finally got my act together - ice for chilling

I started using ice-water for IC chilling several months ago. I love it, but was always running to the store to grab a bag of ice on brew day and spending another $4 per batch or so.

After repeatedly telling myself, "You need to strart collecting ice from the freezer ice-maker instead of buying this crap ," I finally wised up and worked this into my daily routine.

Every morning after I start the coffee brewing, I dump the contents of the ice maker tray into a bucket that I keep in the chest freezer in the garage. It takes all of 30 seconds and since I attached it to something I do everyday, it makes it easier to remember. I also have some disposable tupperware containers that I fill up and freeze into larger blocks of ice. Those are getting refilled every other day.

I just started doing this on Monday of this week and I think I already have about 20# of ice in that bucket. I brew every two weeks, so this should give me WAY more ice than I really need.

Not a monumental thing to share I suppose, but $4 savings per batch is pretty significant when you consider that the actual beer ingredients for a batch run me about $20 to $25. $4 for ice on top of that is pretty significant.

What about freezing 2 liter bottles? Maybe fill em part way and squeeze out the air before sealing to make room for expansion. Then you could just drop bottles in and cycle them right back to the freezer after the brew?

I thought about that, but don't think I would get the best heat transfer with large blocks of ice enclosed in plastic. The "large" blocks that I am making are maybe 1 quart in size, but most of ice ice is the standard 1oz semi-circle shape that come out the ice maker in the fridge.

I don't drink much soda, and never have 2-liters of it, but I might pick a couple up to try it out, augmented with the cubes I am already harvesting.

During the summer brew season, I use this setup to sub-cool my tap water. I place the tub with water and the cooler into the freezer the evening before a brew and use it with great effect. Just make sure the chiller does not have any water in it when you place it in the freezer or it will not move water through it or it may rupture. Also when setting up, make sure it is completely hooked up before you run water through it or the water inside will freeze very quickly.



Salute!

Walker said:

I thought about that, but don't think I would get the best heat transfer with large blocks of ice enclosed in plastic. The "large" blocks that I am making are maybe 1 quart in size, but most of ice ice is the standard 1oz semi-circle shape that come out the ice maker in the fridge.

I don't drink much soda, and never have 2-liters of it, but I might pick a couple up to try it out, augmented with the cubes I am already harvesting.

Click to expand...

Good point... I bet the outside would melt, then the plastic and water would act as an insulator. Large chunks may be fine if they aren't in a container.
I was trying to think of a way to get the ice you need with less effort.

Walker said:

I thought about that, but don't think I would get the best heat transfer with large blocks of ice enclosed in plastic. The "large" blocks that I am making are maybe 1 quart in size, but most of ice ice is the standard 1oz semi-circle shape that come out the ice maker in the fridge.

I don't drink much soda, and never have 2-liters of it, but I might pick a couple up to try it out, augmented with the cubes I am already harvesting.

Click to expand...

It's great that you worked this into your daily routine, but wouldn't it be way easier to just toss all your containers back into the freezer at the end of your brew day and know that you have enough ice ready for your next brew day without having to stay on top of it?

For my money (and my time making ice) your large blocks/soda bottles are the way to go. Take the caps off the bottles when you add them and the insulation is negligble. Also, don't get hung up on soda bottles, snapple, gatorade, water bottles - they all work, just make sure you don't fill them up all the way and that you loosen the caps so there's room for the ice to expand.

The trick for me is finding the ones that fit most efficiently in my freezer. Space is at a premium in NYC apartments.

Walker said:

I thought about that, but don't think I would get the best heat transfer with large blocks of ice enclosed in plastic. The "large" blocks that I am making are maybe 1 quart in size, but most of ice ice is the standard 1oz semi-circle shape that come out the ice maker in the fridge.

Click to expand...

The soda bottles or ice packs don't work well for this reason. I tried last time and it was not nearly as effective as small cubes. All about surface area.

I was having the same problem as you, always having to go to the grocery and get ice and hating to pay for it. A couple months ago one of those automated ice places opened in a random parking lot about a mile from my house so now i can just take a bucket and $1.25 from the change dish and get 20lbs of ice. I am happy.

Could you break up the water bottle ice before you use it?

I have been collecting ice like this for the past couple of weeks in anticipation of brewing a bock tomorrow morning. I plan to chill down to 30's or 40's, and haven't chilled that low before so I've saved a LOT of ice.

