Tossing ice into cooling wort?

I've been having trouble cooling off my wort to a good pitching temperature since my groundwater is around 72 here. I was wondering if once I get it to about 90 if I could just toss in some ice to finish cooling it off? I figured that if I boiled some water and let it cool to room temp, then froze a measured amount it would be just like adding water to bring it up to snuff volume wise but a lot colder. Thoughts?

Some people do it and say they have no problems. Other swear it is a good way to get crap into your beer.

Check out the "no Chill" threads. Its certainly an option.

I thought about this before; I'd probably worry about the smells or possible bacteria that is in your freezer being absorbed in the ice cubes.

Don't know about the cubes in the wort but have you tried an ice bath? Works ok for me. Besides having a full load of ice cubes in the freezer I also have a bunch of ice packs I freeze including those ones you buy for keeping liquid yeast cool. Whatever that holds water and you can freeze works. I start off just with cold water to get the heat down quick and do the rest of the cooling in water and ice stirring the ice water and the wort every once in a while.

I do it, but I would not wait until 90 F to throw the ice in. Unless you really want to go to the trouble of calculating exactly how much is needed to get the given volume of wort down to pitching temperature. Otherwise you risk overshooting or having to deal with fishing out a block of ice.
I put in about 1/2 gallon of ice at the start of the cool, and also put the pot in an ice bath.
I seem to get a really good cold crash using this method because I'm cooling not only the wort at the edges of the pot but also the wort in the middle at the same time (without needing to stir constantly).

RE: DavidSteel above, about worrying about smells/bacteria getting into the cubes: I make the ice in Tuperware containers and/or 16oz plastic soda bottles. Both are sealed fairly airtight, so I don't think smell/bacteria is a big concern.

I have been known to do this using new zip-lock plastic bags with refrigerator ice. Always worked ok for me.

I boil a gallon of water and soak a large ziploc bag in sanitizer, I then fill it with the water and freeze. I either remove the ice from the bag and use it as top up water, or just soak the whole bag in sanitizer and place bag and everything into the wort, I have yet to have an issue but Im only five brews dep.

I've seen a double wort chiller setup where the first coil runs in a tub of ice water leading to the second coil in the wort.

You could always salt the ice water around the first coil if your ice cubes are considerably below 32deg F, and get it even cooler!

Stoopidwon said:

I boil a gallon of water and soak a large ziploc bag in sanitizer, I then fill it with the water and freeze. I either remove the ice from the bag and use it as top up water, or just soak the whole bag in sanitizer and place bag and everything into the wort, I have yet to have an issue but Im only five brews dep.

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+1. Freeze purified water that is sealed. You can also do this with jugs of purified drinking water and cut the plastic off with a sanitized packing knife. I do this with the Zephyrhills 3 Liter bottles from Walmart (I think they are $1.18), you'll need approx 6 of them for a 5 gallon batch.

http://www.zephyrhillswater.com/Products/ThreeLiter.aspx

Someone else is asking nearly the same question in All Grain, with pictures:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/wort-chiller-upgrade-145324/

When I did extract I did this all the time with ice made in sanitized tupperware containers, sealed, in my freezer. I used no more than a quart in each container so that it would melt more rapidly, and I used enough to top off my wort in the fermenter.

kevster said:

When I did extract I did this all the time with ice made in sanitized tupperware containers, sealed, in my freezer. I used no more than a quart in each container so that it would melt more rapidly, and I used enough to top off my wort in the fermenter.

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I did the same thing and then I read about how all the infections will kill me and make my babies be born necked. I try not to worry but in the back of my mind....
I now try to draw up wated the night before and put it in the fridge to cool.

Could your freeze bottles of water, then sanitize the bottles when you remove them from the freezer and drop 'em, still sealed, in your wort?

Lots of vectors from infection in store bought ice or just stuff you pull out of the freezer.

The frozen sanitized water idea would be the way to go if you don't do a pre-chiller.