Evaporation during boil & cool

[SmokinMesa]

Hey guys, might be a basic question but as a beginner I was wondering:

Unless mistaken, after boiling the wort you need to cool it down as quick as possible.

Why don't you boil with less water and add already cool water post boil to bring the temp down quicker? I assume treated water would be needed to avoid infection. Which I'm guessing answers my own question (to avoid infection).

Thanks guys

 

[MyQul]

Well you can do that (and I have). Firstly it's not as effective as you think it might be. I've chucked 5L blocks of ice into boiling wort and it still takes a good while to cool down. Secondly, as the wort is more concentrated you get worse hop utilisation (basically how well the hops have imparted there taste ad aroma into the beer) in concentrated wort and you need more hops

 

[SmokinMesa]

Well you can do that (and I have). Firstly it's not as effective as you think it might be. I've chucked 5L blocks of ice into boiling wort and it still takes a good while to cool down. Secondly, as the wort is more concentrated you get worse hop utilisation (basically how well the hops have imparted there taste ad aroma into the beer) in concentrated wort and you need more hops

Ah ok makes sense. I guess my heads thinking small batch 5l or 10l so possibly if on a full brew yes I can see the impact being much less.

 

[Hoppyland]

Well, most people do want to cool their wort down quickly. But, there is another way known as "no chill", where the wort is left to cool down slowly - at least overnight for a 20-25l brew. As with all things in brewing, there are many different ways to do this. The main advantage is that, obviously, you don't need a chiller. The main disadvantage is that it can be v difficult to adapt a "chill" recipe to "no chill" as you get very different bitterness extraction from the hops.

 

[MyQul]

The main disadvantage is that it can be v difficult to adapt a "chill" recipe to "no chill" as you get very different bitterness extraction from the hops.

It's not if you strain the hops out as you pour the wort into the cube/FV

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I used to go the no chill route but kept getting spoilt brews especially in summer. So I bought some copper tubing from Wicks and made a chiller. Never has a spoilt brew in 5 years since.

 

[MyQul]

I used to go the no chill route but kept getting spoilt brews especially in summer. So I bought some copper tubing from Wicks and made a chiller. Never has a spoilt brew in 5 years since.

Wonder what you were doing wrong? I've been no chilling for years, since I started AG and have only ever had one infection (and that was my own fault as I was faffing around with top cropping)