full boil without a wort chiller

So I'm hoping to do a brew this weekend, and I really don't have money for a wort chiller right now. How long does it take to cool using a typical water/ice bath method? I won't have much ice, so I was thinking cool twice in water, then a third time in ice water. Is this feasible? Is it going to take all day?

spiffcow said:

So I'm hoping to do a brew this weekend, and I really don't have money for a wort chiller right now. How long does it take to cool using a typical water/ice bath method? I won't have much ice, so I was thinking cool twice in water, then a third time in ice water. Is this feasible? Is it going to take all day?

Click to expand...

My guess is that it's going to take 45 minutes to an hour easily.. And you are going to have shake/swirl/stir constantly.. I've done it before and it took close to an hour in a think aluminum pot.. A thicker stainless pot may take longer.. The more water you have around the kettle (ie, a bathub or a deep sink) the faster it will go.. Good luck...

GroosBrewz said:

My guess is that it's going to take 45 minutes to an hour easily.. And you are going to have shake/swirl/stir constantly.. I've done it before and it took close to an hour in a think aluminum pot.. A thicker stainless pot may take longer.. The more water you have around the kettle (ie, a bathub or a deep sink) the faster it will go.. Good luck...

Click to expand...

Mine is a really thin aluminum pot.. I think I'm good as far as amount of water goes -- I've got a metal trashcan i was just going to fill with water. I'm starting to worry more about safety, though.. Carrying 212* 50 lb pot could get dangerous.

The most important thing to do is keep the water, and wort, moving. I'd plan on replacing the water often, not twice. Ice near the end is a good idea.

I bought 20lbs of ice from the supermarket and filled the sink with it. Put the pot in fully immersed in ICE and stirred the wort keeping it moving and adding ice as it melts quickly. Took all of 25-30 minutes and I was down in 75 degees so I could rak to primary. I've done this 3 times and nothing bad has happened. knock on wood

An idea, you could freeze some 2 liter bottles filled with water and after sanitzing them put one in each hand and stir the wort with them (gently of course). That should drop the temp very quickly then the ice bath could be more effective.

Good luck!!

RRxGrasshopper said:

I bought 20lbs of ice from the supermarket and filled the sink with it. Put the pot in fully immersed in ICE and stirred the wort keeping it moving and adding ice as it melts quickly. Took all of 25-30 minutes and I was down in 75 degees so I could rak to primary. I've done this 3 times and nothing bad has happened. knock on wood

Click to expand...

RRX, I don't know how much ice is near you but 20# of ice for each brew adds up...quick. Would't it be more feasable for an IC or something similar?

Spiff - Definitly freeze up some water bottles. I did a fullboil ice bath once, it took about 40 minutes. It doesn't take forever but you need to be careful.

That will help big time.

IMO, the relatively minor benefits you might get out of a full volume boil are easily outweighed by the potentially major detriments of not being able to cool the wort down quickly. I personally wouldn't do a full-volume boil until I had the means to cool it down in a reasonable timeframe.

Another issue worth considering is how you're going to safely transfer 5 gallons or so of boiling hot liquid to the sink / bathtub / whatever.

I have always done full boils, and before I had a wort chiller I carried the pot into the bathroom and stuck it in the tub filled with tap water. This way, it took nearly an hour to do, but it works. Freeze some two liters or milk jugs the night before and throw them in after you have cooled it initially with the tap water and you can save some ice.

You could save yourself some trouble and just do a no chill. I've done this for my last 7 brews and they have all turned out great. All you need to do is pour your wort into a sanitized plastic bucket directly after flame out, put vodka in a 3 piece airlock with a vodka soaked cotton ball in between the riser and the bubble cap, and let it cool overnight, then pitch your yeast. The only problem for you would be trying to dump 5 gallons of boiling liquid without burning yourself. I have a spigot in my brew kettle and use a silicone hose that can handle the heat. If you don't have a plastic bucket though I wouldn't do this with a carboy because it would probably break.

This thread is way too long to read through, but basically there are a lot of different ways to go about it and it seems like everyone that tries it gets good results. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/exploring-no-chill-brewing-117111/

By the way, Where are you in Oklahoma? I'm in Norman not too far from OU campus.

As long as u r not using really light malts you will b ok but chilling it(or not) will suck. If u r using lt malts you run a high risk of taking on dms without a way to bring the temp down quick. $15 worth of copper and an old garden hose=an immersion chiller

use at least 20lbs of ice and add the ice to your cooling water from the start. You want to get the wort below 100F as quick as possible. It will probably only take about 20 minutes using ice water and stirring from the start.

I've always used an ice/water bath in my kitchen sink and small frozen bottles of water (sanitized of course) to cool my wort. Now that I am doing full boils it takes me about an hour to get the wort to pitching temp, but its the last 20-25 degrees that take the longest. I can get it down below 100 in about 20min which I think is the important thing regarding DMS production.

Even tho my system works, it is not ideal and I am constantly paranoid about introducing an infection via the water bottles. So my next brewing priority is to make or buy an immersion chiller.

So it's up to you. The chilling of the wort can be done with ice baths and frozen water bottles, but you may save yourself a lot of time and worry by just pulling the trigger on an IC now. Good luck with whatever you decide.