I filled an empty corny keg, and also have another couple 2.5 gallon buckets filled in the freezer. And, I still have the icemaker churning away on the "max" setting.

I also chill with ice. I finally remembered this week to start accumulating ice-maker ice in the garage freezer.

+1 on cubes over blocks. More surface area equals better cooling.

get some five gallon buckets fill them with water freeze them and then bust the large chunks up with a hammer to get the most surface area to cool the water faster

chrispykid said:

It's great that you worked this into your daily routine, but wouldn't it be way easier to just toss all your containers back into the freezer at the end of your brew day and know that you have enough ice ready for your next brew day without having to stay on top of it?

Click to expand...

I'm not following you. I am using the ice cubes that are produced by the automatic ice maker in my freezer. What containers should I be putting back into the freezer? There are no containers here.

Ohio-Ed said:

I was trying to think of a way to get the ice you need with less effort.

Click to expand...

It's seriously no effort at all.

- Open freezer in kitchen
- Grab ice tray
- walk 15 feet to garage
- open chest freezer
- dump tray into bucket
- go back inside

It takes 30 seconds every morning. No kidding.

Revvy said:

Could you break up the water bottle ice before you use it?

Click to expand...

fatherbigfoot said:

get some five gallon buckets fill them with water freeze them and then bust the large chunks up with a hammer to get the most surface area to cool the water faster

Click to expand...

Uh...... that's a major pain in the ass folks.

There is nothing complicated with collecting the cubes here, I swear it! Why the hell is everyone trying to "make it easier" by busting **** with a hammer?!

Seriously....

I saw an episode on Myth Busters about the fastest way to chill a bottle/can of beer. In the end the fastest practical way was with crushed ice in salt water. In the extreme version, they used liquid nitrogen... I'm guessing you don't have that handy.

Walker said:

It's seriously no effort at all.

- Open freezer in kitchen
- Grab ice tray
- walk 15 feet to garage
- open chest freezer
- dump tray into bucket
- go back inside

It takes 30 seconds every morning. No kidding.

Click to expand...

You forgot, "Turn off Heating Element when ready to cool".

Walker said:

There is nothing complicated with collecting the cubes here, I swear it! Why the hell is everyone trying to "make it easier" by busting **** with a hammer?!

Seriously....

Click to expand...

Heh, heh. I was wondering the same thing.

Perhaps they just want to share their techniques.

It's been a long day but where are you putting the ice? Is it for a pre-chiller? Sorry if I'm spacing here.

I never did say where I was putting the ice for chilling because it wasn't relevant. I was just making a comment about finally getting my head out of my butt and collecting ice from my ice maker instead of buying at the grocery.

I don't know where this thread is headed now, so I am jumping ship.

I use about 40-50# of ice per batch for cooling, I fill a cooler with the ice, top it up with water and use a pump to move the ice water through my IC. I am going to start collecting my ice maker ice as well, I dont know why I never thought of that myself! Its always a challenge to cool things out here when the tap water in july/august is over 100°

azscoob said:

I use about 40-50# of ice per batch for cooling, I fill a cooler with the ice, top it up with water and use a pump to move the ice water through my IC. I am going to start collecting my ice maker ice as well, I dont know why I never thought of that myself! Its always a challenge to cool things out here when the tap water in july/august is over 100°

Click to expand...

Damn, that's a lot of ice. Are you doing 10 gallon batches?

For full disclosure, I use my IC in a backwards manner.

My copper coil is also the HEX for my HERMS, so it has a temp probe connected to one port of it. During HERMS mashing, I have my hoses set up so that the temp probe is at the output of the coil. When it comes time to chill, I swap the hoses so that the temp probe is at the input of the coil.

Then I sit the coil into my HLT, fill the HLT with ice water, and start pumping the wort through the coil. The output of the coil goes right back into the kettle.

I keep circulating this until the temp probe shows me that I am at pitching temp, then I pull the coil out of the ice water and redirect the output of the coil into the fermenter.

*snicker* After all these years, and especially with this infamous avatar, I finally clicked on your profile and saw your real pic.

Of course if I were Laughing gnome or someone like that, I might make a comment about not knowing which pic was scarier. But I'm not, so I won't.

This avatar was just something I threw on here one day. Had no intention of really keeping it, but it disturbed enough people that I thought it should just be permanent.

