high gravity, dillution prior to pitch

[SergeMarx]

So to better make use of my 19 litre bigw pot, I'm brewing higher gravity beers, no chilling, then diluting to correct volume with bottled water. I read someone else doing this, but instead of no chilling, froze his water in advance, then cut out the block and added to the hot wort for rapid chilling and bringing to volume. A good idea I thunk. Any see any problems with this?

 

[Yob]

microbes can survive in the freeze.. its a small risk but a risk nonetheless.

If I was to dilute, it'd be with boiled water (more than once) and Id use the ice in the laundry trough.

 

[SergeMarx]

What about distilled water?

 

[troopa]

I wouldnt use distilled .. typically distilled water isnt safe to drink as its had a heap of the minerals removed

On the original topic though i have started utilising the 17litre FWK containers that you can buy from Grain and grape or Kegking(i have 6 or so now from lazy brewing)
I only use tap water to dilute as this is all i ever used and im sure a majority used back from the K&K days and it didnt hurt then.
Yob is still worth listening too though as sanitary or sterile practices are always best

 

[argon]

Easier to boil then no chill some water in a cube then bring it down to 4°C in the fridge, then add it to the boiled wort. Much easier than handling big chinks of ice that are potentially unclean and unsealed.

Have done it before when using the 19L pot.
- boil then no chill water
- let cool to ambient
- in fridge overnight to bring it down to 4°C
- brew day, boiled wort transfer to fermentor (avoid HSA)
- add chilled pasteurised water

Use this, www.onlineconversion.com/mixing_water.htm, plug in your volumes and temps (assume your boiled wort is about 93°C once off the boil)

example 10L of 93°C wort + 13L of 4°C water = 23L of 42.69°C wort.

It won't bring it down to pitching temps immediately, but it will bring it down past isomerisation temps. A few more hours in the fermenting fridge will bring it down to pitching temps ok. Keep it sealed in that time and there isn't much risk.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Other option may be to buy a 2nd Big W pot. I found that there was less farting around than high grav brews.

I have had some high grav brews to get 38L but just a straight dilution. I have used ice in the past but generally avoid it as per the advice above.

 

[SergeMarx]

Understand and acknowledge the comments on the possibility of infections, but based on experience I'm confident the risk is low so long as the water is controlled, by boiling prior to freezing and or diluting. Having said that, I and and many thousands of others have added straight tap water to the fermenter when embarking on the brewing odyssey in the kit and kilo days and suffered no infections (with all other items being properly sanitized)

Other option may be to buy a 2nd Big W pot. I found that there was less farting around than high grav brews.

Can't see how that would less farting around but i take your point. My main issue is the post boil cool, I have no chilling options currently beyond a sink of ice water which still takes too long for me to be comfortable with. No-chill suits me perfectly but despite its convenience I know it stuffs up my hop calculations by continuing to isomerise the hops while still freaking hot.

Anyway, words of caution heeded - I may boil then freeze in santized containers my dilution water for the next brewday and see how it goes for rapid chilling. My suspicion is it still wont chill to pitch temp even at a 1:1 ratio if popping ice into 90 C wort. Given that hot water cools quicker than warm water however, there may be a chance it'll work.

 

[SergeMarx]

Easier to boil then no chill some water in a cube then bring it down to 4°C in the fridge, then add it to the boiled wort. Much easier than handling big chinks of ice that are potentially unclean and unsealed.

Have done it before when using the 19L pot.
- boil then no chill water
- let cool to ambient
- in fridge overnight to bring it down to 4°C
- brew day, boiled wort transfer to fermentor (avoid HSA)
- add chilled pasteurised water

Use this, www.onlineconversion.com/mixing_water.htm, plug in your volumes and temps (assume your boiled wort is about 93°C once off the boil)

example 10L of 93°C wort + 13L of 4°C water = 23L of 42.69°C wort.

It won't bring it down to pitching temps immediately, but it will bring it down past isomerisation temps. A few more hours in the fermenting fridge will bring it down to pitching temps ok. Keep it sealed in that time and there isn't much risk.

That's good advice

 

[JDW81]

No-chill suits me perfectly but despite its convenience I know it stuffs up my hop calculations by continuing to isomerise the hops while still freaking hot.

True, but there are ways around it. I use the mini boil method (as first thoroughly described by Argon IIRC). Basically, drop all of your no chill hop additions by 15 minutes. Any additions 15 minutes or less go into a 5L mini boil, which is then quickly chilled in an ice bath in the sink. Works brilliantly and makes making beers with a stack of late hops possible with the no chill method.

JD

 

[stakka82]

Another option is keeping a 4 litre water bottle in the fridge at all times.

15 litres of high gravity from big w pot plus that = keg.

Also only have to get the wort down to about 25 degrees in the laundry sink and you're good to go. Easier cooling in summer.

That's what I used to do with tap water. No worries.

 

[damoninja]

I was in the same boat for a while, I had 3 smaller pots on the go at once and ended up with about 16L wort and needed to dilute it just to fill the cube then dilute more when tossing in to the FV.
Remarkably I hit my target gravity for each brew once fully diluted.

Glad I'm not doing that anymore, the multiple pots thing was a pain in the ass.

 

[dammag]

I use a 4 litre water container with filtered tap water. Get it nice and cold in the freezer and dump it into the fermenter with the wort. Pitch some yeast and let it go.

People use 20 or more litres of tap water with K & K successfully with little risk of infection.

 

[pcmfisher]

I have no worry freezing unboiled tap water and adding to my brews to bring the temp down.
In fact that is what I do, I freeze ice cream containers and add to my extract brews if still too warm to pitch the yeast.

I don't think it is any worse than using tap water straight from the tap, which as said, non AG brewers have been doing for years.

You will be pitching the yeast fairly soon I expect, so hopefully they will out number any undesirable beasties that will be in your wort anyway.