Air Pirate
Well-Known Member
.....the hard way
So in the spirit of experimentation which, I think we as homebrewers are all interested in, I tried a new way to cool wort quickly...
...with less than stellar results.
I have a copper coil wort chiller that works pretty well. It cools 5 gal from 212 deg. to 100 deg. in less than 15 minutes. But getting it down past that takes quite a bit longer and I have been trying different ways to remedy this.
I tried putting sanitized bags of ice in it with ok results. I tried putting the kettle in an ice bath with ok results.
This time I tried adding dried ice thinking that its pretty cold and it wont change the amount of water added. All was going well till i put it in. For a few seconds I thought everything would work out pretty well. Then it exploded. The wort was just viscous enough to ensure that the bubbles of nitrogen formed didn't pop. So it bubbled up looking like the Brain Beast that Ate Texas. And went all over the kitchen. I mean all over. No, really. We tried just pushing the foam into the sink but the sink filled and then the counter filled and then it went all over the floor.
I was able to get about 4 gallons or wort into the carboy though so I think its going to work out but man.... I wouldnt recomend anyone do this.
Anyone else have any innovations-gone-bad that they want to share?
So in the spirit of experimentation which, I think we as homebrewers are all interested in, I tried a new way to cool wort quickly...
...with less than stellar results.
I have a copper coil wort chiller that works pretty well. It cools 5 gal from 212 deg. to 100 deg. in less than 15 minutes. But getting it down past that takes quite a bit longer and I have been trying different ways to remedy this.
I tried putting sanitized bags of ice in it with ok results. I tried putting the kettle in an ice bath with ok results.
This time I tried adding dried ice thinking that its pretty cold and it wont change the amount of water added. All was going well till i put it in. For a few seconds I thought everything would work out pretty well. Then it exploded. The wort was just viscous enough to ensure that the bubbles of nitrogen formed didn't pop. So it bubbled up looking like the Brain Beast that Ate Texas. And went all over the kitchen. I mean all over. No, really. We tried just pushing the foam into the sink but the sink filled and then the counter filled and then it went all over the floor.
I was able to get about 4 gallons or wort into the carboy though so I think its going to work out but man.... I wouldnt recomend anyone do this.
Anyone else have any innovations-gone-bad that they want to share?