Cooling Wort?

[Otis Brews]

Everything I read general says to cool your wort quickly. What would be the downside of letting it cool to room temperature overnight and then adding the yeast the next day? Would it affect the taste?

 

[Sunfire96]

Look up "no chill" brewing

 

[Minbari]

Everything I read general says to cool your wort quickly. What would be the downside of letting it cool to room temperature overnight and then adding the yeast the next day? Would it affect the taste?

Biggest downside is that the cold break will really not happen. So you will get more protein in the beer, possibly less clear.

You also have to be more careful letting it sit overnight, warm sweet liquid will start growing whatever is in it or is exposed to

 

[Zambi]

I do it often.
Like @Sunfire96 says, check out no chill

 

[Craigerrr]

Chilling quickly has benefits, it can help with clarifying a beer as mentioned, it will also limit the possibility of a wild yeast being introduced causing an "infection".
It would not affect the taste, but do some research on no chill if you want to go that route.

 

[Steve Ruch]

I do no-chill all the time; works great.

 

[Herm brews]

OK, for those of you who go the no chill route, please explain your equipment and process.
This interests me, if I can do it with the simple equipment that I already have. I’m not sure if I want to add one of those Jerry(?) cans to my equipment.

 

[Zambi]

I just use my ss boiling pot.
Lid on it and seal as good as I can with cling wrap.
Quite often I partly cool it in the sink with cool(ish) water and after that cool naturally.
For me that's mainly overnight.

 

[Steve Ruch]

OK, for those of you who go the no chill route, please explain your equipment and process.
This interests me, if I can do it with the simple equipment that I already have. I’m not sure if I want to add one of those Jerry(?) cans to my equipment.

 

[Zambi]

View attachment 29027

Looks like what I do

 

[Semper Sitientem]

When I do it, I let the wort cool a little bit while cleaning up but still dump the hot liquid into my fermenter. I also attach an air lock/bubbler without the internal piece, but replace it with a cotton ball soaked in Star San because there will be suck back as the wort cools. I have no proof this actually does anything. But, in my mind it does, which is all that matters.

 

[Zambi]

I think I would do something likewise if I had a stainless steel fermenter.
Mine's a Speidel though, rated to something like 65 oC

Old pic of no chill

 

[TheBrewourist]

Everything I read general says to cool your wort quickly. What would be the downside of letting it cool to room temperature overnight and then adding the yeast the next day? Would it affect the taste?

I've been doing no-chill into a cleaned, sanitized, purged corny keg since May 2022. I run hot wort into the open lid after boil (if I'm doing something hoppy, after hopstand), close it up, purge and pressurize it, then sit it in the corner of my kitchen until it's cooled to ambient temps the next day. Then I use CO2 to push it from the corny into a prepared carboy (yes, I still use glass carboys; I have 2 1-gal and 2 3-gal and have never broken one in >10 yrs brewing with them). The initial cooled wort out and the final bit of wort I discard has some of the cold break in it, so I get the cleanest, clearest wort into my fermenter. Have had no problems and have placed/ribboned in many competitions with my beer chilled this way.

 

[Minbari]

I've been doing no-chill into a cleaned, sanitized, purged corny keg since May 2022. I run hot wort into the open lid after boil (if I'm doing something hoppy, after hopstand), close it up, purge and pressurize it, then sit it in the corner of my kitchen until it's cooled to ambient temps the next day. Then I use CO2 to push it from the corny into a prepared carboy (yes, I still use glass carboys; I have 2 1-gal and 2 3-gal and have never broken one in >10 yrs brewing with them). The initial cooled wort out and the final bit of wort I discard has some of the cold break in it, so I get the cleanest, clearest wort into my fermenter. Have had no problems and have placed/ribboned in many competitions with my beer chilled this way.

Just curious, if you already have it in a sanitary vessel, why not just ferment it in the corny?

 

[Brewer #408130]

Everything I read general says to cool your wort quickly. What would be the downside of letting it cool to room temperature overnight and then adding the yeast the next day? Would it affect the taste?

I transfer the wort to the fermentation vessel, tape the temperature controller probe to the side and put it in the fridge. When it cools down to around 20C (takes about half a day in summer) I add the yeast. For ales the temp. is set at 18C.

 

[TheBrewourist]

Just curious, if you already have it in a sanitary vessel, why not just ferment it in the corny?

A few reasons:
- I don't want to add a floating dip tube to avoid trub/yeast cake when kegging
- I like seeing fermentation in action thru the glass carboy
- the transfer also aerates the wort as I splash it around the funnel in the picture I posted (I add some O2 to higher OG and lager yeast beer)

 

[JIGSAW]

Everything I read general says to cool your wort quickly. What would be the downside of letting it cool to room temperature overnight and then adding the yeast the next day? Would it affect the taste?

 

[Otis Brews]

I've been doing no-chill into a cleaned, sanitized, purged corny keg since May 2022. I run hot wort into the open lid after boil (if I'm doing something hoppy, after hopstand), close it up, purge and pressurize it, then sit it in the corner of my kitchen until it's cooled to ambient temps the next day. Then I use CO2 to push it from the corny into a prepared carboy (yes, I still use glass carboys; I have 2 1-gal and 2 3-gal and have never broken one in >10 yrs brewing with them). The initial cooled wort out and the final bit of wort I discard has some of the cold break in it, so I get the cleanest, clearest wort into my fermenter. Have had no problems and have placed/ribboned in many competitions with my beer chilled this way.

Thank you! Sounds like a great process.

 

[Bertden]

I just use my ss boiling pot.
Lid on it and seal as good as I can with cling wrap.
Quite often I partly cool it in the sink with cool(ish) water and after that cool naturally.
For me that's mainly overnight.

Ooh, interesting. I do BIAB and I'm all about simplifying the process as much as possible. For the past few brews I've left the wort in my boil kettle to ferment for a couple of days before transferring to the serving keg for another week before moving it to the kegerator. Skipping the cooling part with the immersion cooler would make this even simpler. I think I will give this a try for my next brew.

 

[Minbari]

Ooh, interesting. I do BIAB and I'm all about simplifying the process as much as possible. For the past few brews I've left the wort in my boil kettle to ferment for a couple of days before transferring to the serving keg for another week before moving it to the kegerator. Skipping the cooling part with the immersion cooler would make this even simpler. I think I will give this a try for my next brew.

Is that sealed? how are you keeping oxygen, wild yeast, bacteria out?