Ice chilling

[Portreath]

I'm looking to buy a wort chiller having read that a brew, such as amber and golden ales will clear better and won't be prone to chill haze if cooled quickly after the boil. So I thought I'd try the quick chill with ice. After the boil of approx 19 ltrs I was left with approx 15 ltr, so I chucked in 4 bags of ice to get back to 19. So fare so good, fermentation is taking place, but I noticed a lot of separation in the FV. As anyone had any success or otherwise with fast chilling with ice?

 

[The Baron]

I use the no chill method and never have a problem with chill haze. I let it chill overnight or if brewed early it can be chilled by late tea time. I do use gelatin in the keg or FV depending on how I feel with the brew and if conditioned in a cold area or fridge it will be clearish in a week and improve with age as all beers do to full clarity( just like commercial). I have found in my opinion it does not make any difference whether chill or no chill as I have done both for long periods. My beers are served through a kegerator or a cornelius beer chiller and no chill haze on my beers. The only problem and that is not chill haze is clearing hoppy dry hopped beer but that is just the amount of hops

 

[rank_frank]

fast cooling of your boiled wort along with irish moss will cause a cold break of proteins etc. That will give a clearer wort going into your fermenter but chill haze is normally removed after fermentation by chilling the beer to cause the haze and then using finings such as gelatine, filtering or just leaving until they drop out.

 

[Portreath]

Thanks for the pointer, really helpful. My reservations of buying a wort chiller is the amount of wasted water, or the utter frigmarole of creating some method of retrieving and reusing the water. I do like simplicity, so the no chill method is ideal.
I tend to ferment, then decant off the trub into a bottler (2nd FV) and then go straight to bottles. When you do the conditioning do you do this by chilling the 1st FV before drawing off the brew?

 

[The Baron]

Hi Portreath a tip if you are going to do the no chill use your irish moss/protofloc tablet then when the boil has finished removed the hops if that is what you do (some leave them in, then let the wort stand for 15 to 20 mins to reduce the temp to 80 or below this also lets the trub settle so as to get a clearer transfer and put into straight into your FV and let it cool in there.

 

[The Baron]

you can coldcrash the fermented beer and either add gelatin while cold crashing or coldcrash in the keg and add the gelatin then. You do not have to add gelatin if you do not want as time will clear the beer but as rank frank says the cold crash with the gelatin does help the chill haze

 

[Portreath]

Thanks @the baron. I followed the instructions in GW's CAMBRA book and put the protofloc in 10 mins towards the end. Do you think it's best to add this after the boil? I have noticed that while the wort is still hot there is a lot of material moving around in suspension. I'll be trying your approach and recording the outcome. I feel a Timothy Taylor's Landlord clone coming on later today :-)

 

[IainM]

Hi @Portreath,
I've done this before, and made a thread with an equation which tells you exactly how much ice you need to get down to pitching temperature: https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/how-to-get-to-pitching-temperature-using-ice.66198/

I used this method along with a couple of other time saving measures to get from start to pitching in under three hours, which is the quickest brew day I've ever done!: https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...-batch-ag-pitched-in-under-three-hours.66495/

 

[The Baron]

correct add the protofloc for the last ten minutes of the boil and yes that is what you should see it is clumping the trub together that is why I say leave it to cool slightly and for the trub to fall to the bottom of the boil kettle. You should not really transfer boiling hot wort to the FV as it can distort the FV also and this should not really happen with kosher FV's made for the job (they are food safe plastic)it but it can leach out impurities from the plastic and alter the taste of the beer. When transfer the wort at about 80c to the FV you can pt a hop spider between the FV and the boil kettle to catch some of the trub to further aid the clarity but this is not essential. Some brewers do not worry about the trub and dump it all into the FV but I think it does help speed up the clearing process. So give it a go and see if it works for you and don't forget to use the gelatin when the beer has fermented its all a experimental game to find a process that works for you

 

[-Bezza-]

In my past couple of brews, I've just lobbed a few 2L PET bottles full of water (allowing for a bit of expansion room) in the freezer the night before. Quick spray of starsan and into the hot wort they go. It's got down to a respectable temperature fairly quickly and then you can just leave it a bit longer to get down to pitching temp on its own or refresh with new ice bottles. Zero wastage and cheap.

I was wary of putting ice cubes in there as they didn't seem to be particularly clean. Bagged ice, all chucked in at the same time so the initial wort temp kills any bugs, would probably be ok I guess.

Clarity-wise, I've never done anything other than cold-crash for 1 week once fermentation is complete and then transfer into bottles. Once in the bottle, I carbonate for a few weeks and then chill in the fridge for a few weeks as the priming sugar tends to make things go murky.