Slow cool. Good idea or folly?

If easy access to water is important, it is prudent to live in an area that contains a lot of water. NV has been a desert for many generations, but people migrated there anyway. 10,000 years from now, NV may have some Great Lakes. 10,000 years from now, the amount of water on the planet will likely be the same as it is now. Unless of course we get slammed with a gamma ray burst or a similar Armageddon style event.

 

I'm sure that was a conscious decision on your part : )

...funny, but 10,000 yrs AGO Northern Nevada here had a huge prehistoric lake (Lake Lahontan) and a civilization lived here without beer (bummer) : )

 

It was. I will be moving out of state next year. California, Arizona, and Nevada aren't on my radar because water. I know a guy in AZ paying $400 a month for water. I also refuse to move to a place that has sub-optimal brewing water because I'm not paying for RO.

 

Yeah, but it's a DRY heat : ) ... a job (career) is probably the biggest factor...and RO H2O (currently) is at most $3.00 for a 5 gal batch

 

I was wondering the same thing...for a Black IPA though, I would think your water would want to emulate classic IPA H2O...like Burton on Trent or Edinburgh...or Fallon NV RO + brewing salts : ) ...this is assuming you are using something dehusked or sinabar for the color

 

Seems like this thread has digressed, but I'll address what I think the original question was getting at. I would not worry about infections if the beer was covered surfing the short period when it cooled from circum-boiling temp to pitching. My thinking is that any bacteria that survived the boil or ventured into the kettle before the lid closed would have little time to do much before the yeast were pitched in great numbers that would quickly suppress their activity. When I brew lagers, it takes longer to get to pitching temp, and I never see signs of infection.

 

Infection is a non issue if the vessel is covered properly. What you will likely get is higher hop utilisation, more IBU, potentially less aroma / flavour hop presence.

In regards to Trub, below are 2 experiments run that, whilst concluding that the results did not have statistical significance, seem to indicate taht fermenting on trub may give a more positive result.

http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/
http://brulosophy.com/2015/03/22/the-impact-of-kettle-trub-part-2-exbeeriment-results/