Contrast & Compare

I had the opportunity to use my new wort chiller while making a batch of "Midnight Ale" last night.  Being the nerd that I am, I took temperature readings every so often so I could compare it to a "Natural" or "Newtonian" cooling of wort.  Well, I knew it would be faster... but I did not expect the results that I got!  As you can see in the comparison chart below (made with gnuplot), It took 30 minutes to do what a natural cooling couldn't do in 7 hours.

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Midnight Ale - I'm trying to use up the rest of my extract so I can just keep the grains around, so I decided to brew up a nice dark ale... appropriately at Midnight last night... this morning... last night... whatever.
Recipe: 3.3lbs Cooper's Dark LME, 3lbs Munton's Amber DME, 60min - 1/2oz. Northern Brewer Pellets, 30min - 1oz. Challenger Pellets, 2min - 1oz. Liberty, WLP 051 California V Ale Yeast (of which I am second guessing) and finally a 1 oz Kent Golding Tea to complete the foot.
I totally forgot to add the Irish Moss (thanks to the Peak Organic King Crimson), but didn't have any trouble separating the wort from the trub due in part (I think) to the new chiller.

(If you follow the link to Cooper's, don't forget that it goes MM DD YYYY Down Under)

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And on today's Agenda: Ale Franken (for lack of a better name)- who know's what it'll be... who knows who'll drink it?!?!

The Waiting Game

It's Tuesday and I have just transferred the last of the S.H.A. into a secondary to sit for a couple of weeks until the big day.  Until then, I've got the remainder of the Fool's Golden and an interesting batch of Gelblicht (some of which is in growlers in the basement, and some of which is still in a bright tank upstairs) to mull over.  When that runs out... I hope I will have the will-power to not tap into one of these beautiful batches.  If this rain keeps up, I don't think I will make it.

I've also been doing a bit of studying of Newton's Cooling Law just to see if I am able to predict when my wort cools to about 75F post boil.  So far I figure it takes about 10 hours for a 212F wort to get down to 75 without any help, but I may have rounded "e" to too few places to be really accurate.  I don't have any real reason to be doing this figuring because I just picked up a wort-chiller, but... I'd be a good thing to know.  I'm just not sure if I need to find the specific heat of my wort.  This is beginning to sound like an episode of the Big Bang Theory.

So... THIS is why I need a Wort Chiller. The time is in hours and the Temp is in degrees Fahrenheit.