Cooling the Hot Wort

Quick cooling is needed so that:

• the yeast can be pitched without delay
• 'cold-break' protein debris will settle properly

The cold break is analogous to the hot break which happens during the boil. By rapid cooling, more protein matter precipitates out of solution and eventually sinks to the bottom of the fermentation vessel with the spent yeast.

Counterflow Wort Chiller

My chiller is home-made and consists of about 20 feet of garden hose with a length of microbore copper pipe shoved through it. Plumbing at the ends allows the hot wort from the boiler to enter the microbore pipe and exit into the fermenter, while cold tap water enters the hose at the bottom and exits from the top into the kitchen sink.

The cooled wort is directed onto a thermometer sitting in a sieve. I set the output temperature to around 22°C by adjusting the flow of cooling water.

The sieve serves the dual purpose of straining out any hop debris and producing a spraying action which aerates the wort.

The system is gravity fed and whole process takes around 40 minutes.