cooling wort by adding cold water?

I'm using a different brew kettle, one that is wider than the kettle I used for my first 2 batches. It won't fit in the sink in my small apartment kitchen, so I was curious as to whether or not it's okay to cool wort simply by pouring the hot wort into the fermenting bucket and adding cold water to that. Any help would be appreciated

The couple of extract batches that I have done I have cooled the wort by adding ice. What I do is the night before I boil about a gallon of water and freeze it in sanitized containers. On brew day I bring the containers out once I get the 60min boil going so they can thaw a little bit and the ice can fall out of the container. That ice combined with and ice bath in my home made swamp cooler brings the wort down to pitching temp pretty quickly.

You can cool your wort to some extent by adding ice or cold water, but you might have trouble getting it down to 70F that way, depending on your boil volume. Once you add the extra water you have increased the thermal mass of the wort, so it will be that much more difficult to cool it if it is still too warm. The best strategy is to cool the boiled wort as much as you can before adding the ice or cold water.

Try using a bathtub for cooling. It worked well for me before I got a chiller. You will find once you make the jump to the chiller that your beers will retain more hop flavor and aroma.

I do it all the time. I buy a 2.5 gallon jug at the store and put it in the freezer when I start. Get your wort as cool as possible in the bathtub & add to the fermentor - Sanitize the jug spout and top off. Works really well.

Click one of the links in my signature. They're both from the same brew, but the video has less info so you might want to click on the one with pictures. It details exactly how I add ice to a partial boil.

Now I wait to add the extra water until all of the wort/ice has been added so I can get the exact amount of wort I want.

On other threads i have read never to add ice as it can increase the chance of infection, adding cool water will not get it all the way down 70 deg or so. What i did (I too live in an apartment) is got a 15 gal beach tub that i keep on my balcony and fill it with ice and water. I know it takes up a lot of room but i am able to cool it quickly that way, Or have you tried your bath tub with extra ice?

muse435 said:

On other threads i have read never to add ice as it can increase the chance of infection, adding cool water will not get it all the way down 70 deg or so. What i did (I too live in an apartment) is got a 15 gal beach tub that i keep on my balcony and fill it with ice and water. I know it takes up a lot of room but i am able to cool it quickly that way, Or have you tried your bath tub with extra ice?

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I've added ice directly to every single batch and never had any infection. If you keep your water/ice covered while in the freezer you shouldn't have any problems especially if you boil it first. I never boil my water first though and have still never gotten an infection.

dfc said:

I've added ice directly to every single batch and never had any infection. If you keep your water/ice covered while in the freezer you shouldn't have any problems especially if you boil it first. I never boil my water first though and have still never gotten an infection.

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How much ice do you normally add, I really looked into it before because of what i read, but I am curious because it seams it would greatly reduce cool time.

muse435 said:

How much ice do you normally add, I really looked into it before because of what i read, but I am curious because it seams it would greatly reduce cool time.

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About 1.5 gallons. I cool my wort in 10 minutes. Keep in mind if you have bad water you'll have bad ice. I always filter my water before I freeze it.

dfc said:

About 1.5 gallons. I cool my wort in 10 minutes. Keep in mind if you have bad water you'll have bad ice. I always filter my water before I freeze it.

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have you ever over shot your target? does it matter if you do?

Over shot as far as temps or volume?

i bought a rubbermaid tote and a few bags of ice. I made an ice bath and got it down to around 90, poured it into the bucket and topped off with 3 gallons of tap water. It's at 74, I just pitched the yeast, and we are go for launch.

thisgoestoeleven said:

i bought a rubbermaid tote and a few bags of ice. I made an ice bath and got it down to around 90, poured it into the bucket and topped off with 3 gallons of tap water. It's at 74, I just pitched the yeast, and we are go for launch.

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Congrats, thats exactly what i do

Over shot as far as temps or volume?

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Temp

muse435 said:

Temp

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Usually it gets me between 60°-70°. A couple of times I got down to the mid 50's but I just covered it and let it warm up slightly. If you're worried about that you can have more small containers and add less of them.

muse435 said:

On other threads i have read never to add ice as it can increase the chance of infection, adding cool water will not get it all the way down 70 deg or so.

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That is incorrect. Adding ice is completely fine if you are using good water and a clean and sanitized vessel. If you clean and sanitize a gallon jug, boil your tap water and close the jug while it is in the freezer, you will not have a chance of infection.

Obviously if you use tap water that doesn't taste good, don't boil it, use a non sanitized jug and don't keep it closed while in the freezer then you can introduce an infection to the wort.

muse435 said:

On other threads i have read never to add ice as it can increase the chance of infection, adding cool water will not get it all the way down 70 deg or so. What i did (I too live in an apartment) is got a 15 gal beach tub that i keep on my balcony and fill it with ice and water. I know it takes up a lot of room but i am able to cool it quickly that way, Or have you tried your bath tub with extra ice?

Click to expand...

Anytime you add something that isn't sanitized, pasteurized or sterilized post boil you increase your chance of infection. The freezing itself isn't a problem as long as you took the proper precautions like boiling the water and sanitizing the container you are going to freeze it in.

Some people just top off directly from the tap or bottle and have no problems. I wouldn't because it adds to the chance of infection.