Speeding up brew day

[Harto]

Hi All,

I've done a fair few brews now and as time goes on, each brew gets quicker. Generally I've found ways to multi task such as getting the hops ready during the mash or cleaning the mash tun during the boil.

One thing I can't work out how to speed up is chilling the wort and cleaning the kettle. I cool the wort down with a copper wort chiller in the kettle but this means I have to wait until the wort is cool enough to transfer to the fermenter before I can clean the kettle. I don't like the idea of transferring boiling wort to the fermenter and if I part chill in the kettle, I'll end up with bits of hop floating in the fermenter if I move the chiller from the kettle to the fermenter. I assume if I rinse the chiller after it's been in the kettle I can't put it into the fermenter because it won't be sterile. There's probably an easy solution I'm missing but any suggestions please? TIA.


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[chewie]

If you have a bottom connection on your kettle just run it into the FV via gravity and chill in the fermenter, use the warm water coming out of the chiller to wash down the kettle with, you could sterilise the chilling coil by putting it into the wort for the last 5 mins of the boil before using it in the FV.

 

[Pawlo7671]

get a counter flow chiller so that it cools the wort as its going in to the FV

 

[Harto]

That was my thought too but transferring the coil from the kettle to the FV would transfer a load of hop leaves too (the coil always comes out of the kettle with hops stuck to it).


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[dad_of_jon]

That was my thought too but transferring the coil from the kettle to the FV would transfer a load of hop leaves too (the coil always comes out of the kettle with hops stuck to it).


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just submerge it in a saucepan of boiling water at the same time as the end of wort boil.

 

[dweb]

Counterflow chiller is the way to go.As soon as the boil is complete,I turn on my c/flow and run it straight into the FV at 21-23C.

 

[jackthehat]

What brew-length are you doing?

I have a Grainfather, but I often don't bother with the CFC, as it adds to the clean-up time. Have a look at Aussie-style no-chill using 25l plastic gerry cans. I pump the boiling wort in and use its heat to sanitise the container. Let it cool naturally and aerate and pitch the yeast a day or two later.

I like splitting it up like this. My typical brew day is about 4 hours, including cleaning.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Surely, if there are hop leaves in the boiled wort, they will still be there in the chilled wort. Do they "drop out" when the wort is chilled so that transfer to the FV does not get impeded?
I no-chill, and I also use a hop spider in the boiler.

 

[Harto]

Hi!
Surely, if there are hop leaves in the boiled wort, they will still be there in the chilled wort. Do they "drop out" when the wort is chilled so that transfer to the FV does not get impeded?
I no-chill, and I also use a hop spider in the boiler.

I have a filter on the boiler tap so they get filtered out. If I pull the coil out, they stick to the coil and would get deposited in the fermenter. I'm not sure that would be a big problem but the filter and the heating elements mean the top 1/3 of the coil doesn't get immersed in the boiler so may not get sterilised. It would be fully immersed in the fermenter so would this be an infection risk if the wort was part cooled?


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[MagnusTS]

What brew-length are you doing?

I have a Grainfather, but I often don't bother with the CFC, as it adds to the clean-up time. Have a look at Aussie-style no-chill using 25l plastic gerry cans. I pump the boiling wort in and use its heat to sanitise the container. Let it cool naturally and aerate and pitch the yeast a day or two later.

I like splitting it up like this. My typical brew day is about 4 hours, including cleaning.

I like the sound of this. Do you pitch and ferment in the jerry can or do you transfer to an FV when cooled?

I may give this a go. I love the CFC, but I reckon I could save an hour transferring hot with no CFC clean up.

 

[jackthehat]

I transfer it from a height into a FV to aerate and ferment it in there.

You could probably ferment it in the jerry can if you really wanted to, but they would be awkward to clean afterwards.

 

[Harto]

I transfer it from a height into a FV to aerate and ferment it in there.

You could probably ferment it in the jerry can if you really wanted to, but they would be awkward to clean afterwards.

Is there a difference between the jerry can and a fermenter with an airlock on it? Both should be sterile and airtight?


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[Bigcol49]

Hi!
One homebrewer has used a plastic Jerry to ferment and pressurise for serving: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlqi2674r5A&feature=share[/ame]
Food-grade plastic jerries will be fine as fermenting vessels.

 

[Bigcol49]

I have a filter on the boiler tap so they get filtered out. If I pull the coil out, they stick to the coil and would get deposited in the fermenter. I'm not sure that would be a big problem but the filter and the heating elements mean the top 1/3 of the coil doesn't get immersed in the boiler so may not get sterilised. It would be fully immersed in the fermenter so would this be an infection risk if the wort was part cooled?

Hi!
Unless you use a hop spider I can't see a solution to your problem. Perhaps, with your set-up, there is no easy way to speed up brew day.

 

[jackthehat]

Is there a difference between the jerry can and a fermenter with an airlock on it? Both should be sterile and airtight?

With the jerry can you stand it on its sides to ensure that the heat sanitises all of the inside. You couldn't do that with a fermenter.

More importantly, it contracts as it cools. The jerry sucks in its sides but the fermenter would suck air in through the airlock.

 

[MagnusTS]

I have a Grainfather, but I often don't bother with the CFC, as it adds to the clean-up time. Have a look at Aussie-style no-chill using 25l plastic gerry cans. I pump the boiling wort in and use its heat to sanitise the container. Let it cool naturally and aerate and pitch the yeast a day or two later.

Sorry, another question:
What is your tubing setup to pump hot wort from the GF into your jerry can?
Have you just taken the long silicone outflow tube off the CFC and attached it to the connector that screws onto the top of the discharge pipe?

 

[Chrislane]

Im interested in this no chill method. But when would you add / remove flame out hops?

 

[Duxuk]

No chill substantially changes the beer. The continued heat affects the alpha acids from late hopping, destroying the lighter elements and causing isomerisation and therefore extra bitterness. It may work for some styles but if you want a late hopped flavour you need to rely on dry hopping. My beers are vastly better using an immersion chiller because I like my late hopping.

 

[Lesinge]

I aim to get a hop spider but currently I use hop bags in my boil and never have floating hops. That is a really cheap way to do this if you don't want to have hops on your chiller.

 

[jackthehat]

Sorry, another question:
What is your tubing setup to pump hot wort from the GF into your jerry can?
Have you just taken the long silicone outflow tube off the CFC and attached it to the connector that screws onto the top of the discharge pipe?

Yes, just that. I stand the jerry can on a box so the end of the tube is closer to the bottom of the can, but it probably doesn't make any difference.

As DuxUK points out, this method can change the hop profile, if there are a lot of late additions. I mainly brew milds and stouts so I don't find it a problem.