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Many
beginning brewers - and experienced brewers as well - experience frustration while waiting long hours for their
wort to cool before pitching the yeast. Most brewers simply
pour their hot wort into their fermenters filled with cold
water and then wait long hours - if not overnight - to pitch
the
yeast. Other brewers try to speed up the cooling by placing
their fermenters in snow banks or ice baths, but it still
takes several more hours to chill the wort. However, a key
to successful brewing is to get fermentation started
quickly, so you want to chill your wort as fast as possible.
So
what can you do? Chill the hot wort as it sits in your brew
pot. Because the pot is made of metal, it will conduct heat
(and thus cool) much faster than a glass or plastic
fermenter. Also, since you will only be chilling a small
volume, it will chill faster than trying to chill such a
large volume in your fermenter.
Instructions
for wort chilling with ice
Some
notes before beginning:
-
Make
sure you have a stick-on thermometer on your
fermenter.
-
Traditional
beer recipes usually recommend beginning with 3
gallons of cold water in the fermenter, into which you
pour the hot wort. Using this procedure, you will
begin with only 2 gallons
of cold water in the fermenter.
1.
Before the end of the boil, sanitize your brew kettle's
lid (you don't want a dirty lid on the pot while the
wort is chilling).
2.
Near the end of the boil, fill the sink with approximately
6 - 8 trays of ice (you should plan to make this several
days in advance). A bag of ice works too.
3.
Fill the sink with enough water so that when you submerge
the pot, the cold icy water will be slightly above the
level of the hot wort. Don't use too much water or your
pot will float away!
4.
At the end of the boil, turn off the heat, place the lid
on the pot, and then submerge the pot into the ice bath.
Allow the wort to chill until it is just warm. You can aid
the chilling by gently swirling the pot in the ice water.
An easy way to check the wort's temperature is to swirl
the pot gently for a minute to eliminate any hot spots.
Then, simply place your hand on the outside of the pot and
feel the temperature.
5.
Pour the warm wort into the fermenter, which already holds
2 gallons (not 3 gallons) of cold water.
Note:
before pouring the wort into the fermenter, first dry
the sides and bottom of the pot. You don't want the
dirty sink water to accidentally drip into your fresh
wort!
6.
Swirl the fermenter for a moment to eliminate any warm
spots. Read the stick-on thermometer. The temperature
should stabilize somewhere between 60 degrees F and 85
degrees F.
7.
Your target yeast pitching temperature is typically 75
degrees F.
If the temperature is too cool, top up the fermenter to
the 5-gallon mark using warm water. If the temperature is
too warm, top up the fermenter with cool water. With a
little practice, you can usually hit your target
temperature within a few degrees.
Note:
when topping up the fermenter, it is helpful to add the
water at only 1/2 gallon at a time, swirl, and then check
the temperature. This way you can gradually approach
your target temperature without going too cold or too
hot.
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