Fridging water before brewing

Crowash · Post by **Crowash** » Tuesday Nov 13, 2007 12:44 pm

Hey All,

I wanted to run an idea past you, I'm sure some of you may already do it. I'm toying with the idea of putting my filtered water (20L) into the fridge the day before I brew. I've got a fridgemate so can set the temp. That way when I put my hot malt/hops/can in it won't take as long to reach a suitable temp to pitch the yeast.

In fact if I get the water the right temp, I may be able to pitch the yeast straight away.

Is there a problem with doing it this way? What's the ideal temp to get the water before 4 or so litres of malty/hoppy hot goodness in?

Cheers

Ash

timmy · Post by **timmy** » Tuesday Nov 13, 2007 2:11 pm

Shouldn't be. I've done this before with good results.

Not sure of the temp required, though. You should be able to calculate it though.

warra48 · Post by **warra48** » Thursday Nov 15, 2007 4:05 pm

Excellent idea. I did this with the last of my extract brews, and it worked very well. Got the fermenter down to pitching temp as soon as it was all mixed up. Had about 6 litres of boiled wort from the specialty grains and hops, put the chilled water in the fermenter, and added the wort and extract, mixed, checked OG, and pitched yeast.
Different story with AG of course, as we do a full volume boil.

Crowash · Post by **Crowash** » Thursday Nov 15, 2007 4:58 pm

Sounds like the way to go then, Means you can get some of the work done (ie filtering the water) the day before.

Cheers

Ash

Longrasser · Post by **Longrasser** » Tuesday Nov 20, 2007 6:32 am

Boy your tap water must be hot
Even here in Darwine I dont have any probs getting temps down to pitch straightaway
I do have a nice deep sink that I can put my stainless pot with hot wort . I top off with tap water and fill the sink around the pot then transfer it to fermentor and top to 22L
Brew temp is then 34C

Tim... · Post by **Tim...** » Tuesday Nov 20, 2007 7:46 am

Longrasser wrote:Boy your tap water must be hot
Even here in Darwine I dont have any probs getting temps down to pitch straightaway
I do have a nice deep sink that I can put my stainless pot with hot wort . I top off with tap water and fill the sink around the pot then transfer it to fermentor and top to 22L
Brew temp is then 34C

34 is a bit high isnt it? I thought the aim was 18C.

I was just about to start filling some 2L coke bottles with water and putting them in the fridge the day before brewday. Last brew I did, the temp was 28C, so I want to get this down a bit.

Boonie · Post by **Boonie** » Tuesday Nov 20, 2007 11:34 am

Longrasser wrote:Boy your tap water must be hot
Even here in Darwine I dont have any probs getting temps down to pitch straightaway
I do have a nice deep sink that I can put my stainless pot with hot wort . I top off with tap water and fill the sink around the pot then transfer it to fermentor and top to 22L
Brew temp is then 34C

That's a wee bit warm. I have done that before and it tasted like Banana.

I am using the same method but with ice bricks and ice in tub to "assist" with cooling. Best method I have tried was pre-boiled water, then frozen in coke bottle, then cut the bottle in half and add to wort. Alot of mucking about but the temp was right.

Cheers

Boonie

Longrasser · Post by **Longrasser** » Tuesday Nov 20, 2007 4:39 pm

18C in Darwine ?

Nup,no bad tastes either

Shaun · Post by **Shaun** » Tuesday Nov 20, 2007 9:19 pm

I pre-chill the water for all my brews here in Darwin. Cold water temp is 29C out of the tap on avrage. I pre-chill water to 5C then and this, pitching temp of 20-22C without waiting. then straight into brew fridge.

scblack · Post by **scblack** » Wednesday Nov 21, 2007 8:54 am

Guys, I used to pre-chill my brew water like this.

Then I ended up with a period of infected brews. 6 brews in a row were tipped down the sink.

I was unable to properly determine if the problem was the water, but was most likely a wild yeast. Still not sure.

I now boil the whole brew - 22 to 23 litres, and put cotton wool in the airlock, cool it overnight in the garage which gets it down to 30celsius or so. Then into brew fridge overnight again - this gets it to a good 18celsius. Now I pitch the yeast through a little funnel through the airlock hole. And sits brewing at 18celsius for two weeks.

