mpfeil8484
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Can you use ice to cool the wort?
Can you use ice to cool the wort?
I used ice in my first batch with no ill effects. I sanitized some clean tupperware and filled with boiled water. It ended up being about a gallon of water worth of ice (8 lbs). Tossed it in the wort, which was also sitting in an ice bath and had it cool within 15 minutes.
I wouldn't trust the bagged ice you can buy, or the stuff that comes out of my ice maker, for that matter.
I do partial boils. When I start to heat my water, I put three gal of distilled water in the freezer and cook as usual.
When I chill my wort, I chill it in the pot in a ice bath till it reaches 120-150 in about 10 min or less. I then dump as much of the almost frozen water into the pot as it will hold and it drops it instantly down to 70-80. I then put this in the fermenter and top off the rest of the way with the remainder chilled water till I reach 5 gal. I am always 60-70 when done.
Pitch the yeast and forget about it.
Travestian said:Unfortunately partial boils don't exist with all grain
Travestian said:Unfortunately partial boils don't exist with all grain
tampa911 said:I am in FL so with full boils cooling is going to be a challenge even with a wort chiller due to our above average ground water temps. I have not measured but I would say 60 -70 degree tap water is not unusual even in "winter". I have a few ideas I am kicking around once I get to the point of full boils, but with partial boils a gallon of ice does the trick without flinching.
Get/make two chillers. Put one in a tub of ice, then the second in your wort. Use it as a prechiller.
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