Wort cooling

[bmass96]

Evening folks,

I've recently opened up my latest bottled homebrew and it tastes glorious! A 3.9% dry-hopped session pale with simcoe and centennial.

On the brew day however, I had a nightmare cooling the wort. It just took ages (was 6+ hours).

I use an electric kettle/urn so the electrical components are sat in the bottom of the kettle - on that basis I was hesitant to chuck it in a bath and cool it that way, so I actually ended up leaving it to cool naturally. I have no immersion chiller or anything like that (down to cost).

Just wondered for future reference, anyone have any advice how I could speed the cooling up!? Does anyone use a similar kettle!?

Cheers!
Ben.

 

[HarryFlatters]

Have a look at 'no chill brewing', where after the boil, you transfer the wort into a sanitised, food safe plastic container, squeeze out the air and then leave to cool overnight.

Having said that, it seems like you managed ok with your current method

 

[Clint]

No chill would be safest as you risk getting it infected the longer you leave it unsealed. Then,though you will have to obtain a suitable, food safe container. You could also look at making a wort chiller...I made my own and although it's not very pretty it does the job very well!
As the ground water temp increases I'm going to try no chill this year.

 

[matt76]

Make a wort chiller - it's relatively cheap, it's easy, it doesn't take long and it's very effective:
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/holy-heat-transfer-batman-its-a-wort-chiller.79604/

 

[-Bezza-]

Get some 1l PET bottles, remove the labels and glue, fill with water and freeze.

When you're ready to chill the wort, give the bottles a quick spray with starsan and chuck them into the kettle.

For the initial cooling from boiling, you probably don't need to spray them as the wort will be so hot it'll kill any bacteria on there. Once you get to a certain point, the bottles will no longer be cool enough and you'll want to refresh. At this stage, the wort won't be hot enough to sanitise the bottles so the starsan will be more important - however you might need to get the bottles out the freezer and let them defrost slightly to stop the Starsan freezing onto the bottle (which I would assume stops the Starsan working, rather than being bad for your beer).

 

[GerritT]

No chill works for me, but I might switch to a spiral wort chiller (we're getting an outside tap )

 

[Gerryjo]

No chill for sure is easiest,though if you have none of the above simply wrap some cling film over the lid if your boiler and cool or chuck it straight into your fermenter as it's pretty robust then pitch yeast when cooled.Safe enough to leave overnight as the hot wort will help sanitise your fermenter if you haven't already done so...

 

[The Baron]

Always no chill. I transfer to my FV when it has cooled in the boiler to about 80C then leave overnight to cool to pitch temp and I have never ever had a problem. My beers are always clear unless I have done a large dry hop

 

[bmass96]

No chill for sure is easiest,though if you have none of the above simply wrap some cling film over the lid if your boiler and cool or chuck it straight into your fermenter as it's pretty robust then pitch yeast when cooled.Safe enough to leave overnight as the hot wort will help sanitise your fermenter if you haven't already done so...

Sounds like the option for me! Thought about leaving it overnight before but wasn't sure! Cheers!

 

[Hoppyland]

I've never chilled, and the only problem I've ever had is gauging the bitterness from late hop additions. I boil my wort in a Buffalo "tea shop" boiler. Once the boil is finished, I pull a black bin-bag over the top of the boiler and pull it fairly tight around the bottom of the boiler. No airborne contaminants are going to get in, and the quite tight fit around the bottom of the boiler means that fruit flies etc are not going to get in either.
I usually use fairly low alpha-acid hops as late additions, so the protracted cooling period has not really been an issue. However, I've recently developed a few recipes using American hops that have quite high bittering potential. So, for greater control and repeatability, what I've done is to draw off a proportion (say 2l) of the newly-boiled wort into a large pan. Add the "steep/whirlpool" hops for a set time at a set temperature (I use brewing software here as a guide), and then pop the pan into a bathfull of cold water to stop hop isomerisation. This seems to be working very well.

 

[foxbat]

Get some 1l PET bottles, remove the labels and glue, fill with water and freeze.

When you're ready to chill the wort, give the bottles a quick spray with starsan and chuck them into the kettle.

For the initial cooling from boiling, you probably don't need to spray them as the wort will be so hot it'll kill any bacteria on there. Once you get to a certain point, the bottles will no longer be cool enough and you'll want to refresh. At this stage, the wort won't be hot enough to sanitise the bottles so the starsan will be more important - however you might need to get the bottles out the freezer and let them defrost slightly to stop the Starsan freezing onto the bottle (which I would assume stops the Starsan working, rather than being bad for your beer).

Dropping plastic into boiling liquid turns you into a woman. Apparently.

 

[HarryFlatters]

Dropping plastic into boiling liquid turns you into a woman. Apparently.

Here's me thinking that my moobs were pie related.

 

[-Bezza-]

Dropping plastic into boiling liquid turns you into a woman. Apparently.

Nah, that article is about putting hot liquids into plastic. I'm suggesting putting plastic into hot liquid which is different, so I think it's allowed.

 

[Cwrw666]

I always do no-chill. I like to start brewing at 9 am so I'm finished before 2pm. Then I transfer while still hot into the FV (so the hot wort further sanitises the FV) and leave it til bed time when I chuck in the yeast. Works well for me.
After switching off the boiler I leave it to settle for half an hour before the transfer so you do end up with some bitterness from the late additions so sometimes I slightly reduce the 60m addition to compensate.

 

[GerritT]

Below 80º there's hardly any bitterness extracted from the hops, so another plan is to get to the 80ºC quickly, then leave it overnight.