Why is Ice for cooling wort bad?

Williams 728
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quick5pnt0 said:
I find it funny how many people will obsess over things like this but never stop to consider how many germs are on the counter top they lay their stirring spoon on throughout the brewing process.
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I was playing fetch with the dog the last time I Corona-milled my grain. I figured maybe I'd get some extra amylase out of it.
 
quick5pnt0 said:
I find it funny how many people will obsess over things like this but never stop to consider how many germs are on the counter top they lay their stirring spoon on throughout the brewing process.
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how many people do that? I assume you know, since you think it's funny.

Sorry, couldn't help but call you on what appears to be a completely hypothetical straw man. :-D
 
I used to boil and freeze water to cool wort all the time. It worked very well, and I never had an infected batch when I used it. The only issue with it is it takes up a lot of freezer space. I live in a condo, so I don't have the room for a second freezer. SWMBO was getting pissed at me for taking up all the freezer space, so I recently built a wort chiller.

If you have the freezer space, ice is a viable option. Just be sure to boil it before freezing.
 
Or do this - fill some ziploc bags with ice water. Zip them up. Dunk them in your bucket of Star-San. Be sure the sanitizer gets to the zip closure. Drop them into the wort.

Double bag if you're paranoid.

Tex
 
the way people tack on trivial steps to their sanitation process is like depositing pennies into a million dollar bank account. theres going to be plenty of rogue microorganisms no matter how crazy anal you are. but its beer and it will beat those things into submission.
 
Seriously.

I use bagged ice All. The. Time. It simply works. Ice purchased from the grocery around here has been irradiated and is pure spring water. So long as no holes are in the bag, I use it. Been doing that for years upon years.

I use a copper-coil wort chiller for my full-boil batches because I don't want to deal with dilution effects or calculate high-gravity-wort brewing.

I actually get a better break formation with the ice. If I expect to rack the beer to secondary, I'll leave it alone. If I want to keep it in the primary (mild, bitter, etc.), I'll use two buckets and treat the first - with the ice - as a whirlpool, racking off the break into the actual fermenter.

Cheers,

Bob
 
I thought I'd revive this thread to recommend that the responsible use of top up ice to chill can be very accurate by using the tool: http://www.onlineconversion.com/mixing_water.htm
I recently hit my desired pitching temp exactly with this calculation. Note you can ignore the units, the calculation is all about ratios.

As for the technique, I'm blessed with a big chest freezer that's not very full, so I just sanitize my fermenter, fill it with the desired amount of water from the tap filter, put the lid on, and throw it in the freezer. Then on brewing day I dump my wort into the frozen fermenter. Freezing temperatures do of course inhibit the growth of bacteria and mold, so I figure it's pretty safe.
 
I have never had a problem with commercial water and just throwing them in the freezer for a few hours so they are slightly frozen. But I could just be lucky :)
 
Bob said:
Seriously.

I use bagged ice All. The. Time. It simply works. Ice purchased from the grocery around here has been irradiated and is pure spring water. So long as no holes are in the bag, I use it. Been doing that for years upon years.

I use a copper-coil wort chiller for my full-boil batches because I don't want to deal with dilution effects or calculate high-gravity-wort brewing.

I actually get a better break formation with the ice. If I expect to rack the beer to secondary, I'll leave it alone. If I want to keep it in the primary (mild, bitter, etc.), I'll use two buckets and treat the first - with the ice - as a whirlpool, racking off the break into the actual fermenter.

Cheers,

Bob
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I'll be honest. I've had my immersion chiller for a few months now, and I kind of miss using ice. Easier to work with, less stuff to clean, and believe it or not it cooled the beer faster. I'm almost tempted to go back to doing partial boils so I can go back to the ice. :D
 
Stauffbier said:
When I did extract/partial boils I used to pre-boil water and cool it in an ice/water bath (just like you would with wort), then I would put it in an airtight container that was soaked in starsan and freeze it. When frozen I would plop the big sanatized ice cube in my wort to chill it fast and supply top-off water.. Never a problem!
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This is basically how I chill my wort. I tweaked my method as I went along to perfect it. Since I live in an apartment without a utility sink, an IC or CFC is not an option. I freeze about a gallon and a half of boiled water in sanitized containers then add ice as needed to hot wort to reach ~70F. Usually cools the wort down in about 10 minutes. I get good cold break and have not had issues with infection or hot side aeration yet. :mug:
 
I have home brewed for two years now. I have made close to 70 gallons of brew. Every time I chill my wort I put ice in the bucket and once it is chilled off enough I top it with filtered water. I have NEVER had any issues with a bad batch due to an infection from the ice. I just make sure I know of the source from which I get the ice and know that know hands have touched it. Don't buy ice from a place that hand bags it. I am a freak about sanitizing everything though. Maybe that is why I have had good luck. Happy brewing. : )
 
ZombieBrew83 said:
This is basically how I chill my wort. I tweaked my method as I went along to perfect it. Since I live in an apartment without a utility sink, an IC or CFC is not an option. I freeze about a gallon and a half of boiled water in sanitized containers then add ice as needed to hot wort to reach ~70F. Usually cools the wort down in about 10 minutes. I get good cold break and have not had issues with infection or hot side aeration yet. :mug:
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What containers are you using??

I think I might switch to this method, as 10 minutes is awfully sweet, IMHO.... plus the containers could potentially be full of backup water that's already been sterilized (if you need it).

The idea of putting ice cubes in the bucket seems ok to me, but I'd prefer all the water to have an equally dense portion of my isomerized hops oils. Mmm...mmm.. GOOD!!
 
Tykees said:
I do this. Start of brewday I get my topup water in the freezer. using store bought gallon jugs. Then I have almost frozen slushy water. Chill my wort down in an ice bath then pour into ale pail. Topup with slush which melts quick. Gets my temp down perfect
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I would think doing this with store bought Distilled Water would be fine. The water is distilled so its clean, just starsan the jug top before and after you open it.
 
I use 2 gallons of store bought distilled water....freeze solid... cut them open and dump them into the primary and pour the hot wort in on top of the ice. I've never had an infection or bad batch yet. Plus your pitching the yeast in about 10-15 minutes.:rockin:
 
totally off topic, but when i lived in the mountains our tap water was about 33-36 degrees in the winter. wish i still had that!
 
HECK....

Forget cooling altogether. We can do that by forgetting about boiling!!

Just use the water that's been semi-sanitized while passing thru your hot water heater.

I use entirely too much hot water.
 
grndslm said:
What containers are you using??

I think I might switch to this method, as 10 minutes is awfully sweet, IMHO.... plus the containers could potentially be full of backup water that's already been sterilized (if you need it).

The idea of putting ice cubes in the bucket seems ok to me, but I'd prefer all the water to have an equally dense portion of my isomerized hops oils. Mmm...mmm.. GOOD!!
Click to expand...

I use Ziplock/Glad storage containers. Cheap, effective, and graduated so I know how much ice I am putting into the kettle.
 

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