Just brewed a cream ale and when it came time to cool the wort, I couldn’t get it below 80 degrees F. I use an emersion wort chiller. It’s a real good one and does what it does very quickly. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas to get the wort down to pitching temp. when the water isn’t doing the job? I’ve thought about pumping ice water through another chiller, but haven’t tried it yet.
Yeah, that’s the usual solution. Use a pre chiller. Or shell out for a glycol chilled fermenter.
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When I used an immersion chiller I would use a sump pump and recirculate ice water thru it.
Now, I drain the HLT and fill it with ice water as I recirculate thru the HERMS coil.
I get it below 100°F then break out the ice
Getting to lager temps does take longer in the Summer but it’s still doable with a bit of creativity and a bag of ice.
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I do this. I live in Minnesota, so the ground water is about 50F. But even with the low temperature from the well, I use a sump pump to circulate the ice water through an immersion chiller to speed up the process. I brew a lot of lagers and it speeds things up a lot.
I would recommend using a sump pump that has magnetic drive, the standard sump pumps often have oil in the pump assembly that always seems to leak over time. The magnetic drive pumps contain no oil.
This is the one I use:
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Just as an alternative in the summer heat, have you tried brewing with Kveik strains? They LOVE to ferment hot (90+F) and leave no off flavors. Lots of different strains to choose from. Very much worth a try, and it will not only save you time and energy costs for chilling, it greatly reduces potential contamination or DMS precursor formation from extended chilling times. Bonus - your beer will be done in a few days.
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I have not tried them. Thanks for this information. I will definetly look into that.
Thanks for this information. I have a pump, but I didn’t think about it the other day. If mine doesn’t get it done, I’ll definetly look into this pump.
My problem with kveik strains is that they always taste like kveik. If that’s what you’re looking for, that’s great.
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was simply going to say this. they 100% have a particular flavour profile, im really glad we are past the whole little era of pseudo-lagers made with various kveik strains
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I’m going to +1 on Kveik. I didn’t notice any distinct flavor. Now, maybe because it was a very hoppy beer and it masked this mysterious flavor.
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In the summer months my ground water is 80F. I cool with a counterflow chiller to as cool as I can then let my fermentation temperature control cool the rest of the way. It takes longer, but not more than a couple of hours.
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I agree. I live in Arizona and cooling wort is a challenge. I use Lutra kveik almost all the time in summer when the recipe calls for a neutral yeast.
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Yeah, there’s really a few choices
- Get your chilling water down in temp (see the ice bath, recirculating pump ideas)
- Get your wort down further by running it through an ice bath. (I used to send my wort through a CFC and then through an IC that was submerged in an ice bath - I found that to be more ice efficient than using the ice bath to chill the cooling water)
- Drop it as low as you can go and transfer to your fermenter and chill the fermenter before pitching (either in a fridge or chest freezer or glycol if you’re fancy)
- Say eff it and embrace the nochill life ala our Aussie brewers. They hot pack wort into a heat resistant container and let it cool down naturally over night. They adjust hop timings to avoid overbittering the beer, but the process works a treat.
Lutra is the best! Probably one of my favorite strains. I’m making an American stout with it this weekend…groundwater won’t get things below 80 degrees, I’m on limited fermentation chamber space, it’s 100+ degrees over the weekend (that’s nothing for must of Arizona, I know), and if I can pitch yeast right away that’s time saved for me to get onto the rest of a busy weekend.
I’ve been digging Stalljen (from Kveik Yeastery) lately. My LHBS started carrying it last year. This strain absolutely sings with a tropical or citrus-forward hop bill.
I’ll agree with the folks who say that kveik isn’t truly neutral. Just like any yeast, I think you have to choose your recipe to match the strain, and accept that sometimes there are just no substitutes for a cold-fermented German lager strain!
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Thanks for the comment. Originally from Norway, I’m obviously a kveik fan and have brewed with Kveik Yeastery’s products here in Arizona heat for several years. Voss, Stalljen and Ebbegarden are fun to experiment with. I also ferment at kveik’s lower temperature range during cooler weather with great results (for my taste, anyway), even used Lutra for a (blush) German lager recipe. Just for fun.
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Hot summers here in Arkansas as well. I have sink in my brew space (you could use a cooler if you don’t have a sink). I fill it with ice and water and use an inexpensive aquarium pump to circulate the water through my immersion chiller. I have found that its best to run the first 4 1/2 gallons into a clean bucket rather than back into the ice water. I then reuse this water for cleaning, sanitizing, etc. Usually, two 20-pound bags of ice get me down to ~55 degrees for pitching lagers.
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I have a 200l water barrel with pump in the walk in cooler at 4° Celsius… works great even for lagers.
First i cool with tap water and then i switch to the barrel in summer.
I used some Kveik when our fermentation box cooling device went south. It’s performance and temperature tolerance is impressive, but the subtle aromas from a real lager strain is more to my taste.
Ground water here is probably close to 80 now, so I simply cool the wort to may 90 or so, transfer it to my fermenter and pop it in my dedicated chest freezer/fermentation chamber. And then pitch when it hits the temperature I am looking for. Doesn’t hurt a thing, saves lots of time, water, and energy.
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The savings are real, but it does hurt the beer. Oxygen, which is not being mopped up by an immediate pitch, is creating precursors in the wort that will cause oxidized flavors downstream. Cut an apple and leave it on the counter. The same thing is happening to your wort (unless you are an Aussie 
). If you drink the finished beer quickly, the oxidized character won’t build up to the point where you notice it.
Are you referring to no chill? Have you tried it?