Cooling your wort || Online all grain homebrewing course
Channel: Team Homebrew
Date: 09/01/2017

Download the free companion ebook Raw Beer: Getting Into All Grain Brewing. http://teamhomebrew.com/get-free-stuff/all-grain-brewing-beginners-ebook/

Cooling your wort quickly is important for a few reasons. Firstly, there are processes happening in hot wort, that if let continue, will cause some odd flavors.

On two occasions I’ve sealed brewpots and left to cool outside over a winter’s night. Both had flavor problems.

The second main reason is that cooling quickly will cause proteins to drop out of suspension (AKA cold break). Beer will be cleaner and more stable as a result.

Once your boil has finished, cover with your cleaned and sanitised lid. Seal with plastic wrap and remove from heat.

You aim now is to cool it as quickly as practical.

The easiest way is sit the pot in a sink and fill with cold water. Let this sit for 20-30 minutes (stir the water occasionally to stop heat layering). Empty and refill.

When the pot is cool enough to touch, add ice to the water (11 pounds or 5 kg is ample).

If you are water conscious, you can siphon the hot water off into a bucket and use for cleaning up.

Once your wort is chilled, you now siphon into your fermenter and aerate.