Which reminds me... it's time for it to get some holiday flare......

I don't know buddy, It's become an HBT instituion. Can't see you without it. I think you should just do what those folks who have that concrete goose on the porch and put different holiday hats on it or something. Just like when we photoshopped Aretha's innauguration bow on ours.

Revvy said:

I don't know buddy, It's become an HBT instituion. Can't see you without it. I think you should just do what those folks who have that concrete goose on the porch and put different holiday hats on it or something. Just like when we photoshopped Aretha's innauguration bow on ours.

Click to expand...

That's what I *have* been doing since Christmas.









and the new one (should have done it before Flag Day, and then I could have let it ride until after July 4th):

Revvy like it!

the f*cking easter bunny one disturbs even me.

Walker said:

the f*cking easter bunny one disturbs even me.

Click to expand...

Yeah it's kinda like midget clown porn, it's sick as **** but you still find yourself getting a slight tingle in your "happy place" when you see it.


<----Secretly hopes SOMEONE will quote that in their sigline

1234567890

walker, walker, walker. I feel ur frustration. You just seemed like such a forgiving person when I met you You're right on the money though. The only problem is if you brew back-back, the ice-maker does not have enough time keep up. Ask me how I know...

Revvy said:

Yeah it's kinda like midget clown porn, it's sick as **** but you still find yourself getting a slight tingle in your "happy place" when you see it.


<----Secretly hopes SOMEONE will quote that in their sigline

Click to expand...

And sigged!

Reelale said:

You're right on the money though. The only problem is if you brew back-back, the ice-maker does not have enough time keep up. Ask me how I know...

Click to expand...

At the rate I collected ice thos week, I'm sure i could brew every weekend and have a solid supply. More often than that and I would have to buy.

Furtunately, I usually brew every other week, so I should be good.

Walker said:

Damn, that's a lot of ice. Are you doing 10 gallon batches?

For full disclosure, I use my IC in a backwards manner.

My copper coil is also the HEX for my HERMS, so it has a temp probe connected to one port of it. During HERMS mashing, I have my hoses set up so that the temp probe is at the output of the coil. When it comes time to chill, I swap the hoses so that the temp probe is at the input of the coil.

Then I sit the coil into my HLT, fill the HLT with ice water, and start pumping the wort through the coil. The output of the coil goes right back into the kettle.

I keep circulating this until the temp probe shows me that I am at pitching temp, then I pull the coil out of the ice water and redirect the output of the coil into the fermenter.

Click to expand...

That is for a 5 gallon batch, it will also cool off a 10 gallon batch though. my biggest problem is that I have had 103 degree cold water out of the tap, this melts a lot of ice pretty quick so I go through a bit just prepping the ice bath. I am looking into a counterflow setup or a plate chiller and use subzero brine or glycol. Or maybe I could just move out of hell.

youre lucky u got one of those ice makers. i gotta make my ice in those 12 cube ice trays(and ive only got a couple) luckily im only doing 3 gal batches once in a blue moon or id be screwed. when i get my 6 gal fermenter and bigger pot swmbo is guna kill me when she sees the fridge freezer packed with ice cube trays

Walker -
Sorry... I guess I'm responsible for derailing your thread by suggesting the idea of freezing bottles for reuse. I was thinking of myself and something that could be done all at once during brew day cleanup. I agree, collecting ice is a pretty simple solution. In fact I may start doing this myself.

Nah... That was still chilling related. We really went into the weeds when Revvy showed up. Midget clown porn?

Yeah, well... I just filled up a tupperware with ice. Thanks for the hint/reminder. My icemake almost holds enough to chill a batch. I still use a frozen bottle in the middle of my chiller more as a spacer & then fill the outside with cubes.

More food for thought on this topic: I brew alot of lagers and all 12g batches so chilling is quite an ordeal. I use about 60-70 lbs of ice to chill a batch, and I've been using the same water and ice for several batches I have a deep freezer right beside my rig and 16 ice trays. When I'm done chilling (wort is at 45F) I just refreeze it all. I have to dump and refill the 16 ice trays a few times before the next brew however. I wonder how much electricity I end up using to do this... Oh Well!

Got my batch chilled down to 45F no problem using my saved up ice yesterday.

I know this thread has gone all different directions but, thanks Walker for passing this on... such a simple solution that will save me about $9 per brew! Midget Clown Porn? Seriously?