Chilling wort this time of year

[welly3]

Wondered if anyone has any ideas on how to get the wort down to pitching temperature this time of year when the group water temperature is high. I'm currently using a Grainfather and the counter flow chiller.

Having been brewing in Australia for several years I should be an expert on this however usually resorted to with no-chill brewing and would let the wort cool down over night and pitch the next day or had an intermediary cooler bin full of ice that I'd have an immersion chiller sitting in to cool the water going into the grainfather chiller.

I'd be keen to get some more ideas because I don't really want to go to the time and expense of an intermediary chiller just for another month or so before the inevitable start of winter kicks in. I wouldn't be against the idea of a plate chiller but am keen to find out what ways other people are chilling their wort unless you're not suffering from warm tap water!

 

[aj65]

I have a small plate chiller.
I’m struggling to get the temp down below 35c using iced water, I could turn up the flow rate to drop a few more degrees but I’m being tight with the amount of water I use.
If I get the wort in the fridge by about 2 I can pitch normally around 7-8 the same day.

 

[robbym123]

This is a big issue for me, as I do 100 litre brews with just an immersion chiller.

What I do in the summer is to boil a batch of water the day before. 25 litres goes in the fermentation fridge, set to 2c. As much as 10 litres goes into the freezer in 1 litre tuppaware containers sprayed with starsan. I will treat this water ( Camden tablet, CRS etc) the same way as the main brewing water.

For this method to work I need the wort in the boil to be stronger than I want/need, to allow for addition of the ice and chilled water.
Initially the immersion chiller works well knocking the wort down to circa 45-50c in the first 10 or so minutes.

There is no point putting the ice in too early, as the chiller is doing its job and the ice will melt quickly.

I wait until the IC has really slowed down, at about 15-20 mins and 35-40c. Then the ice goes in, rapidly chilling as it melts.

Once the ice has melted I pour the chilled water into the 2 60litre fermenters that I use. The wort then goes in on top.

In this way I can get 100 litres of wort to pitching temp in under 30 mins. There is a bit of extra prep work I guess, but it is a warm weather process that I am happy with.

 

[aj65]

Ok that sounds an interesting way of doing it. I’m not sure I would trust myself for all the calculations on that method.
If you can get boil temp down to pitching temp in about 30 min I would stick with it

 

[robbym123]

Yeah, you're right, the numbers can be a bit fiddly. Generally I calculate the grain required for the full liquid batch size, add a few percent to take account of lower efficiency and then dilute to the OG I am looking for.

As long as you don't get hung up by hitting the last degree of gravity or temperature I is fairly easy and works well for me.

 

[aj65]

Fear of the unknown stops me from doing that lol

 

[MyQul]

What I have been doing for years is after the no chill, if I want to use my brew bag and need to get the temp down further to hit pitching temp. I freeze 500ml bottles of water, then sanitize them in star san then just chuck them in the wort. Cools it down like a block of ice but without diluting the wort

 

[Duxuk]

My last 23l brew needed about 15l of water through my immersion chiller to get it to 27C. I left it for a few hours before I pitched and it had dropped to 22C, which I thought was OK. You just need to make sure it's well sealed to reduce any chance of infection. I've used some of the water on the garden and still have around 10l for when the hose pipe ban takes effect on 1st August. I'm brewing tomorrow and will have to find some more vessels to save the water.

 

[aj65]

What I have been doing for years is after the no chill, if I want to use my brew bag and need to get the temp down further to hit pitching temp. I freeze 500ml bottles of water, then sanitize them in star san then just chuck them in the wort. Cools it down like a block of ice but without diluting the wort

I like the idea of the frozen bottles only sanitation to worry.

 

[MyQul]

I like the idea of the frozen bottles only sanitation to worry.

just dunk em in some star san for a short while then chuck em in the wort. Once they've melted I just fish em out, rinse them off and sling em back into the freezer. I've been doing this and using the same 500ml water bottles for about 3 years and never had a problem

 

[aj65]

Do you take them out once temperature is hit?

 

[MyQul]

Do you take them out once temperature is hit?

Yes. Then pitch the yeast

Stiring the wort every so often when the bottles are in the wort helps loads too

 

[aj65]

Yes. Then pitch the yeast

Stiring the wort every so often when the bottles are in the wort helps loads too

Thanks for that Will def give that a go next time

 

[MyQul]

I've had my no chill FV's on some concrete paving all afternoon/eve and their almost down to ambient temp now, even in this heat. Concrete slabs dont half make good heat sinks

 

[Duxuk]

. Concrete slabs dont half make good heat sinks

I'm using the concrete garage floor to keep my FV down to around 20C. It's temperature control but not as we know it.

 

[The Baron]

I'm using the concrete garage floor to keep my FV down to around 20C. It's temperature control but not as we know it.

Yep brewing on my garage floor a constant 20 ish even in this heat not stopped me brewing at all

 

[Slid]

My last 23l brew needed about 15l of water through my immersion chiller to get it to 27C. I left it for a few hours before I pitched and it had dropped to 22C, which I thought was OK. You just need to make sure it's well sealed to reduce any chance of infection. I've used some of the water on the garden and still have around 10l for when the hose pipe ban takes effect on 1st August. I'm brewing tomorrow and will have to find some more vessels to save the water.

UU's "hose pipe ban" commences on the 5th of August and its purpose is to raise awareness to the extent that everyone shows this degree of appreciation of the requirement to be careful with drinkable water. Many thanks for this approach, Duxuk.

 

[Duxuk]

Good news about yesterday's brew. After collecting around 19 gallons of water I decided 30C was about as low as I was going to get. I waited a few hours before pitching and this morning, with the FV on a concrete garage floor, my temperature is 20.5C. That'll do me:thumb:

 

[MrRock]

I've been using my immersion chiller for the first part which gets it down to about 40C in around 10 minutes or so and then similar to @MyQul using some frozen bottles of water after dunking them in StarSan and then stirring every few minutes.

I've been getting to pitch temperature in around 30 minutes or so with this method.