What is be best way to cool your wort?

I am a new guy, and I'm about to start my first brew. I was wondering though, what is the best way to cool your wort? I know using an immersion chiller would help, but I'm not ready to pick one of those up yet. Is cooling the pot in just ice and water the best(and only) way? should i add salt to that water(its how i chill beer really fast) or will adding salt affect the wort?

Are you doing 5 gallon boils or are you boiling a smaller quantity and topping off?

If you are keeping the ice and water outside of the pan then you can add salt to make it colder. It is feasible to use regular ice inside the wort, but keeping your ice sanitary can be difficult. For you, just use the kitchen sink, or better yet a large rubbermaid tub with ice and water. Stir slowly every few minutes or so.

For my first 3 batches (partial boil) I did an ice bath along with putting store bought ice in the wort to cool it faster and it didn't cause any issues that ive seen so far. Two of those batches have been bottled and the other has been sitting in the primary for just shy of a month. I just put a couple pounds of ice in, stirred it, and it cooled down very quickly.

The best advice I can give you is to use a put made of copper preferably, or Aluminum, both transfer heat far better than stainless steel. Stainless steel can slow down the cooling process by a huge factor. That's why in the refrigeration field coils are made of copper and not stainless steel. You are essentially looking to make a simple heat exchanger...

-E

an 8lb bag of ice is 1 gallon of water. Dump that sucker in as one of your gallons of water in order to get to 5 gallons. Get you to pitchable temps as soon as the ice is melted.

the best way i have found in a sink is to fill it up with the coldest water you have when that water gets warm empty and continue a couple of time the on final one fill with ice stirring during this process! I can bring down a boil from 200 to 80 in about 10 - 15 minutes then top off with cool water

fshnne1 said:

the best way i have found in a sink is to fill it up with the coldest water you have when that water gets warm empty and continue a couple of time the on final one fill with ice stirring during this process! I can bring down a boil from 200 to 80 in about 10 - 15 minutes then top off with cool water

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That's what I do too, but it takes me a little longer because I am cheap and make sure to get every ounce of cold out of the water before draining it.

I recently started using gallon jugs of spring water for my brewing. As such I get it the day before and put two gallons in the fridge and let them get really cold.

I brew with 2 gallons in the pot for the boiling and once done I put the pot in the sink with ice water around it. Once the bottom is warm ot the touch in goes the 2 gallons of cold water. It drops the temperature fast. I keep using ice and water in the sink ot cool the pot lower and add the room temperature fifth gallon to the primary as needed.

Next batch I wil try keeping all three extra gallons in the fridge to speed it down even further and keep an extra one handy at room temperature.

Bite the bullet man, and buy the immersion coils.
The longer that wort sits out there, the better chance for contamination. Even if you cover it, you still got to check that temperature and if you stir it you are open for contamination.
I connected two stainless steel immersion coils, one that goes in the wort and one that goes into a bucket of ice water. The hose water is chilled through the coils in the ice water, then run through and out of the wort. I've done the ice baths....get the coils.:rockin:

Partial boils you'll be fine cooling in the sink/tub of water, just stir often (wort and water, not using the same spoon.. think sanitization!).

The sanitized ice thing works well too, if your pot is big enough to hold the additional water.

Before I begin brewing for the day, I put three gallons of water in the chest freezer. By the time I'm done boiling the 2.5 gallons I do for extract brewing, the water in the freezer is very near freezing. I then add it directly to my wort I just took off the stove (make sure the brew pot you're using is big enough to handle a full five gallons). This knocks off 100 degrees in about 30 sec. I then use a quick water bath and some ice on the outside of the pot to cool it the rest of the way.

cmdrico7812 said:

Before I begin brewing for the day, I put three gallons of water in the chest freezer. By the time I'm done boiling the 2.5 gallons I do for extract brewing, the water in the freezer is very near freezing. I then add it directly to my wort I just took off the stove (make sure the brew pot you're using is big enough to handle a full five gallons). This knocks off 100 degrees in about 30 sec. I then use a quick water bath and some ice on the outside of the pot to cool it the rest of the way.

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Man, I'm not sure if you're going to get all the bacteria out. The temp of your wort may not stay high enough to effectively remove the bacteria from 3 gallons of ice water. Just a thought.

Calvinfan1 said:

Man, I'm not sure if you're going to get all the bacteria out. The temp of your wort may not stay high enough to effectively remove the bacteria from 3 gallons of ice water. Just a thought.

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You have to pretty much have clean water as the addition. I add water straight out of the tap, but that is just because my water supply is extremely high quality.

I do 2.5 gallon partial boils as well and also use bottled spring water - 3 gallons into the freezer at the start of my brew process and then the hot wort goes into the primary on top of the three iced up gallons of water - I've done 35 batches this way and have never had a contamination issue.

I do a 3 gal boil and have been able to successfully cool the wort down to 80 degrees withing 30 minutes using ice and water. I fill the sink with ice and water and put the pot in and add ice as needed. It helps to stir it once and awhile to get the hot wort in the middle to the outside of the pot but I normally don't. I'd rather not take the lid off the pot if I don't have to or chance aerating. I buy bagged ice. An imerssion chiller is my next purchase because I can't keep spending 6, 7 or 8 bucks on ice everytime I brew.

Calvinfan1 said:

Man, I'm not sure if you're going to get all the bacteria out. The temp of your wort may not stay high enough to effectively remove the bacteria from 3 gallons of ice water. Just a thought.

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No expert here, but if your water source is so bad that using cold water will contaminate your beer you're pretty much screwed all around. Where do you live? Nepal? :fro:

I got a big tub in the back yard. I fill it with well water. Well water is cold. The bigger the bucket/tub, the faster the wort will chill.
I think my tub with well water cools faster then the expensive wort chiller. And it's easy.

monty3777 said:

No expert here, but if your water source is so bad that using cold water will contaminate your beer you're pretty much screwed all around. Where do you live? Nepal? :fro:

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I don't care where you live...water from the tap or from the hose is going to have bacteria. If you want to go the frozen water method, pick up some spring water from the store and use that. You'll wish you did when that bad batch occurs.:cross:

Calvinfan1 said:

I don't care where you live...water from the tap or from the hose is going to have bacteria. If you want to go the frozen water method, pick up some spring water from the store and use that. You'll wish you did when that bad batch occurs.:cross:

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Spring water has fewer requirements than tap water does, so in many instances has up to 10 times as much bacteria in it as plain tap water.

Thanks for everyones input.

I'll be doing a partial boil, and my tap water isn't very reliable. Least not for brewing. What would be the best water to use then if not spring water? distilled water?

What are you going to be brewing and what is the recipe and process you intend to use? In general, spring water is best if you can't use your tap (I brew with spring water myself) but if you use RO water you might have to add some water salts or gypsum.

Dude422 said:

Thanks for everyones input.

I'll be doing a partial boil, and my tap water isn't very reliable. Least not for brewing. What would be the best water to use then if not spring water? distilled water?

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Most people that can't use their tap use spring water - I was merely contrasting the post that your tap isn't bacteria free enough to add without boiling....its kind of like 10 times nearly no bacteria is still nearly no bacteria

Jonnio, are you saying it would be best to boil whatever what i use prior to freezing it as others have suggested?

eddie, i'll be brewing the american ale 20 minute boilkit from midwestsupplies.

Dude422 said:

Jonnio, are you saying it would be best to boil whatever what i use prior to freezing it as others have suggested?

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I don't - I put cold water right out of my tap...most people using spring water put it directly from the jug into their beer as well....I wouldn't worry about it.