Is this method ok for cooling wort?...

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smokey989

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I am due to make my first home brew in a couple of days (5 gallon in total) and one of my main concerns is cooling the wort as quickly and safely as possible.

I was thinking of boiling 3 gallon wort and to cool it down use 2x 2 liter pop bottles(sterilized) of frozen water(pre-boiled). Once cooled down a bit then add to fermentation bucket and top up to 5 gallon with room temperature water. Target temp is 70-75c

Would you say this ok?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

cheers :)
 
If you can pre-boil and freeze some or all of your top-off water, you can just put the sanitized ice in the bucket and pour the hot wort in with it. 3 gallons of boiling wort and 2 gallons of ice will stabilize at ~82°F. If you get the wort down to 185°F before adding it to the ice it will stabilize at ~66°F.
 
Before I got a chiller and did small boils I would place a couple gals of filtered tap water (in gal jugs) in my deep freezer for 4-5 hours.

I would use this for top off water. It always got the wort down to the 70s and sometimes the 60s.

You could put pre-boiled or filtered water in sanitized plastic soda bottles in the freezer to freeze. Then re-sanitize the outside of the bottle(s) and cut the bottom(s) off and (slowly) drop/slide the frozen water into the hot wort. This/these should chill it for you nicely.

IMO it's OK to use ice this way because of the sanitized preparation. I definitely would not recommend using ice from a vending machine or the cubes in your freezer because they may be contaminated with whatever else was in there.
 
Brilliant thank you for your advice!

i think i will give this a go then. What temp do you think i should transfer the wort to my fermentation bucket, because once in bucket it will be cooled down even further when topping up to 5 gallons with room temperature water.

The reason i am asking is that the pitching temperature for my yeast is 70f and i don't want the wort to be cooled down too much.

Thanks all.
 
I wouldn't use room temp water if you can chill it down to near freezing.

I usually placed about 1 gal of really chilled water in the primary bucket then just dump the wort on top if it...then top off to 5.25 - 5.5 gals.

I figured the chilled water will absorb some of the direct heat added to the plastic without damaging the bucket.

I've done this practice since 1994 and I still use my original buckets. ;)
 
Ah right thanks homebrewer99! Good idea.

This is what i am going to do then:

5-10 mins put pot in sink of water and ice to slightly cool it down.
Put the 4 liters of very chilled water in the bottom of the fermentation bucket.
Transfer wort to bucket than add more chilled preboiled water to required level.
If necessary put in bath with ice and water, ha ha.

Does this sound good?
 
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