Brewed my first stove-top extract kit this morning. Went OK. I got a little mixed up with the directions on chilling. The recipe said to chill the wort to 130F and then dump into the fermenter with a couple gallons of top-off water. I guess the idea was the top-off would chill it down further. I santized a thermometer and checked the temp, it was down to 120 (I think this took close to 30 mins) so sanitized the fermenter and dumped it in. Checked the temp in the fermenter and it was 90F. Hrm… From what I understand, the Safele-05 really does best pitched no higher than 70F so I stuck the fermenter in my kegerator to chill. I sanitized the thermometer again and stuck it through the airlock hole and then wrapped a a piece of sanitized plastic around the hole to keep stuff out. I think I’m going to need to leave it in the kegerator for a few hours before it’s down to temp. Any harm in pulling it out and letting it go room temp until tomorrow to pitch the yeast? I only have room for on keg in my kegerator and I had to pull out the half barrel to put the fermenter in. I’d rather not let the 1/2 barrel warm too much.
UPDATE:
Just wanted to post an update to this. I kegged this batch this morning (13th day in the fermenter). Gravity hasn’t changed in five days. It smelled and tasted great! That nasty looking trub even smelled wonderful. I was really surprised how “fresh” the beer smelled and tasted. It reminded me of baked bread vs. store-bought. Such a stark comparison in flavor and aroma. Despite things going off the rails a bit during the entire process, it all still turned out! Thank you all for all the guidance on my various threads.
Thanks for the experiential insight. Good to know!
I boiled the top-off water a couple days ago and left it in the kettle. Took it nearly two days to get to room temp :o. If leaving the wort for a day (or more) without yeast would bungle the ferment I’d probably just leave it in the kegerator otherwise.
Another vote for waiting. Until I began using my current cooling technique I often had to wait until the next morning to pitch yeast because my old fermentation fridge would struggle to get me into pitching temp range.
No problem in waiting overnight for it to cool but I prefer my current method of recirculating ice water thru my immersion chiller which works like a champ so I can pitch right away.
To echo other commenters, I often pitch the next morning (especially for lagers, occasionally for ales). I figure the minor risk of contamination is outweighed by the major advantages of pitching under 70 degrees (or under 50 degrees, if I’m doing a lager).
Really appreciate the speedy replies. I’ve read so much about “Hurry quick chill it within an hour!!!” that I wasn’t so sure about leaving it sit. It was cooled to 70.5F after 2.5 hours in the kegerator so took it out and pitched. It’s at 71 right now which is what the temp in my basement is. Fingers crossed
When I did extract and partial boils I wold put my water for topping off in the freezer before I started heating my boil kettle. That would get it quite cold (not frozen) by the time I needed to chill the wort. It saved a good amount of time. Just an idea for you.
Another option for quick cooling next time:
Get one of those big ass no splash funnels and a bag of ice from your local liquor store or supermarket. Run a hose from the boil kettle and clip it to the edge of the funnel so that liquid can still flow. Fill the funnel with ice and then release your wort into the funnel. Replenish with ice as it melts. Most commercial ice is made with RO water for clarity. The ice will cool the wort, you won’t need as much water to top off, and the agitation of splashing around in the funnel increases your aeration. I’ve been doing this for about 7 years. Works like a charm. I usually get down to 90º after topping up to 5 gal. I choose to pitch “hot” so I am usually pitching within 5 minutes of shutting off the burner.
Based on this thread, I’m trying no chill on a batch tomorrow morning.
Watched 1/2 dozen or so videos on utube. One gent suggested leaving
it in the brew pot to cool. His thoughts was pouring wort in a HDPE “Hot Cube”
would only introduced oxygen. Leaving it in the brew pot that slow boiled for
an hour with hot steam, already sanitized everything and has lower oxygen.
The speidel HDPE fermenter has a stated max temperature of 140 F.
Basement floor is about 62 F. 20 lbs of ice is bought on brew day
, maybe no longer.
The reason you want to get your wort cooled quickly and pitch is not only because of contamination issues but mostly about oxidation. Every moment it sits below boiling temperatures, where oxygen is once again soluble in the liquid, is doing damage to your hop and malt flavor. Can you leave your wort sit overnight? Sure. Is it favorable to making the best beer you can? Sadly no.
I tend to agree with this. Yes, you can leave it overnight but every time I think about that I remember one of my friends who owned a homebrew shop. He brewed a batch of beer on the day of one of our beer club meetings. He left the beer in the ktttle to cool with a lid over it and chilled it when we got back from the meeting. I picked up some bugs while we were gone and ruined the entire batch. For this reason, I always pitch right after cooling. The old saying is that it is a race between the yeast and the bacteria and you always want the yeast to win.
Yea, I was thinking of fermenting in a cornie keg for this one, since I don’t have a cube and don’t expect to go no chill in the future (I have a Jaded immersion chiller that I typically use). I would split in two 3 gallon cornies or do a 9 to 10 gallon batch and use two 5 gallon cornies. I can probably do a nearly closed, purged approach to minimize O2…I will have to give it some thought.
Didn’t care for the no chill process. I added 2 gallons refrigerated water and after 24 hours
the wort was at 70 F in a 65 degree basement. Don’t care for extending brewing to the next day.
Once the fermentation took off it was the most aggressive I’ve seen. Foam all the way to the
top of fermenter, which has never happened before. Going back to bags of ice. As mentioned
here, in the winter I’ll try placing the brewing pot outside.
Bottled the no chill beer. Tastes fine (for now), after 3 weeks bottle carb/cond taste again.
Wouldn’t use this method again, don’t care for dragging out an already long process.
Would only use in a rushed/emergency situation.