I now have no problems with infections. Many fridges harbour bacteria, and my boiling process, though maybe more than necessary has gotten rid of any problems and I have since done about 15 brews.

ryan · Post by **ryan** » Wednesday Nov 21, 2007 9:59 am

If I had to dump 6 in a row I`d give it up, I`m afraid.
But then, I can never get serious about it all. After all, it`s only beer

warra48 · Post by **warra48** » Wednesday Nov 21, 2007 10:31 am

Make the move to AG brewing, and you have to do a full volume boil in any event. No need to refrigerate your water.
Mind you, I do freeze quite a quantity of water for ice blocks to fill my pre-chiller for my immersion chiller, but that ice never touches the brew.

ryan · Post by **ryan** » Wednesday Nov 21, 2007 10:43 am

scblack wrote:Guys, I used to pre-chill my brew water like this.

Then I ended up with a period of infected brews. 6 brews in a row were tipped down the sink.

I was unable to properly determine if the problem was the water, but was most likely a wild yeast. Still not sure.

I now boil the whole brew - 22 to 23 litres, and put cotton wool in the airlock, cool it overnight in the garage which gets it down to 30celsius or so. Then into brew fridge overnight again - this gets it to a good 18celsius. Now I pitch the yeast through a little funnel through the airlock hole. And sits brewing at 18celsius for two weeks.

I now have no problems with infections. Many fridges harbour bacteria, and my boiling process, though maybe more than necessary has gotten rid of any problems and I have since done about 15 brews.

I don`t quite get that?
How long are you leaving the boiled wort before pitching yeast?

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Wednesday Nov 21, 2007 11:12 am

Yeah, even for no-chill that is quite a long time to leave the wort before pitching. Overnight is usually considered the maximum you would want to wait. I can cool a full 23L boil to about 22C in a couple hours in the middle of summer in Bundaberg with a simple $2 ice bath.

scblack · Post by **scblack** » Wednesday Nov 21, 2007 12:26 pm

ryan wrote: I don`t quite get that?
How long are you leaving the boiled wort before pitching yeast?

Roughly 36 hours.

All works fine - I have to leave them the two weeks fermenting in brew fridge anyway, so no time is lost.

Just counted - now 20 brews done this way, all fine.

scblack · Post by **scblack** » Wednesday Nov 21, 2007 12:28 pm

ryan wrote:If I had to dump 6 in a row I`d give it up, I`m afraid.

VERY nearly did give it away. Luckily I did not.

ryan · Post by **ryan** » Wednesday Nov 21, 2007 2:43 pm

scblack wrote:
ryan wrote: I don`t quite get that?
How long are you leaving the boiled wort before pitching yeast?
Roughly 36 hours.

All works fine - I have to leave them the two weeks fermenting in brew fridge anyway, so no time is lost.

Just counted - now 20 brews done this way, all fine.

Well, I can`t argue with success!!

beerdrinker · Post by **beerdrinker** » Thursday Nov 22, 2007 12:11 am

I chill 20L to 3C then after running tap water through my 15M copper chiller for 10mins i switch to the 3C water. I have been getting around 16C pretty quickly! Am doing my first AG lager next, Have to somehow get it down to 10C

Crowash · Post by **Crowash** » Friday Nov 23, 2007 8:51 am

Hey Warra,

I'm trying to make the process quicker not slower

So won't be switching to AG anytime soon.

I can't see any reason why chilling water beforehand would make you more exposed to infection.

Cheers

Ash

Trough Lolly · Post by **Trough Lolly** » Friday Nov 23, 2007 9:42 am

scblack wrote: Roughly 36 hours.

All works fine - I have to leave them the two weeks fermenting in brew fridge anyway, so no time is lost.

Just counted - now 20 brews done this way, all fine.

Without wanting to invoke the "no chill" debate on this thread, you need to be mindful of a few things when you leave the wort for 36 hours before pitching yeast...
Obviously the risk of infection skyrockets as you pass 24 hours - you need to ensure that you have a good seal on the fermenter and if all's well, then your hygiene protocols are obviously keeping things in order.
The other two issues are DMS and your fridge.
DMS occurs in wort when it's left to cool off without chilling being performed - your wort produces DMS compounds whenever it's above 80C and that's why good brewing manuals recommend you boil your wort uncovered, to allow the DMS to leave the wort along with the steam vapour. At flameout, the brew is obviously very hot and making DMS and it will escape (along with hop aroma compounds, which is why I like to make an aroma addition when the wort is below 70C). An experienced palate will pick up DMS as a vegetable / cabbage / cooked corn flavour and although it's not a showstopper, it can give the beer a prematurely aged flavour...
Re the fridge, you need to be wary of not sending your fridge to an early grave if you shove a container of hot wort in the fridge each time you do a brew - that will give any fridge a hefty workout as you make it do the work instead of an immersion or counter-flow wort chiller.

Cheers,
TL