Chilling Wort with Ice

thirdcoastzed · 08-28-2009, 02:13 AM

No, not an ice bath - ice.

Several days prior to brew day, I boil up three gallons of water, and let it go for about 20 minutes. Not sure, but I seem to remember that this is the average time for water to sanitize via boiling. I take the water, pour it into 4 sanitized metal cylinders, and 'cap' the cylinder with tin foil and rubber bands. I then wrap them in a frozen tea towel, and set them in front of a fan. Repeat this several times, it cools the liquid quite quickly. when i can pick up the can with my bare hands i put them in the freezer.

On brew day, after the boil is all said and done and the wort is in the fermenter (currently using a MiniBrew 6.5) I take the cylinders out of the freezer, and drop the ice in one at a time. It cools the wort to pitchable temperatures in less than a half hour.

I have been doing this for the last 6 batches, and have not detected any bad results from it. Any input? I feel like this is cheating somehow, anyone else use this method?

JMSetzler · 08-28-2009, 02:19 AM

I guess it would be ok to do this as long as you have calculated the ice volume as part of your wort. I can't really tell from your description if you are actually dumping ice into your wort or dropping a closed metal cylinder with ice in it into the wort. I'm assuming that you aren't adding 3 gallons of frozen water to your wort... maybe you are doing a 2 gallon boil and adding 3 gallons of ice... maybe i should shut up since i can't really figure out what you are doing

ibbones · 08-28-2009, 02:23 AM

I did something similar on my second and third batch. I just used ice from my ice-maker to bump the temp down and the total volume up. No problems.

**Nurmey** · 08-28-2009, 02:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ibbones

I did something similar on my second and third batch. I just used ice from my ice-maker to bump the temp down and the total volume up. No problems yet.

^^ I fixed that for you.^^

Not a problem since you are making your own sanitized ice. It's more of a problem for folks using ice right out of very unsanitary ice machines.

I've seen the stuff that grows in commercial ice makers and believe me you don't want it in your beer.

**arturo7** · 08-28-2009, 02:52 AM

Here we go again...

**ThreeDogsNE** · 08-28-2009, 03:40 AM

I probably shouldn't admit it, but I threw commercial ice into my first batches. I don't know what grew, but it wasn't good. The compost pile bugs ended up very happy with those batches, but I wasn't. Bowed to the wisdom of the experienced and made an immersion chiller. Much better outcome, though the compost bugs were left disappointed.

thirdcoastzed · 08-28-2009, 04:16 AM

Sorry for the confusion JMSetzler, to address your points, i take the ice out of the can. just ice in the wort. I do about a 4 gallon boil, the ice is just over a gallon.
thanks to all of you for your input.

corncob · 08-29-2009, 10:40 PM

I found that my immersion chiller gives out at 80 deg in the summer, so I started using ice (made from boiled water in a sanitized plastic container) to supplement. The first time my math was bad (I forgot about the heat of of fusion--I guess I blew the $26,000 I spent on engineering school) and chilled the wort to 47 degrees. I had to pitch the next day. The second time was a charm. Here's what I do now.

1. Chill 4.5 gallons of wort to 80 degrees
2. Whirlpool, wait ten minutes
3. Siphon onto 1/2 gallon ice in the bucket
4. Take temp. and smile at 65 degrees!!

I also find that racking into the fermenter aerates the wort pretty well. You will have to adjust your recipe.

**Saccharomyces** · 08-29-2009, 11:19 PM

Your method sounds great to me. You are using pre-boiled water to make the ice, and keeping everything sanitary... it's a good system.

Adding commercial ice as folks already piled on in this thread is a bad idea because bacteria lurks in it.

**bmckee56** · 08-30-2009, 06:09 AM

I assume you are doing partial boil volumes so your appoach would work, but for AG or full boils you could not use your method.

Check this out for fast cooling potential and less time in the making (of ice that is): http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/212-78-20-minutes-ice-block-ic-133761/

Salute!