Chilling wort in the fermenter

[brettski]

So I started my first batch of home brew last weekend and I've been reviewing my notes. I added some pre-boiled water in my fermenter to cool while I cooked my wort, by the time I had brought my wort down to 27C my pre-boiled water was still quite warm despite my best efforts (cooled it in the bathtub along with my pot). By the time I pitched my yeast the fermenter was running 30C according to the sticker thermometer. My question is, what's your preferred method of cooling the fermenter before pitching yeast? My ideas:

Water immerse fermenter - which was very slow for me
Add sterile ice cubes to fermenter?
Let yeast continue and let the fermenter cool whilst air-tight?
Invest in a wort cooler, sanitise it and dunk it into the fermenter?
Something else?

Thanks all.

 

[mkstalen]

When I was doing partials I'd prep some water in a cube a couple of days before and stick it into the fridge to get it down to 3-4 deg. That would balance out the hot/warm wort. Frozen in 2L ice cream containers could work fairly well...

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Are you doing Kits, extractt or AG..

 

[brettski]

Are you doing Kits, extractt or AG..

Kit for now whilst I'm still working out what's what but I'd like to move eventually to BIAB. I like the idea of cold sterile water in the fridge, is there any real risk of infection if I let the wort cool a degree or two in the fermenter with the airlock on?

 

[ootsby]

... is there any real risk of infection if I let the wort cool a degree or two in the fermenter with the airlock on?

Not really. The longer you leave it the more risk there is. It's essentially a matter of sanitation and time so as long as you've sanitised well and keep crap out then a few minutes/hours isn't going to be a problem. The no-chill process relies on doing pretty much exactly this except using closed cubes instead of the fermenter for storage.

That said you should be able to dial in what temp you need to get your top-up water to be at to get within pitching range immediately within a brew or two.

 

[sp0rk]

Why are you "cooking" your wort if you're using a kit?
Some boiling water (maybe 2 litres) and your kilo of dextrose/dme/whatever into the fermenter, stir well, add your kit, stir again, fill to 23 litres with cool water, rehydrate & pitch/dry pitch your yeast and stick your lid on
If you're using cool water, you should be hitting low 20's at this point
Simple as can be

 

[mkstalen]

As sp0rk said. If you're doing kits a couple of litres of boiling water to rinse out your tin and dissolve your sugar/dextrose/LDME should be heaps. That will cool down easily to pitching temp with straight tap water especially in winter.

 

[Asha05]

I've left wort over night to cool before when my temps were too high, if you are going to ferment in it, it has to be clean enough to let wort sit in it for an hour, 2 hours or over night!
I have had no issues at all.

 

[Bribie G]

If you are using plain straighforward kits there's no need to boil anything apart from a kettle to get the kit dissolved and wash out the tin. Kit then sugar or Brew Enhancer can be tipped straight into fermenter then dissolved in the kettle of water till it's all runny, then top up with cold tap water.

Of course the fermenter, stirring spoon and anything that comes in contact with the beer should all be well sanitised - recommend Starsan solution in a spray bottle. As Spork says, you should hit perfect pitching temperature this time of year unless you are in Darwin or somewhere.

 

[Grott]

Agree with above, no need to boil. In Adelaide Monday, dissolved tin and malt in fermenter with 2 litres approx. of boiled water, filled to 23 litres through tap and filter and wort temperature was at 20.1 degrees. This cooled down to 18.3 degrees over 14 hours and the yeast "kick-in".

 

[deathmask]

Why are you "cooking" your wort if you're using a kit?
Some boiling water (maybe 2 litres) and your kilo of dextrose/dme/whatever into the fermenter, stir well, add your kit, stir again, fill to 23 litres with cool water, rehydrate & pitch/dry pitch your yeast and stick your lid on
If you're using cool water, you should be hitting low 20's at this point
Simple as can be

I started with a can of goo, then ended up adding dextrose, LDME and finishing hops in because I can't help over-thinking things. All-in-all I think it was a good exercise as I want to maybe experiment with extract and further control hop additions for my next batch.

Thanks for all the suggestions, one question though: when you guys refer to "cubes" I'm guessing you mean the bulk water you can buy from the supermarket? Cheers.

 

[deathmask]

Don't worry found my answer here:
http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/81333-cubing-what-is-it/

Thanks.