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taintedplay · 01-03-2012, 07:53 PM

I am on a tight budget, and right now an ice bath cools my 5 gal batches decently quickly. but id like to ramp it up a little bit. what about getting a smaller pot and placing it inside my brew pot (during boil so it kills the germs) then filling the inner bucket with ice and water, so there is more surface area of ice water the wort touches. Any reason not to do this until i save for a wort chiller? (not the next on my list of expenses)

also, when i did my extract batches in the past i brewed a few gallons of wort then added a few gallons of water to bring it up to the 5 gallon batch according to instructions. The recipe im about to try, and my first all grain, (cream of 3 corn in a 5 gal batch size) has no mention of this. Is adding water only for extract batches? im asking because ive heard people add frozen water from zip lock bags but that adds water so im confused if I should

**sheeshomatic** · 01-03-2012, 07:57 PM

For all grain batches, you typically do not add water unless you over boil and wind up with too little wort or if your gravity is too high.

As for your cooling question, that would work I suppose, but I'd worry about getting any of that ice water in the small pot into your wort. I'd honestly just chill in the ice bath that you're using and get the chiller when you can.

**Double_D** · 01-03-2012, 07:59 PM

I'd make a wort chiller the next thing on your list. It's integral to all grain brewing. You could do the small pot inside the big one thing if you have enough room to displace the volume of the small pot. It's pretty unwieldy, a pot of liquid floating inside of another one. I can tell you from experience.

You had to top up your extract batches to reach five gallons because you weren't doing full volume boils. In all grain, when you sparge you are collecting all the necessary liquid to account for boil off, trub loss, transfer and all that.

Ps, what is cream of 3 corn?

taintedplay · 01-03-2012, 08:00 PM

whoops meant cream of three crops*** looking at flaked maize online and i guess it got stuck in my head haha
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f62/cream-three-crops-cream-ale-66503/

**Double_D** · 01-03-2012, 08:04 PM

Gotcha. He doesn't use rice hulls in the batch. Must be more lucky than me. I like to throw some in when I do a batch with corn, I've had more than one stuck sparge because of the corn.

taintedplay · 01-03-2012, 08:24 PM

I have a radiator from back when I watercooled my computer, which basically has the hot water from the blocks running throw it and the radiator transfers the heat from the water to the air, cooling the water. This would work in reverse right? pump cold water through it and stick it in the wort, effectively being a wort chiller.
The one i have is similar to this: Newegg.com - Swiftech MCR220-QP Liquid Cooler Radiator

**sheeshomatic** · 01-03-2012, 08:39 PM

I don't see why that wouldn't work, but I don't know how quick it would be. There is far more thermal mass in a pot of boiling wort than in a CPU/GPU. I'd be interested to see how it works though. First I'd try it in a pot of boiling water to be sure it maintains its integrity. If that seems sketchy, I'd leave it outside the wort and fan cool it as intended. I have a hunch the ice water bath still works faster.

TBar · 01-03-2012, 08:40 PM

That heat exchanger would work in reverse but personally I'd be careful. There is a lot of bacteria friendly non-food grade surface area on the outside of that thing.

beerman1957 · 01-03-2012, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by taintedplay

I am on a tight budget, and right now an ice bath cools my 5 gal batches decently quickly. but id like to ramp it up a little bit. what about getting a smaller pot and placing it inside my brew pot (during boil so it kills the germs) then filling the inner bucket with ice and water, so there is more surface area of ice water the wort touches. Any reason not to do this until i save for a wort chiller? (not the next on my list of expenses)

also, when i did my extract batches in the past i brewed a few gallons of wort then added a few gallons of water to bring it up to the 5 gallon batch according to instructions. The recipe im about to try, and my first all grain, (cream of 3 corn in a 5 gal batch size) has no mention of this. Is adding water only for extract batches? im asking because ive heard people add frozen water from zip lock bags but that adds water so im confused if I should

I have added ice directly to my wort to cool, but that presents several problems:

1. You don't have a full-wort boil. You would need to adjust hops and grain rates, but this can be done with a computer program.

2. Potential of contamination. Greatly reduced if I freeze my own purified water. Limit the addition of ice. 1 lb=8 gallons apprx. I have to tell you that any more than 1lb may cool the wort off too much. However, the water does cool quite rapidly.

3. The ice does work when added directly. I wouldn't recommend this for a
all-grain beer because I would want a full wort boil.

I would normally just keep using a large tub or container and fill it with ice. I did this for a number of years. Then, when I realized a good plate chiller or immersion cooler could be had for under $100, I just saved as much as I could.

I now have three pumps and two plate chillers!

kurtism · 01-03-2012, 09:30 PM

a wort chiller can be made for about $15 of pipe and stuff you probably already have (a couple hose clamps, tygon tubing and a hose adapter)

Forget Home Depot and Lowes. Go your your local plumbing supply shops...the places that plumbers actually get their supplies at. (If contractors really bought from Home Depot and Lowes, home improvement projects would be twice as high).

I picked up 50 feet of 3/8" copper pipe for $15 (HD by me was $1 a foot and I have vowed never to set foot in lowes again). Get your brew bucket (because that diameter is usually smaller than most brew pots) or anything that is cylindrical that is about 2/3 the diameter of your brew pot.

wrap that around in any design you want. i went with a rib cage design found on youtube to increase surface area but most are just standard stacks of rows of pipe.

Add your tygon tubing with hose clamps and hose adapter and viola! Any faucet adapter or hose adapter will be less than a $1 at a plumbing supply store and hose clamps are like 10cents a piece

FYI...for my first brew, I did add ice directly to the fermenter and introduced my hot wort to it. It did the job, but you have to make sure that your ice is clean. I wouldn't trust my fridge for this. I have a standalone ice maker that I sanitize then I use the same bottled water i brew with to make ice.

I really don't see the issue of a full wort boil. During steeping and sparging, volume will matter because that is where the sugars and flavors go into solution. Once the wort has boiled down after its boil, just don't top it off...let the ice make up the volume to get back to 5gal. I mean, is it me or doesn't everyone lose about a gallon of liquid during a 60 min boil?