Brewing in a drought!!

[Storm Brewing]

As I type, the temperature outside has risen to 34 degrees and the plastic is melting on the window frames!!

I am planning my next brewday but being a sensible and compliant person I am mindful of potential restrictions imposed by the water company. I live in the Anglia Water region and currently do not have a hosepipe ban but I feel it is a matter of time.

With no access (morally or legally) to a hosepipe to drive the wort chiller I am trying to think of creative ways of achieving rapid cooling at the end of the boil. Owing to the limitations of my somewhat basic equipment I prefer to work in 2.5 gallon batches which involves boiling 3 gallons of wort following the methodology I have adopted.

This might sound bonkers but……………..if I added ice (made from boiled cooled water) to the wort at flameout, would this be detrimental to the brew? The melting ice would replace the water lost through evaporation although I might need to extend the boil prior to adding hops to ensure there is enough capacity to add sufficient coolant!

I would be very grateful for any advice and I’m sure I’m not the only person with this dilemma.

[guypettigrew]

You could buy bags of ice from your local supermarket and chuck them in without opening them. Pretty efficient cooling, I'd guess. Then add the water which has melted in the bags to get you to your desired volume.

Guy

[Eric]

The amount of heat required to melt ice at 0C to water at 0C is equivalent to the amount of heat to raise the same weight of water from 0C to 80C, so the process can be quite efficient. Obviously the volume of vessels you have and can sanitise will be a limiting factor.

[vacant]

I've done a few no-chill brews and they all worked well. Hot wort goes into a plastic jerrycan which is then sealed. Next day (or next week), pour into a fermenter and add yeast. Or don't. I've added yeast to the jerrycan and used a blow off tube.

[bitter_dave]

Didn't Dave Line just advise you to put the boiled wort in the fermenter and add yeast when cooled? Presumably this would achieve pretty much the same thing without faffing about with jerry cans?

From what I've read no chill works better with less hoppy beers? Is that right?

[MashBag]

I have not used my (jaded inspired) immersion chiller for a good couple of years now.

I now use these alternative methods all the time.

2 & 4 pints plastic milk containers freeze well, just allow for the ice to expand. Don't fil to the top and leave the lid loose till you use them.

If you know you are topping up the final volume before pitching, use ice. Lakeland do a very good huge icecube tray.

If you can, just wait until the next day and it is cooled on its own. (might need a little help with ice this time of the year). This fits really well once you abandon the idea of brew DAY and everything gets easier.

Ps. I have also run a small pond pump in a bucket of salty cold water packed with ice, supplying the coil. This method works well but is a bit of a faff.

Anglia water does made nice beer.

[vacant]

It's less faff that a bucket. The jerrycan is my fermenter when I do no-chill. Compared to a bucket, the jerrycan is sanitised by the wort, is easier to move out of the car port where I brew, and shortens the brew day. I don't know what the beer style limitations are, if any.

I'll be using no-chill a lot more frequently going forward - I usually brew with 90% RO water/10% tap water and the waste water from that filtering was kept for passing through my immersion chiller, then for cleaning. We had a combi boiler installed last month so I can get 60C water from the tap for the mash and use AMS ... but it just felt so wrong using tap water through the I/C.

[MashBag]

Absolutely agree.
There are lot components to what I am now consider as "modern all grain brewing"

These include, but are not limited to...

Hot fill
Overnight mashing
Alternative chilling (no immersion coil)
Shorter boils
Overnight chilling
In-kettle fermentation
No secondary stand.
Straight to bottle

Some of these have be introduced by better products & ingredients being available.

Most importantly all are less intensive on time and resources. They can all be used pick and mix, to create a unique brewing process to fit around the brewer and their lifestyle. More and more people are coming to brewing and the big intense brew days just don't fit hectic lives.

[FUBAR]

I've ordered a couple of these https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product ... nsumption/ for a few reasons .
1) the obvious water saving not using the CF chiller on the GF
2) shortening of the brew day because the high ground water temp now means a very long run off time
3) consistently timed flame out hop stands will be easy
4) I can brew at will and when fermenter and fridge becomes empty fill and pitch .

[Storm Brewing]

Wow!!

Some great ideas. Interesting re. 'no chill' processes. Since incorporating a wort chiller in my process, beers have definately been clearer and cleaner. 6 months down the line, there isnt a load of gunk stuck to the inside of the bottles an it HAS reduced the tendency for chill hazes. That said, the beers produced without a chiller were still very drinkable.
I am inclined to follow Mashbags methodology but using tupperware containers. That way, i can measure exactly how much water is being frozen and there is no danger of diluting the final product.

[Storm Brewing]

Having thought about it, i could:
1. Freeze the required amount of top-up water in tupperwares to be tipped dirtectly into the wort, chilling and diluting as it goes
2.As suggested, plastic milk bottles full of frozen water, sealed, and dunked in to add additional cooling.

Sounds like a plan!!

[bitter_dave]

Compared to a bucket, the jerrycan is sanitised by the wort

Presumably in a fermenter the wort would still sanitise it? In any case, you would use clean and sanitise the fermenter before you added the wort.

Got to say I love my immersion chiller. It gets beer cooled quickly and allows me to do everything in one day, which suits me. A shame about the amount of water used, which is obviously wasteful.

[IPA]

[quote=" Since incorporating a wort chiller in my process, beers have definitely been clearer and cleaner. 6 months down the line, there isn't a load of gunk stuck to the inside of the bottles an it HAS reduced the tendency for chill hazes.
[/quote]

The reason is called "The cold break." Three things, at least ,make beer visually more attractive. Hot Break? Cold break and Fining plus lagering. Never forget the reason that made bright beer so attractive was the introduction of glass drinking vessels. Despite the recent attempts to promote cloudy beer which is no more than another version of "The Emperors New Clothes" thrust on us by brewers who cannot produce bright beer. Visually attractive beer will always have more appeal than it's cloudy counterpart. Living in a country that is renowned for it's wine production I could only imagine the outrage that there would be if someone tried to foist cloudy wine on the general public

[guypettigrew]

The reason is is called "The cold break"

You probably wouldn't get that with an overnight chill, would you?

Guy

[IPA]

The reason is is called "The cold break"

You probably wouldn't get that with an overnight chill, would you?

Guy

Most certainly not. I use a plate chiller because it speeds up the process but unfortunately that means the cold break material ends up in the FV instead of remaining in the kettle. Not a big problem but it has to be removed further down the production process.