Fermenter temp

[snickle09]

Quick question. Just made my first all grain brew and the counter flow chiller could only get my wort temp down to 29 degrees which is the temp that's coming out of my tap. Is it ok to sit the fermenter in the fridge and wait for it to get to 18 degrees by itself or should it be chilled quicker?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dan Pratt]

In the fridge to bring to your desired temp is ok, I have to do it every chilled beer.

 

[Dan Pratt]

How long was your transfer from kettle to fv through the cfc?

 

[snickle09]

Cheers. About 30 minutes. So I'll just leave it in the fridge and will then pitch when it's at the right temp.

Cheers.

 

[Dr_Rocks]

That's right snickle. I just pitched an ale just above fermentation temp, say 22/23 and then let it come down to about 18/19 degrees using a temp controller in a fridge.

On the flipside though if you pitch at too high a temp, then the yeast become active making more heat you may not be able to get the temp down esp if you don't have temp control and you are relying on ambient temp alone.

 

[Coodgee]

I've left wort for 24 hours in the fermenter in the fridge getting down to pitching temperature. It's usually preferable to pitching the yeast too warm, as long as your sanitation is good.

 

[snickle09]

Thanks guys. That's what I was checking on. I wasn't sure if leaving it in the fermenter for too long without yeast was going to be a problem.

I do have temperature control and it's slowly lowering so should be able to pitch tonight.

 

[Moad]

Can you push iced water through the chiller to get the last 10 degrees?

I usually pitch if I'm within 3 or so degrees of ferment temp as I am paranoid about infections. If your cleaning regime is good enough then it isn't a concern however my preference is to pitch a little warm within reason.

I got myself setup with an elaborate chilling configuration, 2 plate chillers where I pre chill tap water in the first and run that against the wort in the second. It does a great job but I haven't chilled the last 10 batches... no chill is worth a look.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Thanks guys. That's what I was checking on. I wasn't sure if leaving it in the fermenter for too long without yeast was going to be a problem.

I do have temperature control and it's slowly lowering so should be able to pitch tonight.

The possible problem is infection. A cooling wort shrinks and draws in air, fridge air. Only reason I'm mentioning is because I had to chill a wort this way once overnight and I thought I had the plastic fermenter sealed air tight but the walls should shrink in a bit in this case, they didn't so it drew in a little air. It obviously collected some bugs before the yeast inoculation etc. Infected. A ditched beer.
Unless its cubed/no chill done well its vulnerable before its inoculated with yeast.
It will probably be fine but its good thinking/worrying that makes good beer.

 

[labels]

Echoing what Danscratbeer has said, your beer is at it's most vunerable at this point in the brewing cycle. Unfermented wort is an extremely nutrient rich solution.

Pitching at 29C is a bit too hot but you can pitch safely at 25C or 26C either ales or lagers. As log as you get it into temp control straight away, the temp will drop while the yeast is busy multiplying. I regularly pitch lagers at 25C and end up with super clean, ester-free beer. And, more importantly infection-free beer.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

I leave wort in a sealed fermenter to cool down for a few hours quite often. Just make sure everything is sanitary and sealed.

The way I do it (using a K-mart stock pot) is to just seal the lid on with some duct tape and put the whole thing in a soft esky bag (zipped up) with some ice bricks. Once it's down to temp, give it a real good stir with something sanitary to oxygenate then pitch.

I find two ice bricks (rotated every 12 hours) in the esky bag keeps my wort pretty close to 18c.

All the best!

 

[snickle09]

Cheers for the info. I ended up pitching a little higher than I wanted to about 4 hrs after I put it in the fridge. Hopefully nothing has made its way into the fermenter. I'll try cooling it further in the future.

Cheers.

 

[Bribie G]

You might want to have a look at no-chill using cubes. I'm not against chillers as such, just the general temperature of the tap water we have to work with in most of Oz. I have a coil chiller sitting in my shed myself, but find no-chill to be an excellent option to keep the wort sanitised until ready to pitch.

And in your case, during the Winter especially, no-chill out in the Newky night air can be surprisingly quick.