Wort Chilling

[Brendan]

Thanks heaps 5Star :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Pretty much as you mentioned, the want to use the barrel for all grain is the only thing holding me back from getting a 50 without much further thought...i'll start making it and store it in an empty keg and see how much product I can build up before I worry about ordering a barrel...but yes, long term lock up is the end goal...maybe the answer is a lot more distilling...

Still planning my all grain setup, which will all be done when I have a month of holidays in a few weeks time...looking at grain mills, mash tun (keg vs. cooler), wort plate chiller maybe?...a lot of money into setting up good equipment, but a good purchase/constuction should last a long time.

Thanks again for the advice.

[R-sole]

I would be using cubes as no chill for sure rather than investing in a chiller if it's only for whiskey wort. You may want to reconsider if you are after doing excellent beer. I haven't got the no chill wired in yet with my bittering additions.

But for scotch wort only, definately no chill for me.

[Cane Toad]

I must admit,Trev from ROTB is and has been extremely helpful,ordered a 15l barrel on Monday for a mate of mines 40th birthday prezzie,and whilst at it,ordered 2x220l barrels in French oak with heavy char,he is also sending the stands for the 2big ones and both have 1/2 ss taps in them,great service and knowledge.
Highly recommended :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[R-sole]

A great ma and pa business alright.

[cdbrown]

Used to no chill all the time, but now have an immersion chiller and haven't looked back. No more messing around with changing hop times and rates. Get your hands on some coiled copper pipe and it's easy done.

Wish I had the room for those big barrels.

[Brendan]

I don't think I'd bother with an immersion chiller personally...it would either be all out with plate chiller, or no chill with a cube.

5Star, how do you find the no-chill cubed wort keeps? Kept any in there for more than a few days?

I've heard they sell commercial wort from some breweries in no-chill cubes, and it has a 2 year shelf life. Completely oxygen free obviously, but I wonder if they add anything else...

[R-sole]

I've got some in there from a month ago. it's fine. there's plenty who use it a year or more later with no probs.

keep it out of direct sunlight i'd reckon.

[Brendan]

Also, some of the theory with no chill has to do with boiling beer wort in contact with all surfaces inside the cube.

I'm assuming there's no problems (infection risk), with the Whisky wort at 70 or less degrees that you pull it out of the mash tun after sparging?

[Brendan]

Sorry, didn't expect such a quick reply ...

Thanks 5Star :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[R-sole]

Ahh, hadn't thought of that.

no i don't think it would work as no chill without boiling to kill bacterial spores.

BackToTheChillerForYouPunkin

[cdbrown]

Warm sugary wort is a perfect breeding ground for infections. You would need to boil it for 15mins or so till kill off any bugs and transfer to cube at flame out so it's near boiling when going in.

I've kept wort in cubes for 6months with no issue. However you still need to make sure the cube is cleaned and sanitised paying attention to the lid and bung. Out of 6 cubes in rotation over a year or so I had 2 infections which I'm pretty sure came from a heat resistant bug on the thread of the bung. About 2 days after the brew the cube was nicely swollen thanks to the bugs chewing through the sugars making CO2 in the process.

If you are going for a plate chiller - make sure there's a filter or place the pick up tube in a spot where it's not going to draw in the break material or hops to the plate chiller. Also Jamil was talking about the different effects associated with the chillers - an immersion drops the temp of the entire wort at the same time - mine was down from boiling to 30c in about 20mins last night - where as the plate and conterflow only cool the wort travelling through leaving the bulk at the hot temps. The quicker you chill, the more hop flavour and aroma is locked in and not converted to bitterness. Having a massive chiller will overcome this as you can pump the wort through quickly. Just something to think about for your beers.

[R-sole]

There won't be any hops in it mate.

i wish my immersion chiller would do my 84l of wort in 20 mins, i never would have bothered with cubes.

[cdbrown]

I figured that he was making an all grain rig there'd be beer involved as well as spirits - but if it's all for spirits then no chill is definitely the easiest and cheapest. I wouldn't bother with any special rig - brew in a bag with a very large pot would be the way to go.

:text-offtopic:
84L wort - wow quad batches. Well mine was a 34L wort which I also topped up with 10L before going in the fermenter - got it down that few more degrees. Stirring it quite regularly helps get it down. All water through the chiller went on the garden. I guess you've tried increasing the flow through the chiller to remove the heat quicker. Maybe get one of those metal paint stirrers on the end of a drill to give it a good whirlpool, doing it quite regularly to keep the wort moving through the coil.

[Brendan]

Thanks cdbrown for your input.

I am basically looking at only for spirits...but maybe if I had the equipment already I would give beer a go? It's not somehing I'm overly interested in at that moment, but I'd give it a go one day...

So you think Brew In A Bag and not worry about building a wicked mash tun? :p I've got a few kegs I can use, and can afford the equipment if it's needed...I've been looking at some cool setups with self built copper sparge arms that sprinkle the water back on the grain...

I guess I was thinking better efficiency, more flavour to carry over in spirits...but then efficiency can always be made up for with a bit more grain...

As for the chiller, I've read some negatives to boiling the wort for whisky (could be nonsense), so when a cube is $30 bucks and might want more than one, a 30 plate chiller is $130...I do like the idea :)

[cdbrown]

You don't need a fancy mash tun - BIAB works really well for lots of brewers so if you want a grain based wash I think it would be the simplest. No need for sparging anything. With BIAB you can crush the grain really fine which you can't do with a false bottom or copper manifold as it'll get clogged up. The finer the crush the more the starches are exposed to the water and will convert to sugars. BIAB brewers have plenty of awards under their belt to show you can get all the efficiency and flavour from BIAB. More efficiency isn't normally more flavour - it's more sugars for the yeast to chew through giving a higher alc wash at the end of the ferment. People get plenty of flavour just from steeping grains and not extracting much sugars.

Save the kegs for storage of low wines or spirit.

I don't remember spending $30 on cubes, but maybe the price has gone up. I just got the food/water safe 20L containers from bunnings. Any camping store will also have them. I'm pretty sure it was only $10 as I bought 6 of them and there's no chance I'd be spending $180 on plastic containers.

[MacStill]

WTF is going on with this topic ? 8-} :think: 8-}

[Kimbo]

Bloody rookie moderators i think :think:

[MacStill]

Bloody rookie moderators i think :think:

You fucked it so you can fix it :laughing-rolling:

[Kimbo]

I moved the Roll out the Barrel posts to here ;-)

[Brendan]

Thanks Kimbo, now I'll fuck it up one more time...maybe change "Wort Chiller" to "All Grain General Questions"... :doh:

So with what you say about BIAB and not needing to sparge...Do you really need a grain mill? Could you get away with a light whizz in a blender (small amounts at a time)? Obviously you'd get some flour if you went to long...