I am considering a transition to all grain brewing, and I have one question - how do I cool the wort to an acceptable temp for pitching the yeast? I am an an extract/steeping brewer now and use a combination of an ice-bath, 25ft copper IC and adding chilled H20 to the wort to drop the temp prior to pitching. The problem is my “cold” tap water here in S.E. Asia averages about 80 + degrees F, which limits the effectiveness of the IC. So, what’s the best way to get a full 5+ gallons of boiling wort to acceptable temps for pitching in this climate? I don’t have a spare fridge to use help cool the wort either. Should I just stick to extract brewing until I return to cooler climates?
You can pre-chill the water by coiling the hose in an ice bath before it goes through the chiller.
You could also look into a whirlpool chiller ( check Morebeer for Jamil’s whirlpool chiller ) where you use a pump and copper tube to recirculate the wort to speed cooling. It also creates a whirlpool so the trub cone forms in the middle.
Lastly, you could do a no-chill method like a lot of Australians do. Plenty of info on the interwebs about that.
you can’t get the wort cooler than your coolant. if your temperature of tap water is 80 degrees, you have to find a way to cool it. i like the submersible pump in a cooler of ice the best, otherwise you will be limited.
The wort will only get as cold as the water your using to chill it with so you will have to use an ice bath and a pump of sorts. I have a submersilble pump that works well.
Sounds like you’re planning on switching to all-grain and to full boils. No reason you have to do both, though. If you find that you can’t effectively chill 5+ gal, just keep doing partial boils.
Get some 2 litre soda bottles and freeze some water in them, sanitize them well and add them to the wort, swapping out as needed. Or the no-chill method if you can get big foodgrade plastic gerry cans
The frozen 2 liter bottles are a good idea, but I strongly suggest you save up and get yourself an immersion chiller. You can usually find one for around $50 or less.
Not necessarily. I use a tub of water and an aquarium heater to control my fermenter temperatures (here in the Northwest - our issue is keeping the fermnters warm enough - not cold enough). But I can’t use that method to cool my wort after the boil. Even if it would work, how could I lift my boiling hot kettle into the tub of water?
That’s why I suggested he invest in an immersion chiller.
Good point if your fermentation temp control is to warm rather than chill. If it chills though, just use whatever method you want to get it as cool as you can, transfer to fermenter, and use the fermentation temp control to chill the rest of the way to pitch temp.
Yeah, but the OP is in SE Asia with ground water at 80F - I doubt the problem is fermenting warm enough. And by doubt I mean there’s no way in hell.
In our case monger, our chilling method this time of year can simply be leaving it alone until it is cold enough. I’m not saying an immersion chiller is a bad idea, but the OP said he already has one and uses it in combination with an ice bath. The only thing that has to change if doing a full boil is adding chilled water to bring the temp the rest of the way down. To get that last little bit, whatever method is used to control fermentation temps should be sufficient.
I use a CFC to chill down to pitching temps or as close as I can get it. For ales it’s no problem except during the peak of summer when my tap water reaches 70 degrees, but for lagers I chill as low as my ground water will allow.
My basement runs 58-71F depending on the time of year, so for most of the year I can ferment ales. During the peak summer months I use a Keezer and a digital temp controller to ferment ales and for lagers I use the keezer all of the time.
It sounds like what the OP does is put the IC in an ice bath, then run the wort through the IC, as opposed to putting the IC in the hot wort and running the water through the IC.
Here’s a thought:
Step 1: put the IC in the wort at knockout, then run tap water through it to get it down under 100F
Step 2: run sanitizer through the IC
Step 3: put the IC in an ice bath and run the wort through the IC into a fermenter
That should get it plenty cold enough and doesn’t require any additional equipment. You’ll have to play with the flow rate and how far below 100F (if at all) it needs to be before you run it through the ice bath to get the temp that you want for pitching. You can do a trial run with water first so you can be in the ballpark your first time through.
I still want to know how you control fermentation temps though.
To control the fermentation temps I use a swamp cooler with an ice bath to keep the fermenter cool - approx 65F. The swamp cooler isn’t all that effective due to the high humidity here in S.E. Asia, but the ice bath helps, and I keep it all in our guest room with the A/C cranked. So, I think I’ll set the carboy in the ice bath (after using the IC to drop the temps to at or below 100), and pitch when the temp is down to below 68F. I’ll see how long that takes, then maybe for the next batch I’ll purchase a pond/utility pump, per hopfenundmalz’s suggestion.
Thanks to all for helping out a brewer a long way from home!
KLB
Ice is a really effective (and quick) way to chill the wort if you’re doing a partial boil, too. Or even if you normally wouldn’t be, but are willing to cut your boil volume slightly. If you can chill 4.75 gal to 95°F using the IC and then add 0.75 gal of (pre-made sanitary) ice, it’ll stabilize at about 63°F.
Sounds like a plan! The one thing you might want to consider is to cool it closer to 60F before pitching. Pitching colder and letting the temp rise slightly is generally accepted as a better process.
