"Last" problem

[jackwhite]

Okay I've got down all grain with no problems, mostly. However, I have difficulty with hot wort to fermenter. Getting the wort cooled down and into the fermenter without contamination is my biggest challenge. I currently have aimmersion cooler but insulate my boil kettle I am boiling outside and want to keep the lid on but with the immersion chiller the lid is fairly useless. With dogs and colorado winds I get everything in there. So, I see 3 options:

1. Perment immersion chiller with recirculation with bulkhead and ballvalve (pro lid on trub in BK fast chill, Con cost $$$, complex setup)
2. Bulkhead and drain through conterflow chiller/plate chiller (pro simple and lid stays on still fast chill, Con cost $$ trub in fementer)
3. No Chill pour hot wort into plastic fementer wait to pitch yeast when cool(pro no cost, simple worry free?, con trub in fermenter, delay fermentation, ???)

Any thoughts?

 

[Jim_Holmes]

how about notching your lid around the chiller tubes. no cost if you notch it yourself, your lid would stay in place, and only a little area for possible exposure vs having lid all the way off

 

[jackwhite]

how about notching your lid around the chiller tubes. no cost if you notch it yourself, your lid would stay in place, and only a little area for possible exposure vs having lid all the way off

I am considering that but my immersion chiller is very um homemade but its an option. Also, looking at homemade CFC "https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/cheycos-cfc-9395/" as an middle of the road option.

With my insulated boil kettle I still need to stir which means lifting the lid etc.

 

[RM-MN]

If you decide to go no=chill you have to make allowances for the time the wort spends at higher temperatures as that changes the bittering and aroma hops may become flavor hops instead. I normally would only boil for 45 minutes and then let the wort start to cool to account for part of that. Any hop additions planned for less than 15 minutes will have to go in after the wort has cooled a bit, and any other additions need to be adjusted with the assumption that it will take at least 15 minutes for the wort to get below the temperature where the hop oils isomerize.

 

[jimyson]

Cover your BK with foil when chilling.

 

[madscientist451]

Seems like the insulated BK and your homemade immersion chiller is limiting your options; above 180 your wort is safe without the lid on, How about trying immersion chill with stirring down to 180, then put the lid on, (with notches) and see if it chills fast enough for you?
Maybe with your system it would be better to just go with external chilling.

 

[Thanks_Yeasties]

I second (or third) notching your lid.

Seems like you could spend money for a more useful brewing tool instead of re-doing something you already have.

Without seeing your setup it sounds like your lid will only partially cover with the chiller in and may very well end up falling off. If so, maybe you could tether it in place while using the chiller, then just move it to the side, swirl around the immersion chiller to stir the wort and help cool and replace the lid.

You will pretty much always expose the cooling wort to wild yeast/bugs no matter the process, the key is to minimize it and hit it with a healthy yeast starter to out compete anything that did happen to get in.

Used to live in Longmont! Do miss me some lefthand.

 

[Yooper]

I don't even have a lid for my boil kettle, and many of us don't. If you're afraid of bird poop or whatever falling in, you could use one of those big 'splatter screens' people use over top of frying pans. That way, steam could escape (still a concern for DMS with hot wort), and you could lift and stir for quicker chilling.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Honestly, don't worry about contamination between cooling and transferring. I brewed close to 60 batches in the same Colorado wind and dust before moving my brewing indoors (to get away from the wind, since it was playing havoc with my boil) and never once covered the kettle during cooling. I've never had an infection.

 

[Hamaki]

I am considering that but my immersion chiller is very um homemade but its an option. Also, looking at homemade CFC "https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/cheycos-cfc-9395/" as an middle of the road option.

With my insulated boil kettle I still need to stir which means lifting the lid etc.

I made a CFC with half of the home-made IC I'd been using. The rest of the IC tubing is used for pre-chill in a bucket of ice water during summer months when my tap water is in the 70s. I went with the soldered version, BobbyM version, I believe. I had a spare hose so all it cost me was a few fittings & hose clamps. Since the solder joints don't touch wort I didn't have to buy lead free.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

I second the home-made CFC! I am in Golden and when I upgraded my kettle I was struggling this summer to chill 12 gallon batches with my dinky immersion chiller. I built a cfc using the link above, got a march pump for like $120 this thanksgiving, and haven't looked back!

I love that I put in a thermometer on my CFC, this makes my chilling process so easy: I I just recirculate the hot wort for 15 minutes to sanitize, then cut the flame, dial up/down the flow of your wort and your water with your ball valves to get the wort coming out of the chiller just below your pitching temp, then run it right into the sanitized fermentor. Boom, done in like 15 minutes without any manual work.

Right now with our tapwater in the high 40's the way it is I use my CFC to get my wort to the low 50's then pitch right from the CFC for my lagers into the chilled wort!