Here's a question that has stumped me - maybe it's quite simple and I've just been working too hard this week - but here we go:
I don't have a wort chiller yet. What if I was to transfer the hot wort into a sanitized food grade plastic bucket, slap on a sanitized lid, and attach a air lock - wait half a day when it finally cools on it's own (no ice, no chiller, nothing) and transfer into glass carboy and pitch. I've always read you want to cool the wort as fast as possible to minimize the risk of infection, but I just can't see how this alternative, while inconvenient, wouldn't work. Any thoughts?
Sean
I don't have a wort chiller yet. What if I was to transfer the hot wort into a sanitized food grade plastic bucket, slap on a sanitized lid, and attach a air lock - wait half a day when it finally cools on it's own (no ice, no chiller, nothing) and transfer into glass carboy and pitch. I've always read you want to cool the wort as fast as possible to minimize the risk of infection, but I just can't see how this alternative, while inconvenient, wouldn't work. Any thoughts?
Sean