Summer No chill

[mkyl428]

In the summer time the ground water is much too hot to chill my wort using my immersion chiller, so I usually chill it as much as I can and usually around 100 or so then go ahead and transfer it to my fermenter and put it in my fermchamber to chill the rest of the way, and pitch my yeast the next day I haven't seen any ill effects from this my beers have all come out fine. I'm just curious how many other brewers have to change their procedures & do something similar during the summertime b/c they can't efficiently cool using ground water alone?

 

[manicmechanic]

Same procedure here in NC. No problems so far.


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[00p]

Same here in Georgia. Maybe not ideal, but no problems so far.


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[Hello]

I've done the same but the last two times I used my pump from my Marks Keg Washer and stuck that in the sink with an ice bath. I get to 90-100F, then from there I get down to about 70F fairly easy. The water is about 40-45F so it is a lot like chilling in the winter. I just don't do that the entire time because I don't buy a bunch of ice & only use whatever the ice maker has and 3 frozen water bottles (2l). My water comes from Jordan Lake so it's not technically "ground water".

 

[Paps]

Back before i made my I.W.C. and did only extract kits, i had no means to chill the wort & would just let it sit in the ale pail to cool overnight, pitch yeast the next morning before going to work. Had no issues but only have done stouts this way. Other styles may not be so `forgiving` regarding this.

 

[stankyhank]

I recently moved to FL and found a really easy solution. I took an old IWC of mine and submerged it in a cooler of ice water in series with my good IWC. I was able to reduce the ground water from 83.5 F to 75 at whatever flow rate I get from my garden hose. My old IWC was just 20' of 3/8" copper. To chill my wort quickly I stir in the cooler that has the smaller IWC while my Wife gently stirs the wort around the good chiller. Since I still had my old IWC on hand, it was an extremely cost effective solution ~$2 for a cooler if ice each brew day.

I also asked the brew shop what people do in the area and I found out that others buy a cheap submersible pump and circulate ice water through their chiller. They put it on a recirculating circuit and add ice as they go.


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[IslandLizard]

I recently moved to FL and found a really easy solution. I took an old IWC of mine and submerged it in a cooler of ice water in series with my good IWC. I was able to reduce the ground water from 83.5 F to 75 at whatever flow rate I get from my garden hose. My old IWC was just 20' of 3/8" copper. To chill my wort quickly I stir in the cooler that has the smaller IWC while my Wife gently stirs the wort around the good chiller. Since I still had my old IWC on hand, it was an extremely cost effective solution ~$2 for a cooler if ice each brew day.

I also asked the brew shop what people do in the area and I found out that others buy a cheap submersible pump and circulate ice water through their chiller. They put it on a recirculating circuit and add ice as they go.


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It's even more cost effective and you can cool down to 60°F by first using your domestic water to get the wort down as far as it will go, say around 80-100 depending on season. Then fill you cooler with ice and some water to knock down the last 20-40 degrees.

Using ice any sooner is a waste of ice.

 

[Homercidal]

In the summer time the ground water is much too hot to chill my wort using my immersion chiller, so I usually chill it as much as I can and usually around 100 or so then go ahead and transfer it to my fermenter and put it in my fermchamber to chill the rest of the way, and pitch my yeast the next day I haven't seen any ill effects from this my beers have all come out fine. I'm just curious how many other brewers have to change their procedures & do something similar during the summertime b/c they can't efficiently cool using ground water alone?

I would think that a standard no-chill process would be safer:

Run hot wort into plastic container, squeeze out the air, and seal.

The hot wort will sanitize everything in the container and it will stay bacteria free until aeration and pitching time.

Of course I've done no chill in the winter using the lid on the BK as a cover and have not had a problem yet. I think the risk of getting an infection from air being drawn into a fermentor is highly overrated.

 

[mkyl428]

I would think that a standard no-chill process would be safer:

Run hot wort into plastic container, squeeze out the air, and seal.

The hot wort will sanitize everything in the container and it will stay bacteria free until aeration and pitching time.

Of course I've done no chill in the winter using the lid on the BK as a cover and have not had a problem yet. I think the risk of getting an infection from air being drawn into a fermentor is highly overrated.

I've thought about that, but I do not have a no chill fermenter to squeeze the air out I just use buckets, and i don't know that I would want to put 212°F wort into one of those although I've heard you can. It worried me at first working in the food industry I know about the "danger zone" (This refers to the range of temperatures at which bacteria can grow - usually between 40° and 140° F) regarding temperature of food products, (fermenting temps would still be in the danger zone so as long as you haven't inoculated your batch with yeast it is in that zone...but I think we all already knew that lol..) my thought is it will be out of the "danger zone" much more quickly if I give it a head start with my wort chiller, so I can pitch the following morning. Leaving it at room temp to chill on it's own would take forever and leave it open to bacterial growth longer. In the restaurant industry we use ice baths on hot food products before they go into the walk-in cooler to get them out of the danger zone. unfortunately that is not an option for my BK it is too big for my sink.

I've probably done 10 batches this way so far with no problems... knock on wood lol...

My thought is as long as I sanitize everything well & pitch soon usually the following morning definitely that day I should be fine. I only do this in the Summer when the water is too warm once it cools down here in a couple of months I will be back to chilling and pitching immediately.

I could be wrong but it has worked for me so far

 

[Dixon9717]

I hooked a pump to my wort chiller and recycled water from a ice bath that the wort sits in. Cools wort to about 70* in 15-20 minutes

 

[Homercidal]

I've thought about that, but I do not have a no chill fermenter to squeeze the air out I just use buckets, and i don't know that I would want to put 212°F wort into one of those although I've heard you can. It worried me at first working in the food industry I know about the "danger zone" (This refers to the range of temperatures at which bacteria can grow - usually between 40° and 140° F) regarding temperature of food products, (fermenting temps would still be in the danger zone so as long as you haven't inoculated your batch with yeast it is in that zone...but I think we all already knew that lol..) my thought is it will be out of the "danger zone" much more quickly if I give it a head start with my wort chiller, so I can pitch the following morning. Leaving it at room temp to chill on it's own would take forever and leave it open to bacterial growth longer. In the restaurant industry we use ice baths on hot food products before they go into the walk-in cooler to get them out of the danger zone. unfortunately that is not an option for my BK it is too big for my sink.

I've probably done 10 batches this way so far with no problems... knock on wood lol...

My thought is as long as I sanitize everything well & pitch soon usually the following morning definitely that day I should be fine. I only do this in the Summer when the water is too warm once it cools down here in a couple of months I will be back to chilling and pitching immediately.

I could be wrong but it has worked for me so far

I hear you, and that is why I ended up buying a sterile filter for my no-chill. You can find them at most online brew supply stores. They are a HEPA type filter that you can use in place of an airlock so that when the air is drawn in through the filter, it's free of bacteria.

You could keep the beer in the BK overnight with a lid and that filter, then rack the cooled wort to the fermentor the next day.k

FWIW I more or less quit no-chill. I have plenty of cold water where I live, and I wasn't getting the flavor and clarity that I wanted from it. I think if I had warmer water I'd go to an ice bath for the late stage of chilling.