cwb124

Recipes 

A homebrew guy I know says he dumps his wort in a the primary that already ice cubes in it bought from the store. So I dumped 2 8lb bags of ice in the primary and poured my boiling wort over it.

Well...the temperature got down to ~52 degrees almost immediately. I know a cold break is good, but is that too low? I am now waiting for the cubes to all melt and hit 70 degrees before throwing in the yeast.

Will I see any problems from this?

PseudoChef

Recipes 

It doesn't hurt the beer to have it cool too much. First time I used my plate chiller I got down to 54 degrees. I waited about an hour for it to creep up to 64 and pitched my yeast.

However, in the future, I wouldn't pour wort over the ice. Ice you buy from a store is generally considered unsanitary and could lead to an infection.

TheJadedDog

Recipes 

I agree, the low temp isn't a concern, the ice in the wort is. I'd suggest you either do an ice bath or invest in a chiller.

__________________
And now we go AG!

On Tap: Nadda
Primary: Nadda
Planning: Extra Special Bitter

PeteOz77

Recipes 

wow! I just asked almost this same question a few minutes ago in another forum.

I have been using ice as well and it has been working for me.. just not as much as you have, only about 1/3 bag. I have had no adverse effects, but I think I am going to make my own wort chiller next weekend, and pump ice water through it, rather than adding ice directly to the wort.

__________________
This Isn't Nam Smokey, There Are Rules.

EvilTOJ

Recipes 

What I've done in the past is boiled, then cooled and frozen water in a sanitized gallon jug and chucked that into the hot wort to cool it. By chuck it in, I mean cut the crap out of the jug and dropped that into the hot wort.

PeteOz, you're cheating on us with another forum? We thought we were special!

__________________
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

PeteOz77

Recipes 

Sorry honey, I meant another THREAD, not another FORUM.. there is no other forum for me.. this is the only one!

__________________
This Isn't Nam Smokey, There Are Rules.

mrk305

Recipes 

I pitched over ice for months and got away with it. That is how it was taught at the LHBS. I have a chiller now.

Rick_R

Recipes 

I didn't boil, but would freeze store-bought gallon jugs of drinking water. When time to add I would sanitize a knife and the outside of the jug (Star San) and, as mentioned here, cut the plastic jug away and drop the block of ice into the hot wort in the brew pot. Did so a couple of times and didn't have a problem, but have since bought a chiller.

Rick

__________________
*Any advice above comes from a beginner*

Primary: Nottingham Apfelwein, American Wheat
Secondary: Nothing
Drinking: Autumn Amber
Aging: Wee Heavy
Up Next: Milk Stout
Recently Gone: Irish Red Ale

Chello

Recipes 

I see how ice is apparently unsafe due to possible infection and i have never done it, but thinking back on it...

A lot of people here just end up filling up their primary to the 5 gallon mark using store bought water right out of the jug. I would imagine that the water thats used to make store bought ice is the same "quality" water thats being put into plastic jugs for us to consume.

Also, wouldn't freezing the water kill off any harmful bacteria in the water?

__________________
"Retail is for suckers."

Nurmey

Recipes 

If you ever saw the scummy slime that grows in a commercial ice machine, you would probably never use ice again! Ice machines are inspected by local Health Departments and are consistently dinged on the report for the unsanitary conditions. Ice companies are a notch above restaurants about cleaning their equipment but not by much.

BTW, heat kills most bacteria, cold just slows most of it down.

__________________
Batch 1 Brewing
The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.