Fan assisted beer

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MashBag

MashBag

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I have overnight chilled for ages (years in fact) and there are always seasonal variations.

My ambient temp is 20c at the moment, so overnight the chill finishes about 28c just a bit too high.

Today I thought I would test a USB fan aimed at the kettle. Brilliant 6c reduction in one hour.

I do think I am going to trial this from the start. Perhaps a 12hr chill is possible if fan assisted.

Has anyone else tried this, or got any thoughts? Design ideas?
 
Last edited:
Report back as I have always just done it the standard way of leaving it in the garage overnight.
It should work just how much time it saves is the question athumb..
 
Do you leave it in the house?

Leaving it outside on a concrete floor will help hugely.

The ambient temp of any outside building will not be 20 degC now.
 
Caramel Ox said:
If you cover the container with a towel with both ends resting in water and point a fan at it you have a swamp cooler. But there are things you wouldn’t want a wet towel over.
Click to expand...
I was about to suggest a wet towel, but dangling it in water is even better!

I use the wet towel/fan combo in the summer when it's too warm for regular fermentation. It works a treat
 
LeeH said:
Do you leave it in the house?

Leaving it outside on a concrete floor will help hugely.

The ambient temp of any outside building will not be 20 degC now.
Click to expand...
Never say never. It's outside, but in a reasonably well insulated space. But you are right it's only about 18c now.

I can't get it on the floor.
The beer is on a bike jack. Water goes in, by the bottle and beer comes out by bottle. No wort/beer moves apart from up and down a bit 🤣🤣
 
Agentgonzo said:
I use the wet towel/fan combo in the summer when it's too warm for regular fermentation. It works a treat
Click to expand...

I used similar for years, for but it couldn't keep up, when the going got tuff in June, July & August (2022) so I gave in and bought a coil. Climate change eh!
 
I do no chill and pop either my brew bucket (or keg is I'm pressure fermenting) in a big bucket with a few inches of water and a wet towel over. I leave it in the garden for the night, and always gets low enough to pitch.

(my other tip is that as soon as my wort is up to boiling temp, I draw of 1.5l and fast chill that in the sink. By the time my boil is over, the litre and a half is down to 20c ish and I can get a starter going. Then 24 hours later my main bucket is about the right temp and it gets a huge yeast infusion to get it roaring along.)
 
MashBag said:
Today's brew.

09.40 Fan on, temp 85c
Click to expand...
I wonder how much this affects the cold break.

All the homebrewing literature says you should chill "quickly" to get the cold break and that if you chill "slowly" the proteins stay in solution... But absolutely no quantitative mention of what "quickly" or "slowly" actually mean.
 
Forced convection always improves heat transfer significantly. If you could position your fan above your kelt pointing down so the airflow runs along its length then this will improve things further vs. just having a fan pointing at it horizontally...assuming you're not doing this already of course.
 
It occurred to me that a cpu heatsink and fan would be ideal for cooling quickly when the ambient temperature is cool enough. Issue is that no brewing vessels tend to have flat sides.
 
Agentgonzo said:
I wonder how much this affects the cold break.

All the homebrewing literature says you should chill "quickly" to get the cold break and that if you chill "slowly" the proteins stay in solution... But absolutely no quantitative mention of what "quickly" or "slowly" actually mean.
Click to expand...

I remember something in the thread from Doc Anna about the commercial process of distillation from the course she was doing. I think she said the important thing is to get the wash (is that the right word in distillation) down below 85c in around 2 hours and the only way you can do that when you have hundreds of litres is to force chill it.
 
Not scientific as I have never quantified anything but I no chill and my beers are well clear.
Just use Protofloc in the boil
 
Twostage said:
I remember something in the thread from Doc Anna about the commercial process of distillation from the course she was doing. I think she said the important thing is to get the wash (is that the right word in distillation) down below 85c in around 2 hours and the only way you can do that when you have hundreds of litres is to force chill it.
Click to expand...

In a 23l no chill that's about 20-30 mins.
 

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