Hi all, I recently upgraded my equipment & batch sizes to handle 5 gallon batches. I bought my grains about 5 days ago, and I had them crush the grains (with the intent to brew within the week). With last minute changes at work, I will now be traveling to where I essentially won’t be able to touch my batch for 2 weeks, and will have about a window of 36 hours to brew. I am planning to brew tonight, but I have a few questions: 1. With dry hopping (using pellets), am I better off leaving it after pitching the yeast for ~24 hours, or 2 weeks? I have read that longer than 3-5 days can cause off flavors. 2. I am doing this out of my apartment, and am limited with space/equipment/tools. After boiling the wort, I am planning to ice bath it in my sink until the ice melts & becomes warm water. I read this in Palmer’s book & am wondering if it will Work for buckets - could I pour the remaining wort into my fermentation tank (5 gallon bucket) and let it sit to cool overnight? I’m wondering if it will even chill overnight. I appreciate any & all of your help! This will be my 4th batch, 2nd all-grain, so I’ve still got a lot to learn. Thank you!
Why not just wait? The crushed grain will keep. Or do you not want to wait through the fermentation process? In my opinion it's always better to wait than rush. As for dry hops, definitely wait until you get back otherwise they'll get blown out. As for cooling, there's really no way to tell. I used to cool my bucket in a tub full of ice and it still took a long time. A chiller is probably in your future!
What I think you will find is that 5 gal takes a lot longer to cool than 1 gal batches. As @NeroFiddled said, maybe wait and get a chiller...everything will keep just fine.
If you do go ahead with this, I would recommend swirling the wort around the kettle every so often to increase contact with the outside of the pot - or you could use a sanitized spoon but be very careful of contamination. I would also guess that if you just left your kettle in a water bath and never took the lid off , it would chill to room temp overnight. Whatever you do, make sure you are not pitching the yeast into hot wort. Before I got a chiller, I would throw my kettle in an ice bath and add more ice every ten minutes or so. With swirling the pot, I could usually chill a batch within an hour.
Apartment brewers unite! Agree with @NeroFiddled. I would dry-hop it when you get back, but I believe @JackHorzempa has noted success with extended dry hopping periods and hoppy beers. Yes, you can let the wort chill overnight before pitching. Before getting a wort chiller, I would routinely use an ice bath to get wort temps (while it was still in the kettle) below 100 degrees before transferring to the fermenter (which was rated to 130 degree liquids) and letting my mini-fridge bring it down to pitch temp. If I were you, I would chill as much as possible while the wort is in the kettle before transferring to the bucket fermenter, where you can let it continue to chill towards pitch temp overnight. Also, regarding the wort chilling, use just cold tap water at first to do the initial cool down. You should be able to get temps down around 120-130 pretty quickly. At that point, drain the bath water, add the ice and some cheap salt, then run the coldest tap water you can get to it. Will help with getting down that extra 30-40 degrees to where you can safely transfer to the bucket fermenter (which I am assuming is plastic). Make sure to put your airlock on while it cools overnight.
The 'cooling the wort' topic has been addressed above, but I'll ask the question whether you are confident that your apartment's kitchen stove can boil 5+ gallons of liquid? That issue is usually a drawback to brewing beer in an apartment setting, and you may need to plan a work-around procedure. If you have to boil two smaller batches, then the cooling will become easier too.
Hi everyone, Thank you so much for your replies. It definitely helped me with my decision process. Last night, I attempted to start the boil; however, after filling up a pot with ~7 gallons & adding 11lbs of grains, I felt very nervous that my apartment’s stove could not support that. Therefore, I did not brew last night & will wait for the 2 weeks. To overcome the weight issue, what I believe I will do is brew two 2.5 gallon batches, and then combine them. If I do that, do I need to split the hops up as well, or can I have one that is simply boiled & one that has all the hops added? Then I would combine the two and stir. Thanks!
