I’m a US expat living in Thailand. Our water isn’t underground like in the US, it’s stored in tanks above ground. my latest reading was 78 degrees from the tap. What in your opinion is my best way to cool my wort down quickly under these circumstances?
After a couple responses, I should add that I’ll be using the Brewzilla 65L gen 4 all in one. it comes with an immersion chiller however I’m not opposed to buying something else if its more effective.
Put kettle in bin filled with ice water and/or run hose for wort chiller thru bin of ice water.
In the Summer our ground water is warm. I cool by recirculating thru a HERMS by using tap water to cool the wort to ~100°F. Then, I remove the now hot water and add ~20# of ice to the HERMS vessel. That takes it the rest of the way to pitch temp.
I used to use a pond pump in a bucket full of ice water and recirculate thru an immersion chiller when I used it.
I recently bought a tabletop ice maker so I don’t use all the ‘house’ ice in my brewery. It makes ~26# in 24 hrs. I collect it in big plastic bags that malt came in from Northern Brewer. I store the full bags in the freezer. That keeps mama happy.
Just do no chill. I have had great success with it, as have many others.
Interesting! I’ve never even heard of this approach before!
I also use tap water part way down, then use a container full of ice water with a pond pump. The pump doesn’t give as much flow as I would like through the immersion chiller, but it is good enough.
Florida brewer here. I also recirculate through ground water until the temp drops below 95, then switch to ice water which I recirculate in my cold liquor tank
I’m a professional brewer and I can assure you that many pros can’t chill their wort all the way to pitching temps and have to rely on the temperature-controlled tank to get the temperature of the wort into the correct range. As long as your sanitation techniques are sound you can wait 6-12 hours to pitch yeast. This gives you plenty of time to get the fermentation temperature down. As a homebrewer I would often cool to about 80F, put my wort in my fermenter and then cool the fermenter in my temperature controlled chest freezer and pitch the next morning. I never had a problem with this.
This is what I do, the homebrewer part.
Yesterday I chilled to 70, put it in the fermentation fridge and pitched a few hours later. But I know a brewer who pitches warm (high 60’s) and lets it kick off fermentation, then cools it down.
Aerate after chilling.
Thank you! this is sound advice!
Another Florida homebrewer here.
It’s a struggle to chill below 100F with my copper immersion chiller. Once I get it down in that neighborhood, I transfer to a bucket fermenter and use my chest freezer with an Inkbird temp controller to chill the rest of the way. I wrap the probe to the side of the fermenter and set my desired pitch temp. I usually reach pitch temp before bed time.
I usually cool to mid 60s, then let it sit for an hour for everything to settle, then transfer to the fermenter and pitch the yeast. If I only cool to the 80s, will the break material still settle out if I let it sit for an hour or would I end up transferring more trub?
No answer for a couple of days, so I will try it this week and see what happens.
It will settle just the same
+1. I transfer kettle trub all the time and has no affect on clarity
Kveik yeast! Some folks swear by it. I don’t, but if I was somewhere consistently warm I would give it a spin at normal pitching rates.