First Lager - No Wort Chiller :-(

Hey All,

I'm thinking of throwing together an Oktoberfest Marzen for October (read December!). I just got my lagering fridge so i'm all ready to go. However, i don't have a wort chiller. I've been using the ice bath method and just putting my brew kettle in an ice bath for around 25 minutes. This works perfectly to cool the wort to 80 degrees for an ale. How about getting to Lager pitching temperatures? I don't know what temperature a lager yeast should be pitched (i'm figuring ~50).

If i do need to cool 2.5 gallons to 50 degrees i was thinking of pre-sanitizing some water and making a big ice cube (1 qt). Could i theoretically throw that in the wort to help it cool? Maybe just buy 4 bags of ice to throw in the ice bath as well?

Any help is appreciated. I'm holding off on buying a wort chiller because i'm buying a B3-200B (birthday present) from moreebeer as soon as it stops reading "out of stock". It comes with a 50' immersion chiller.

I brew 1.5 gals batches. I place 4 - 1 gal jugs in the freezer for 4-5 hours prior to brewing. Top off to 5.25 gals and the temps are usually in the 60s.

I'm planning on doing a lager in the not-too-distant future. My immersion chiller will get me down to ~70° pretty easily, but the next fifteen or twenty degrees will be a *****. I'm thinking about just sealing everything up nice and tightly, make sure everything is sanitized like crazy, then putting it in the fridge (at close to freezing) for a couple hours before pitching. I'd then pitch a BIG starter to make sure things got going pretty quickly. If your sanitation is good, I don't see why this wouldn't work pretty well.

Bird: You're right, but you also need to keep an eye on the airlock.

When the brew temp drops the water in the airlock will be sucked into the carboy/primary.

Good point. I'll fill it with boiled water, or I'll just get a solid plug for this purpose.

I'm still a noob and have yet to brew anything but extract so take this for what it's worth.

I was at the Home Despot a couple weeks back looking at materials to build a wort chiller. They sell a small water pump that is driven with a standard drill. I'm sure it would pump more GPM than a tap and the cost was under $10.

Using this pump with a wort chiller you could circulate water from your kitchen sink. Adding ice to the water would chill the wort quicker and may allow you to reach 50 deg.

I haven't tried it so, no guarantees. They also offer elcetric pumps at higher GPM (and cost) that would have no problem getting a 50 deg wort with ice water circulation.

Hmmm... I was looking at pumps at the Home DePot, and didn't see anything like you mention. I'd be interested in the drill-driven pump for this purpose if I could find one. I know Kai does basically this same thing (albeit with a submersible electric pump) for chilling his lagers.

If i had the money, i think the best way to do it would be a counterflow chiller with a prechiller ice bath connector in there. I think the therminator plate chiller is even better, but

Alas, I would try the 1.5 gal batch, but i think that would throw off the coloring of the beer, wouldn't it? Caramelization and all. Unless you do a late extract addition.

Are there any disadvantages to a 1.5gal batch?