Chilling exposed

In a sink full of ice, water and salt, with intermittent whirlpooling I get 3 gallons (pre-boil) down around 68 F in about 45 minutes. Once I get close to that I stop whirlpooling and cover for 5-10 minutes to let all the trub/nastiness/mash gremlins settle to the bottom.

 

I've never covered my wort when cooling even when I was beginning and never whirlpooled. Sometimes it'd take me 45 minutes to cool a 5 gallon batch but I never got any infections.

 

I put the boil pot in a ice bath in a standard kitchen sink with lid off.... Stir the hell out of the wort continually and its literally cools down to about 80 degrees in 15 mins, then I add one gallon of chilled ( 35-40 ) ozarka water to finish off the cooling process. I never cover and it I have never had an issue.

 

Chill 6.5 gallons with immersion chiller, lid off, and gently whirlpool with a cordless drill with stainless paddle attachment. I get below 140 in a minute, and depending on time of year, Nov-Mar I can get to ale pitching temps in about 6 minutes. I leave the lid off because I don't like the possibility of condensation to fall back in as I am removing the lid. I've never had an infection.

 

That's an excellent, quick time to get to pitching temps. I would barely have the fermenter ready in that amount of time. As-is for me lately, my immersion chiller gets it done in 15 minutes or so.

And I also leave the lid off at first, although I will cover it after it is getting cooler, especially if I have to run inside to grab something toward the end of chilling.

 

I put a lid on the kettle during my 20 minute whirlpool and throughout the chilling process. It doesn't cover the kettle completely, since the IC keeps it ajar. This is mainly an effort to keep bugs and other assorted flying stuff out of the beer.

 

It would take double that the rest of the year so I use tap water to get down to about 120, then ice water the rest of the way. The paddle attachment makes it fly down.

 

I've been keeping the lid off and whirlpooling by using my IC. Still takes a good 45 min. I've been thinking that it would be worth it to go with a counter flow chiller to get things chilled quicker, easier and get to pitching temps a hell of a lot faster.

 

Get a sanitized spoon and stir gently every 30 seconds. It will drop your temps much faster assuming you are using cool input water, a sufficient length and diameter of tubing, and flow rate.

 

Stir the wort in the opposite direction of the water flowing through the immersion chiller, and you'll have some of the benefit of a counterflow chiller.

 

Now there's some ideas to try out!

 

Basically the exact same situation as mikehartigan. Lid on to keep insects out.

I am not able to whirpool so it usually takes 15-20 minutes to get down to 60-65. Got a sub pump that I started using in May because last summer sucked chilling without one. I could only get the wort down to 70-75 and it would take 40 minutes.

 

Adding a pump and a whirlpool attachment to your IC will be cheaper ($125-ish), easier (much easier to keep clean), and just as effective as a CFC (10-20 minutes for a ten gallon batch). Plus you'll have a pump!

 

No lid here,just an immertion chiller. I get 12 gallons chilled to pitch temps in 30 min.

 

My turkey fryer lid fits perfectly on my keggle. I had my welder cut a notch out of the side for the IC pipes to fit though, it also works great for the probe thermomter hanging on the side of the HLT (turkey fryer) during the strike and sparge water heating. I cover to keep stuff from getting into the kettle during the chill. Depending on whether my hop strainer clogs or not (more often than not) I can get down to pitching temps in about 15 mins, but I typically do a 20-30 min hop stand at the end as well.

 

Outside, 20 - 30 min hop stands, then about 15 - 20 min to chill. Once I get wort temp below 100 degrees I'll cover it, sometimes, so far so good.

 

Yep - I put a lid on and drape a couple of tea towels over the opening where the immersion chiller prevents the lid from fully seating. I've considered cutting a slot in the lid for the chiller but probably won't ever end up doing it.

 

I used to put my lid on my kettle while my wort chiller sat in the kettle intermittently stirring the wort. That approach took about 20-30 minutes depending on the time of yea to get my wort down to the ~60sf.

I now continuously stir my wort with the chiller in the wort no lid. This takes me about 5-15 minutes to get to the 60s now depending on my ground water temp. I've had no infected batches with this approach with my top off.