Cooling

From now on, it is essential that you work in absolutely sterile conditions, as any contamination through bacteria in the air or through unclean devices during all subsequent work steps could lead to all your work being in vain. All devices used must be thoroughly cleaned or disinfected. Please see the notes in the chapter “Notes on hygiene”.

Before inserting the cooling coil, we recommend stirring the hot wort thoroughly using a long wooden spoon. This creates a so-called whirlpool effect, which promotes the sinking of the trub in the wort, which means that the wort becomes clear. In particular, the cooling process serves to cool the wort and to aid additional settling of all proteins and hops compounds released during boiling. This trub slowly settles on the base of the container, where it remains once the clear wort is drained. Avoid stirring or moving the cooled wort, as this will cause the settled trub to whirl up again and also flow into the fermentation vessel. We recommend using a so-called wort cooler (cooling coil – see accessories), which is placed into the wort immediately after the boiling process, and is disinfected as well as this manner. Cooling is achieved by means of cold water. The water that flows through the cooling coil draws the heat from the wort and cools it to the required temperature of 20°C in 40 – 50 minutes. Caution: To start off with, the water at the outlet of the wort cooler is still close to boiling temperature (scalding risk), which can be re-used for cleaning activities at a later stage. It is especially important to cool the wort quickly between 40° and 20°, as it is particularly susceptible to infection in this range. Once the wort has cooled to 20°C, remove the cooling coil carefully from the vessel and drain the beer wort into a disinfected fermentation vessel (see accessories) via the drainage tap. However, prior to this, approximately 5% (0.5 L for 10 L or 1.0 L for 20 L or 2.5 L for 50 L of wort) will be drawn into a lockable vessel and stored in a cool place. This is added to the fermented beer at a later stage, so as to achieve secondary fermentation and sufficient formation of carbon dioxide in the filled bottles. Use a suitable clean pipe or funnel for decanting. The last litres are decanted by carefully tilting the Braumeister, taking care not to allow any trub to flow into the fermentation vessel as well. The fermentation vessel or container should be significantly larger than the quantity of wort to allow sufficient fermentation space and to prevent overflowing of the fermentation foam. The last remains and the trub at the base of the Braumeister can be disposed of. Please clean the Braumeister as quickly as possible after use so as to avoid surface drying. This facilitates the cleaning process considerably.