How long wort cool

However, chill haze indicates that there is an appreciable level of cold-break-type protein in the beer, which has been linked to long-term stability problems.

Hazy beer tends to become stale sooner than non-hazy beer. The following are a few preferred methods for cooling the wort. As mentioned in the previous chapter, it is best to keep the pot lid on, but if you are careful you can speed up the cooling by stirring. Gently stir the wort in a circular manner so the maximum amount of wort is moving against the sides of the pot.

Minimize splashing to avoid oxidation. Don't let water from your hands drip inside the pot; this could be a source of contamination. If the cooling water gets warm, replace with colder water. When the pot is barely warm to the touch, the temperature is in the right range. People often wonder about adding ice directly to the cooling wort. This idea works well if you remember a couple key points. A wort chiller is coil of copper tubing that is used as a heat exchanger to cool the wort in-place.

While wort chillers are not necessary for your first batch of beer, especially when you are only boiling gallons, this is a good time to make you aware of them. Wort chillers are useful for cooling full volume boils because you can leave the wort on the stove instead of carrying it to a sink or bathtub. Five gallons of boiling hot wort weighs almost 45 pounds and is hazardous to carry. There are two basic types of wort chillers: immersion and counter-flow. When mixing cold water and hot wort, add the cold water to your fermenter first, then slowly add the hot wort.

Stir the wort with a clean, sanitized spoon as you mix the two. Never add hot wort to a carboy before the cold water, as the heat can crack it. One disadvantage of transferring hot wort into cold water without chilling it first is you carry all the potential cold break into the fermenter.

If you want to get rid of this break material, you can initially transfer the wort to cold water in a sanitized bucket and wait for 15 minutes or so for the break material to settle out. Then, you can siphon the clear wort to your primary fermenter. A five-gallon or smaller wort can easily be cooled by submerging your brewpot in a sink.

This transfers heat from your wort to the water. To do this, put a cover on the brewpot after the boil, place the pot in a sink and fill the sink with cold water. To speed cooling, swirl the water in the sink every couple of minutes and change the water in the sink every five to seven minutes.

Also, stir the wort with a clean, sanitized spoon every time you change the water. These two things will keep cold water next to the outside of the pot and hot wort next to the inside of the pot. Once the brewpot has cooled to the point where you can comfortably touch it for a few seconds, put some ice in the sink and fill it with water.

You will need a total of about three to four pounds of ice per gallon of wort to cool it quickly. The exact amount depends on how cold your wort is when you begin icing it. Keep changing the cooling water and adding more ice every time the ice melts. Begin checking the temperature of your wort — with a clean, sanitized thermometer — once the brewpot is cool to the touch. Once the wort is cooled to your target temperature, transfer it to your fermenter.

Even if you add some cold topping-up water to your wort, cooling the brewpot in a sink or tub is a good idea. If hot wort is splashed around, it can darken significantly. And finally, hot wort can cause scalds — so anytime you cool it before moving it anywhere, the better off you will be. I always cool any wort — even the wort I make for yeast starters — before transferring it.

Cooling the wort before transferring also allows you to separate the wort from some of the cold break material. Simply cool the wort to the point where you can comfortably touch the brewpot for a few seconds, then transfer the wort to your fermenter. Plus, you would need to carry the wort to the water and this could be dangerous. Luckily, homebrewers have a safe, effective way of cooling a wort without having to move it — with an immersion chiller.

An immersion chiller is a metal coil — usually copper — that is placed in hot wort. It has tubing or hoses running from both ends. Water running through the coils absorbs heat and carries it out of the wort. When used correctly, an immersion chiller will cool a wort much faster than cooling the brewpot in a kitchen sink. To use an immersion chiller, place the clean chiller in your wort about 15 minutes before the boil is done. The heat from the wort will sanitize it.

Hook one end of the chiller tubing to your water source and place the other end in a sink, near a drain or anywhere that can accept hot water. After the boil, turn on the water to the chiller. Using a clean pot holder or barbecue mitt, grab the top of the chiller and swirl it through the wort a few times to start the wort circulating. The circulating wort will flow past the chiller coils and keep cold wort from collecting around them.

Swirl the wort every five minutes or so. Putting a lid on the kettle slows the cooling slightly, but it prevents air-borne contaminants from falling into your wort.

Once the outside of the kettle is cool to the touch, take the temperature of the wort every five minutes or so with a sanitized thermometer. When your wort is cooled, transfer the wort to your fermenter.

Another way to cool your wort is with a counter-flow chiller. Aerate with a plastic spoon attached to my cordless drill for 15 minutes Pitch. Cider Well-Known Member. Joined Oct 31, Messages 1, Reaction score Puddlethumper said:. Plastic spoon attached to drill??? Got a picture of that apparatus?

I'm having trouble visualizing it. Thanks for your response. Flipadelphia Well-Known Member. Joined May 14, Messages Reaction score Bout min using a wort chiller. HBT Supporter. TrubDog Well-Known Member.

About 10 minutes using my 50 foot immersion chiller, 55 degree well water and stirring. I could get it colder but it takes to long. I wish I had gotten the 30 long plate chiller.

Gotta keep both chillers moving to facilitate heat exchange. I use less than 20 gallons of water. Joined Aug 11, Messages 96 Reaction score 5.

I buy a few gallon jugs of drinking water, place those in the fridge the day before, then in the freezer at the start of the boil to get a little ice forming. That is an interesting technique. How long have you been doing it this way? Any issues to date? All these cooling times would be more relevant if they included the batch size as well.

I know my method is unpopular but I put ice in my fermenter and dump the wort directly on it. Boil to 70 in about 3 minutes. Mordhaus Well-Known Member. Today it took 15 minutes to cool 5 gallons from boiling to 70 using my new submersible pump addition. Cooling wort when it's out isn't fun. Cooled the wort from boiling to using tap water then put the pump in a cooler with water and two bags of ice and recirculated that through the chiller. Worked like a boss. Couldn't be happier with it.

Tinhorn Well-Known Member. Awesome glad it worked for ya! Harbor freight is the bees knees! Use same method. LabRatBrewer said:. Mordhaus said:. I used an old ice chest with a couple bags of ice, some water, and my utility pump. I got tired of having to stand there and F with it stirring and all, so I bought a pump and built a CFC.

I do not a have a chiller I just put the whole pot in Ice water and around 90 degrees I add the wort to the ferment bucket. Takes me about min to cool 2. Never though about putting that water in the freezer. I am doing this next time and I could see this should save me Min I'de say, great Idea and Thanks.

Hello Well-Known Member. I don't know the starting temp of the water when I brewed but 2. I've heard of counter-flow chillers and I understand they are faster than immersion chillers. I'm not sure how they work. You built it yourself?