Home Brewing Supplies: The Wort Chiller

Wort Chiller: What is it and why do I need it?

You’re spending all of this time to perfect making beer at home, so of course you want it to taste great! Though a wort chiller is not one of the necessary home brewing supplies, it is highly suggested. A wort chiller is basically a copper tubing that cold water runs through that will chill your hot wort to yeast pitching temperature more quickly, so in the long run it’s a time saver. It is important to cool down your wort in the shortest possible time. The less time your home brew is at temperatures that react negatively with O2, the tastier your beer will be. After all, we do want it to taste the best it can, right? Keep in mind that as you become a home brewing professional and you upgrade to all grain beer, then a wort chiller becomes a necessary item in your home brewing supplies.

What Kind Of Wort Chiller Do I Get?

There are basically two main types of wort chillers; immersion and counterflow. The immersions wort chiller actually sits in the wort as cold water runs through the copper. It is also being sanitized at the same time while it sits in the boiling water. The only disadvantage of an immersion wort chiller is you are limited to a 5 gallon batch. Again, though most recipes result in 5 gallons of brew, as you advance you may be brewing greater amounts. So if you see yourself getting fairly serious this is one beer making supply you might want to invest in. The counterflow wort chiller does the same task, however, the cold water is being run through the copper tubing on the outside. With counterflow wort chillers, you can brew any size beer amounts.

Sanitizing Your Wort Chiller

Some home brewers will tell you they simply rinse their wort chiller before and after using it, while others say they fully sanitize it to ensure a clean chiller for your next home brew. In my opinion, it’s better to be safe than sorry and sanitizing your wort chiller should be a necessary step in home brewing. To get your wort chiller ready to use, you should first want to be sure you are using a fragrance and bleach free cleaner and something that is geared specifically for brewing supplies. Though there are several types of cleaners, 5-Star PBW (Powered Brewery Wash) is one of the best out there and widely used amongst brewers across the country. Once your chiller is fully cleaned, you want to be sure that you rinse it well with water to be sure all residue is washed away, as this can hinder your beer’s quality. Now your wort chiller is ready to be used. However, once it is used, like all supplies, the wort chiller should now be sanitized. You can simply soak the wort chiller in a sanitizing solution, such as iodophor, for about 15 minutes after each use.