In home brewing, after you have completed boiling the wort, it is important that you quickly cool it. This can be accomplished by different means. If you are new to home brewing, you will see that the most common way is probably the way most new brewers will choose. It is easy, and won't cost anything or require any special equipment.
There are ways to upgrade to simplify the process and speed things up. An upgrade is not necessary, but like many possible upgrades in the home brewing process, it is a matter of budget and personal preference. The easiest and most common method is a simple ice bath. Your kitchen sink works perfect for this, or any large sink you have. You can even use a bathtub.
One alternative to this method is replacing your top off water with ice. Place two 2 liter plastic soda bottles filled with water in your freezer a day or two before starting the home brewing process. You can also use plastic food container in place of the soda bottles. Do not use store bought ice because of possible contaminants that could produce off flavors, or infect your beer.
If you choose to try this method, it is critically important that the water you use for the ice is boiled for sanitation and put into a sanitized container. (You could use bottled water, just be sure to use spring water and not distilled water). Yes, sanitation in home brewing is that important, so do not skip this step!
You may decide after the first few batches to purchase some sort of wort chiller. There are a couple different options, and fortunately they aren't that expensive. If you are handy, you can even build your own--simply look through home brewing forums online and you can find people that share their expamles of homemade equipment and how they made them.
Immersion chillers are probably the most popular choice, and the simplest ones. They usually are a coil of copper tubing that is placed directly into the pot of wort. The coil is attached to a faucet, and cold water flows through the coil, which helps the wort cool faster.
It is important that the chiller is sanitized prior to being placed into the wort, but this is easy to do. Simply immerse the chiller into the wort a few minutes before completing the boil--the boiling wort will sanitize the chiller. You could also immerse the chiller into some water with sanitizer if you like to accomplish the same thing.
There are also copper plate chillers that are smaller than the coils, but you do not actually place these into the pot. It is important if you use a plate chiller to make sure all hops have been strained out prior to running the wort through the chiller.
Finally, there are counterflow chillers. These are standalone heat exchangers that built as a coil within a coil. Hot wort flows through the inner coil, made of copper, and cold water flows through the outer coil, made of either copper or rubber/vinyl hose. The liquids flow in opposite directions, hence the name counterflow. The water comes from a faucet/tap, and the wort is forced through the coil either via gravity or a pump.
There are drawbacks to counter chillers. Cleaning and sanitizing takes a little more time and effort, since the cleaner and sanitizer have to penetrate the interior of the coils. Getting the wort into the coil also takes additional effort, and requires a bulkhead or racking cane.
If you are just getting started home brewing, you are fine to use the ice bath method. It works perfectly fine, and many experienced brewers continue to chill their wort this way. Chillers offer an upgrade and can speed up the process of cooling the wort, but they are more of a luxury as opposed to being a necessity in the home brewing process.
Visit my home brewing blog, and get a free introduction to home brewing e book
There are ways to upgrade to simplify the process and speed things up. An upgrade is not necessary, but like many possible upgrades in the home brewing process, it is a matter of budget and personal preference. The easiest and most common method is a simple ice bath. Your kitchen sink works perfect for this, or any large sink you have. You can even use a bathtub.
One alternative to this method is replacing your top off water with ice. Place two 2 liter plastic soda bottles filled with water in your freezer a day or two before starting the home brewing process. You can also use plastic food container in place of the soda bottles. Do not use store bought ice because of possible contaminants that could produce off flavors, or infect your beer.
If you choose to try this method, it is critically important that the water you use for the ice is boiled for sanitation and put into a sanitized container. (You could use bottled water, just be sure to use spring water and not distilled water). Yes, sanitation in home brewing is that important, so do not skip this step!
You may decide after the first few batches to purchase some sort of wort chiller. There are a couple different options, and fortunately they aren't that expensive. If you are handy, you can even build your own--simply look through home brewing forums online and you can find people that share their expamles of homemade equipment and how they made them.
Immersion chillers are probably the most popular choice, and the simplest ones. They usually are a coil of copper tubing that is placed directly into the pot of wort. The coil is attached to a faucet, and cold water flows through the coil, which helps the wort cool faster.
It is important that the chiller is sanitized prior to being placed into the wort, but this is easy to do. Simply immerse the chiller into the wort a few minutes before completing the boil--the boiling wort will sanitize the chiller. You could also immerse the chiller into some water with sanitizer if you like to accomplish the same thing.
There are also copper plate chillers that are smaller than the coils, but you do not actually place these into the pot. It is important if you use a plate chiller to make sure all hops have been strained out prior to running the wort through the chiller.
Finally, there are counterflow chillers. These are standalone heat exchangers that built as a coil within a coil. Hot wort flows through the inner coil, made of copper, and cold water flows through the outer coil, made of either copper or rubber/vinyl hose. The liquids flow in opposite directions, hence the name counterflow. The water comes from a faucet/tap, and the wort is forced through the coil either via gravity or a pump.
There are drawbacks to counter chillers. Cleaning and sanitizing takes a little more time and effort, since the cleaner and sanitizer have to penetrate the interior of the coils. Getting the wort into the coil also takes additional effort, and requires a bulkhead or racking cane.
If you are just getting started home brewing, you are fine to use the ice bath method. It works perfectly fine, and many experienced brewers continue to chill their wort this way. Chillers offer an upgrade and can speed up the process of cooling the wort, but they are more of a luxury as opposed to being a necessity in the home brewing process.
Visit my home brewing blog, and get a free introduction to home brewing e book