Cooling the Wort

This will be my second batch so forgive this crazy idea but what about boiling a gallon of water, filling up a sanitized container (like a milkjug) and freezing it the night before the brew. Voila you have a gallon of ice ready to pitch into your 4 gallons of hot wort when you put it in the primary??? What a quick way to cool the wort. What do you think?

How are you going to get it out of the milk jug?

Are you doing full wort boils? If not you can chill your top up water and that will go a long way to cooling the wort. I don't think 1 gallon of ice will chill 4 gallons adequately.

Barry

I think it'll work. You can cut jug top off. Be careful of splashing.
Might still take a little time but worth a shot.

A blade will quickly slice through the milk jug and the idea could accompany icewater in the bathtub, or boiling 3 gallons of wort and then adding 1 gallon ice and 1 gallon cooled water. The scenarios would be countless but the basic idea is to stick 1 gallon of ice in the hot wort. I just don't know if there are yeast/bacteria/chemical reaction ramifications to adding extremely cold elements to a really hot wort. I.E. would the beer become ransid, bitter, extremely cloudy? Has anyone tried this?

I've done exactly what you are planning a on my first couple batches. Did it work? Yes. Was it the best options. No. I did not get near the cold break I get with my chiller because of the stirring involved in melting the ice, which made for a cloudier wort to put in the fermenter. But you should have no problem doing this as long as you keep everything sanitized.

i suspect you'll get nearly the same result, with much less hassle, if you put the water in the freezer early in the day and then monitor it while you're brewing. If it starts to freeze solid, pull it out and put it in the fridge. In there it will still stay very cold and probably even icy. With this you don't risk infection from using a knife you might have cut chicken with and not cleaned properly etc...

Using an water bath a several handfuls of ice in the sink takes the edge off the boil and the 2.5 gallons of near freezing water always put my temp right at my target. Just my thoughts

I get these big jugs of bottled water at the grocery store and put them in the freezer when I start cooking. They get down to probably 40*+/-. Then I can pour them into the fermenter for top off water. No cutting, no stirring, no mess.

Usually used iced top water as well as an ice bath with a slow feed of cool water. I most admit it is a slow process.

We've gone through the numbers before but suffice it to say 1 gallon of ice wont bring 4 gallons of wort anywhere close to pitching temps but it will get it down to around 135 or so. And you can't get close to the same effect by using water close to freezing. Most of the heat absorption of the ice is through the change of state from solid (ice) to liquid, so a gallon of ice at freezer temp (mine is set at 6 degrees F) will cool >>> greater than 1 gallon of 32 degree liquid water.

I used 1 gallon ice in 3.5 gallon post-boil wort along with a water bath and got to pitching temps in like 10-15 minutes.

Two Words: Wort Chiller.

10 minutes had 3.5 gallons down to 80 from a boil. And that is with a home made 20' 3/8" copper tubing chiller. I will NEVER go back to ice bath. Ever!

+ 1

garf6819 said:

This will be my second batch so forgive this crazy idea but what about boiling a gallon of water, filling up a sanitized container (like a milkjug) and freezing it the night before the brew. Voila you have a gallon of ice ready to pitch into your 4 gallons of hot wort when you put it in the primary??? What a quick way to cool the wort. What do you think?

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