I’m gearing up to do a pumpkin extract kit this weekend. I’ve always done my extract kits with 3 gallons of water. I’ve been told I can improve the quality of my beer by doing a full batch boil. I would like to be able to do a 5.5 gallon boil (An extra half gallon for evaporation). My major concern with this is cooling it in a reasonable about of time. I have a wort chiller but I’m concerned it will still take too long to cool down below 80 degrees
What is your concern and what do you consider too long? Depending on your water source, shouldn’t take more than 20-30 minutes.
I also question the whole quality increase with full boil thing. If it’s not a hoppy brew then hop utilization isn’t an issue. If it’s a color thing, just add part of the extract towards the end of the boil.
then you can add ice made from boiled water to the pot to make up the last 2 gallons and be chilled almost instantly!
It’s not a hoppy beer and actually calls for a late malt addition so color shouldn’t be an issue. I was just told big boils make better beers. If that’s not true then I would be very happy to have a smaller boil.
My chiller was still dropping batches from boiling to 67 deg F last weekend in 20-25 minutes. Not as fast as when my ground water was 45 deg F but still reasonable. I’m still hoping to get 2 or 4 more batches in before I have to give up until October.
With the weather we have been already this year that won’t last much longer. South Central Iowa has been very warm already this year.
Paul
I can’t think of any reason why it would beyond the greater hop utilization and the lowered color pickup. If you aren’t careful with your water and use unfiltered that could cause problems but that would be an issue with full boil as well.
Water quality isn’t an issue. Was more of a dilemma of cooling down a full 5 gallons but you’ve convinced me a 5 gallon boil is overkill for this particular beer.
how large of a wort chiller do you have and where do you live? moving the wort in the opposite direction that the chilling water is flowing can help a lot. This increases the contact area.
Cooling quickly is a concern for clarity.
I don’t have a wort chiller and do partial batches (3.5-4 gal starting volume gets down to about 3 gal after evaporation).
I cool in an ice bath and change the water/ice as soon as the ice is melted. I can cool to about 100 degrees in 20-25 minutes.
All that said, my first few beers were cloudy.
Then I decided to add irish moss at 15mins left in boil (rehydrate the irish moss first).
My last “Kiss Me I’m Irish Red” Ale turned out crystal clear and brilliant ruby red.
So - try irish moss if you haven’t. It is cheap and easy.
Obviously being able to chill a beer down to proper pitching temps (or even lower by a few degrees) is a must, but I don’t believe that time is that essential. I have an old copper immersion chiller I have been using since I started brewing (about 11 years ago). On average it will take me about 1 hr to get the wort down to low 60’s F on a 5 gallon batch. Lagers will take me up to 1.5 hrs sometimes. Yes, this is a lot of water usage and I occasionally use a pre-chiller to drop the last 20 deg. or so and the time does eat into the brew day, but the beers have not suffered. I brew in my garage and chill with the lid off for the entire time. I have no sanitation issues and even very hoppy IPA’s come out great. I liken this my slow chilling period to those who add a hop stand into their brew days adding an extra 20-40 minutes post boil to their day.
Most definitely when I upgrade my brew equipment a better chiller will be in order, but until then the beers have been coming out pretty well and place well in comps. So, I guess the moral of the story is to not be concerned with extra time it may take to chill your beer to proper pitching temps provided you get it under 140F fairly quickly (i.e. 10-15 min) to help reduce any additional DMS formation that might reoccur after the boil.
Cheers to my crappy IC!!
Brewinhard
One hour? How much water are you using?
I don’t generally worry about saving water, but that seems extreme.
Just to clarify, are you saying for an extract kit that calls for a boil of three gallons (adding the additional water into the fermenter post-boil) will be the same as a full 5 gallon boil?
I’m interested to know as I can cool three much faster with 2 cold gallons of water added.
more or less. as I said, there may be some value in adding part of the extract later in the boil. Also, if you are going to try it try the ice trick. ice will chill your batch much much quicker than cold water and you can be at pitching temp pretty much instantly.
check out this link for the math to determine your final temp
Well the time spent cooling the full boil plus lugging around 5+ gallons in the boil kettle vs. 3 would be enough for me to do it.
Moving all that liquid just off the boil is sketchy for sure.
I have quite a few friends who brew like this and don’t chill their wort at all after the cook. They just rack it to their fermenter and let it cool overnight and pitch the yeast the next day. As mentioned earlier, the chilling process is for clarity. Some of my friends occasionally get a really clear beer without chilling so it can be done. I normally use Whirlfloc in the last 15 minutes of the boil which is quite helpful towards clarity also.
I have never tried the ice cube method mentioned here but that would certainly work. When I was doing partial boil extract brews I would chill my water in the fridge overnight and start with two gallons of chilled water in the fermenter and pour the hot wort in on top of that. I would then top it off with however much chilled water I needed to get my correct volume. This would usually get me pretty close. You can also take your brew kettle and set it in a sink of cold ice water to get the cooling started. You can bring the temp down pretty quickly this way too.
Hmmm, no chilling would be great! I use Whirfloc so if chilling is for clarity, perhaps I can skip it.
The chill helps the whirlfloc precipitation. As well as creating whats called cold break. I suggest just trying it and see what you get.
I use a star san sanitized chiller and mix stir bit with my drill. Dramatically faster chill. 5 gal takes me 10 to 15 minutes. A 4 gal Belge Farmhouse ale to me from boil to 72 in 10 minutes.
Cooling time with an immersion chiller depends a lot on the input temp of your water. My water comes from a city water tower: 76 F in August down to 60 F on December 5 (last brew day).
I’m going to brew again this Thursday.
I’ve been doing partial boils with all grain, then adding one gallon of chilled RO water and 1 gallon of chilled drinking water to the fermenter to speed cooling. Works great.