i'm cheap

i dont want to spend a lot of money.

i've been cooling my wort in a bath tub with a few ice cubes in it (my tray doesnt hold that many). the wort cools to about 97F in about 15 minutes and seems to stop...

1) is there a better way i should do this? rather...given my current equipment (essentially nothing) is there a better way

2) how can i get the best bang for my buck in terms of cooling systems

3) why is cooling so fast so important?

Check out this thread, lots of good info here. After reading it all, I ended up buying a few of these at target. They work very very well, the ice comes right out of the container, and helps to cool the wort quickly. I would highly recomend picking a few up.

Cooling fast is important so that you can get the "cold break." I am not exactly sure what that does, but its something to do with the protiens. I am sure someone else will chime in on exactly what it does

heat ziplock bags in hot water to sanitize. Then insert those big blue cooling things into the ziplock bag and toss them in your wort.

A wort chiller is one of the "Essential" bits of kit and is worth spending a few $$ on. you can make your own, it will last the duration of you brewing career and it will go from extract to PM to AG. It's one thing you don't need to upgrade.

I'd save money on other things. Stick with plastic rather than glass or AU rather than SS but get an IC......

My 2 penneth.

too many acronyms....

and dont plastic ziplock bags melt in boiling water?

robs1642 said:

and dont plastic ziplock bags melt in boiling water?

Click to expand...

I dont think they melt in boiling water. And who said anything about boiling water? 170 is adequate to kill microbes.

Just get a chiller and make life much simpler...........

We just had our first brew day last weekend but I thought we came up with a clever solution seeing how we didn't have any special equipment.

We have a double kitchen sink (although you could do it with a single one too)

What we did was we filled the since with cool tap water and set the brew kettle in it. Then we start the a siphon from one sink to the other and then turned on the cool water to get equilibrium. That way the water around the wort stayed nice and cool. It took about 40 minutes to get from 212º to 73º.

Hope this helps.

BTW make sure that you sanitize your siphon before using it and make sure the tip of the siphon is below the level of the bottom of the sink. (otherwise it won't work at all)

i use my kitchen sink and it usually takes about 30 minutes. i fill up the water once and it heats up pretty quick, then i refill twice. on the second refill i add ice...usually about 2 trays. i always get to about 72F in about 30 minutes.

some say a wort chiller might be easier, but in my small kitchen it seems like it would be a bit of a mess. can't have a sink hook-up either, with my faucet and i figure i use about the same amount of water.

robs1642 said:

too many acronyms....

Click to expand...

TMA?


abcdef (for the ten chars)

omgwtfbbq!

(for teh ten chars)

I bought a sink for $20 at a local hardware store actualy a laundry basin, I have a 12 gal. brew pot so the kettle is above the sink. I just set my kettle in the sink and turn on the hose, waters my lawn at the same time. Full boil volume 8 Gal. to pitching temp in about 30 to 40 min.