Cooling Wort Question

[darren996]

Hi All

Firstly Noob alert!!!!
I am using a plate chiller at the moment and I have been doing some reading on cooling techniques.  A lot of people seem to be recirculating the wort through the chiller and back.  I understand this is to reduce the temperature of the whole batch rather than cooling a little at a time and going straight to the fv.

So, as I don't have a pump and as I have spent far more on equipment than I should have, could I cool say 1 gallon at a time into the fv and funnel it back in the kettle until the entire batch reaches 60 degrees.

I have done 2 all grain kits so far, and got a lot of cold break and trub in the fv, I would like to minimise this.

All comments very welcome..

Thanks

[Hop Bomb]

The only reason I recirc back to my kettle when chilling is to avoid transferring all the cold break into the fermentor.  The recirculation creates a nice whirlpool motion so all the break material forms a cone in the middle. When I kill the reciric & let it all rest for a half hour I can then transfer clear wort into my fermentor. Pic of whats left in the kettle after:



If you want to avoid all the cold break in your FV & dont have a way of recircing Id just chill to 20c instantly into a vessel/bucket. Then give it a good mad stir to create a good whirlpool & let it rest for a half hour. Then just transfer off the wort from that into your fermentor. 

[darren996]

Thanks for that, that makes more sense rather than dumping it back into the kettle

[Vermelho]

I have a counter flow chiller and transfer straight to the FV. I've made a couple of beers this way and have had absolutely no issues with the quality of beers. There's loads of posts out there saying that trub in beer has negative effects but I recently read an experiment by the Brulosopher which countered this:

http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/

I wouldn't worry about cold break and trub going in. Also, the recirc will probably increase your brew time as I found out last Saturday when I tried it.

[armedcor]

yea me and Vermelho had a brew on saturday and the recirculation just killed us...It was coming out of the counterflow at like 16 degrees or less but it took ages to cool the keggle etc.

[darren996]

Thanks lads... i reckon thats the down side of recirculating.. my main issue at the moment is that i am transferring about 21 22 litres to the fv but only bottling 19, so losing a bit in fv.  I also am leaving a bit in the kettle when i drain.  I think next brew i will start a whirlpool in the kettle at flame out and drain straight to fv after about 10 minutes and see how that goes.  I would have to delay my hop additions wouldnt I? What do ye reckon...thanks

[Hop Bomb]

Yeah cold break makes no difference to beer quality. It just effects your yield. I get waaaaaay more waste if I just chill straight in to the FV. More waste = less beer = not full corny kegs.

I recirc chill 50 litres of post boil wort to 20c in about 20 mins. That sits for 30 mins before transfer. I just get on with clean up while thats all happening.

[darren996]

So could i brew more volume to account for waste, last brew i put 31 litres in my biab setup,  would putting 3 extra on to account for break and trub work. To be honest my main concern is volume. 

[Hop Bomb]

Yeah if volume is your concern then brew more to allow for it. Defo the easier way. My fermentors are smaller than the usual buckets most use so I like to get one full corny for each carboy (hence the recirc to leave the break material in the kettle)

[darren996]

Great thanks for that