cooling the wort?

I have been cooling my wort after I poor it into my fermenting buck. I then top it of to the 5 gallon mark. Once that is done I place the bucket into the sink with ice and cold water.

My question is this,

Could I cool the wort in the brew pot before I transfer to the bucket? Would it cool faster by placing the pot of wort into the sink with ice and water instead of the whole 5 gallon bucket (with the wort and water)?

Let my know what every one thinks.

P.S. I know they have chillers but I am not in the market for one rite know.

I add about 7 lbs of ice to my wort right in my pot before I put it in the fermentor and top it off to the 5 gallon mark. You shouldn't have any problems.


Loop

I cool my pot in a sink down to between 70 and 80 and add that to my bucket where I've added about a gallon of nearly frozen water, then I top off to 5 gallons with the remainder of another gallon of water.

I use an ice/salt water bath, and with 1-2 change outs I can get 2.5-3 gallons down from boiling to 80-ish in about a half hour.

I'm not a big fan of putting ice in my fermenter unless I made it myself in a sanitized container (like a gallon milk jug); there is no gaurantee that the ice bags bought at the store are sanitized...the ice might be, but who knows about the plastic bags, and some of those bags get torn loading and un loading in those machines, so who knows whose grubby hands went in and out of there.

The metal of the pot transfers the cold much better than plastic. I always cool in the pot, then put in bucket or carboy.

What Revvy said on ice. Store bought ice is NOT sanitized.

Thanks for the tips!! I will be sure to cool the wort in the pot then transfer to the bucket.

I fill the bath tub up and put the pot in there. Just have to make sure you don't cool it too much so its too cold to start fermenting. Thats also what I always do and it always bites my in the behind.

I can get the wort down to 65F from boiling within about 30 minutes with my method. I buy 2-3 bags of ice from the store and fill my sink with water and ice, then place the pot (2.5 gallon boil) in there and add ice to the sink as it melts. I'll occasionally stir the wort, but carefully as not to splash. I also fill the primary bucket with about 3 gallons of cool water and put it in the freezer/fridge for an hour or so before adding the wort.

The odds of getting an infection from ice bad enough to spoil your beer is very small. But, it's still there. If you dont' want to go with a chiller (though an Immersion chiller is pretty cheap, and can really improve the beer) I'd submerge the pot in ice water, as suggested. I've also used bottled water that I stored in the fridge to cool my wort. I'd add the hot wort to the glass carboy (please don't do this, I was stupid) and then top with 2 gallons of fridge water.

Now I have a hand-made counterflow chiller and love it.

Nurmey said:

The metal of the pot transfers the cold much better than plastic.

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Not to mention, the rate of heat transfer is much higher with the very hot wort in the pot vs. the much cooler wort in the bucket with the top-off water already added. The more heat you can take out of it BEFORE you add the cold top-off water, the better.

The method I'm gonna try is pretty much been explained. I was going to freeze 2 or 3 2 liter bottles, cut them open and add the ice chuncks that way, wait for them to melt then top off with cold water. I figure that will get me down to 75-80 in about 30 minutes, maybe a little less if I'm lucky. Just make sure everything is sanitized!

If you do have the money at some point, an immersion chiller would be one of the best investments you could make. You will be amazed at how simple and effective it is.

I do partial boils with extract and this is how I do it:

About 2 hours before I prepare my wort I place 2.5 gallons of water in the freezer. After the boil I take my boil pot and put it in the sink and surround it with water and some ice. It normally takes about 3 fresh sink fulls of water and trays of ice and about 20-30 minutes to get the wort down to about 100 degrees. I then take my water out of the freezer and pour it in to my carboy. I pour my wort in to the carboy and it mixes with the cold water and it is instantly about 70 degrees. I shake it around, pitch the yeast, and let 'er rip.

Nurmey said:

The metal of the pot transfers the cold much better than plastic. I always cool in the pot, then put in bucket or carboy.

What Revvy said on ice. Store bought ice is NOT sanitized.

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That is what I did today. Man was that much faster!!!


thanks evey one!!!!

Yes cooling it in the pot is the way I normally go about it. I have found that filling a bathtub with cold water and throwing the hot kettle in there(bathtub) works much faster than a sink full of ice.:cross:

I place 4 gals of water in the freezer for 4-5 hours prior to brewing. My brew is always down in the low 60-low 70 range...ready to pitch.

MrMucus said:

Yes cooling it in the pot is the way I normally go about it. I have found that filling a bathtub with cold water and throwing the hot kettle in there(bathtub) works much faster than a sink full of ice.:cross:

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Maybe so but when you have kids in the house in and out of the the bathroom that is the last place I want my brew.