Infection risk during wort cool-down

I am about to use my immersion chiller for the second time and have a question. The last time I used it, it took about 30 minutes to cool my wort to pitching temps. During that time, my kettle of wort was exposed to the elements of the outside air. I usually brew outside on my back patio. I had no cover or anything over the kettle and chiller, primarily because the chiller sticks out of my kettle.

During that time, is there any harmful bacteria/wild yeasts in the air that can affect the beer? Do people that use chillers try to cover their kettles while it's chilling? Or is there virtually no risk?

Thanks!

Been chilling my worts outside with an immersion chiller for the 2 years I've been brewing. No problems whatsoever.

Gary

GASoline71 said:

Been chilling my worts outside with an immersion chiller for the 2 years I've been brewing. No problems whatsoever.

Gary

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Same here.

Might I add... with not cover over my kettle as well.

Gary

I would put the lid on as far as you can with the chiller in the pot; There are surely microscopic spores, yeasts and what have you floating through the air all the time, but as long as you take basic precautions and pitch an appropriate amount of healthy yeast they should be outcompeted, and have little chance to damage your batch. You could drape a clean towel over the kettle top to get a bit better coverage if you don't like the gaps left by the lid. Overall it's probably nothing to worry about!

Wild yeasts and bacteria are present everywhere. Don't bother freaking out about that. With brewing you're merely slowing down the undesirable yeasts and bacteria by killing off as many as you can. Then you introduce enough good yeast to out compete everything else. No worries man.

I use aluminum foil (previously sprayed with disinfectant) to cover the top of my BK while the coil is in there.

30 min, really? Did you try oscillating the coil from side to side while cooling? It's much faster with a bit of movement.

It takes well over 30 minutes to get my wort down to 85 degrees. I live in Puerto Rico and the OP lives in New Mexico - our groundwater is a lot hotter than Quebec groundwater I have to do a primary cooldown with the immersion chiller and a secondary cooldown by putting the pot in a bathtub of ice water if I ever want to get the wort down to pitching temps.

Chefboubou said:

30 min, really? Did you try oscillating the coil from side to side while cooling? It's much faster with a bit of movement.

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The last post by Tupperwolf pretty much sums it up. I can chill it faster in winter when the ground water is cooler, but the ground water is somewhat warm most of the year here in the desert of southern New Mexico. I know there's alternative methods including aquarium pumps with ice baths, but for now I'm sticking with garden hose.

Thanks for all of the posts everyone! Sounds like it's not much of a concern, and if I'm paranoid, I can put some foil over the top.

Tupperwolf said:

It takes well over 30 minutes to get my wort down to 85 degrees. I live in Puerto Rico and the OP lives in New Mexico - our groundwater is a lot hotter than Quebec groundwater I have to do a primary cooldown with the immersion chiller and a secondary cooldown by putting the pot in a bathtub of ice water if I ever want to get the wort down to pitching temps.

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What about getting another immersion chiller and hooking them up in series. Then put the first one in the ice water bath.

I hear you though... I live where it can hit 110 in the summer. The water coming out of the tap sometimes doesn't get the job done.

I only cover my kettle in the summer. Sweet wort i a great way to draw gnats, flies, bees. In the winter it sits open.

DonutMuncher said:

The last post by Tupperwolf pretty much sums it up. I can chill it faster in winter when the ground water is cooler, but the ground water is somewhat warm most of the year here in the desert of southern New Mexico. I know there's alternative methods including aquarium pumps with ice baths, but for now I'm sticking with garden hose.

Thanks for all of the posts everyone! Sounds like it's not much of a concern, and if I'm paranoid, I can put some foil over the top.

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In N-E Canada, warm water is definitely not an issue, even during summer! There should be at least one advantage for being up North ;-)

LovesIPA said:

What about getting another immersion chiller and hooking them up in series. Then put the first one in the ice water bath.

I hear you though... I live where it can hit 110 in the summer. The water coming out of the tap sometimes doesn't get the job done.

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I want to do exactly that. Copper is very expensive here on the island though. I've been keeping my eyes open for a good deal on some tubing.

Tupperwolf said:

I want to do exactly that. Copper is very expensive here on the island though. I've been keeping my eyes open for a good deal on some tubing.

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How did everything work out for you? I'm in Miami (80 deg + ground water in January) and the dual immersion chillers didn't work for me. I finally found success in using standard tap water to bring it to 80 and then connected the chiller to a small pond pump, put the pump in a bucket of ice water, and ran a continuous loop with the IC emptying into the ice water bucket. Works great. I use a pump like this...
http://www.lowes.com/pd_248380-60084-FP170AS_0__?Ntt=248380&UserSearch=248380&productId=3027990&rpp=32