finally got around to doing this yesterday. Didn't go entirely to plan but it should produce 4 decent smash beers. My main burner needs to be used outdoors and it hasn't stopped raining, i'm bored of building impromptu shelters.
Mash: Pilsner as a base malt with a bit of pale wheat, so a DMASH really. And i needed a full boil due to the Pilsner.
Fly sparged and boiled wort for 30 minutes. Gravity at this point was a respectable 1.052.
Pulled off two 5 litre batches. Boiled each in completely different sized pans for another 30 min so boil off rate differed by quite a bit. Managed both hop schedules fine.
Kept the remaining wort close to boiling and then boiled the coil chiller in it as the flameout additions were completing in first two.
Realised i didn't have anywhere near enough for 5 batches, so then pulled off 2 x 6 litre batches, so the second 2 are going to be stronger, again boil off rates different.
Once all cooled and in demijohns i topped up with cold water.
Made the assumption that the quantity and starting gravity were known and the OG of each pair should be similar. This falls down a bit as hop additions were calculated in BeerSmith to give a similar level of bitterness, so more Ahtanum, having an AA level of 4.8% was used than Bravo, which had AA level 0f 15.8%. So more beer was lost to the Ahtanum cone than the Bravo. So i'll guess the OG of the Ahtanum was a bit lower. I'm not sacrificing 100ml of each to the hydrometer, thats nearly a pint in all! I don't care how strong these are.... well i do but it's a waste. Need a refractometer.

Thanks to all for the advice. Also boshed out a crazy stout and small beer yesterday, knackered but hopefully lots of bubbling when i get home!