Why not add ice to cool down wort?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
U

UTDoug

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2006
Messages
95
Reaction score
1
Why can't you just add ice or at least refridgerated water to bring down the temp. of the wort faster? I don't see any drawbacks to at least slowly adding in refridgerated water to accelerate the cooling.

Thanks,
Doug
 
You most certainly can do it but bagged ice may contain some nasties that you don't want it you fresh wort. You can make your own ice or use cold water that you know is clean. That said ice or very cold water won't bring a boiling amount of wort to pitching temps. You would still need to cool it down a bit before adding ice or cold water.
 
There is no reason you can't. Just make sure the ice or water is sanitary. Ice from your ice trays is not sanitary...
 
yea, if you use ice, make sure to boil it beforehand, and then freeze it isolated from the rest of the freezer. there are bacteria everywhere, even in the fridge and freezer.

if you buy bottled water, you can keep it cold before you brew, and then when you start to brew, put it in the freezer. by the time you need it to top up, it will be close to freezing, and will help to drop temperatures.
 
Well then why not take whatever water you were adding to your fermenter to bring it to 5 gals (3 gals of water?) and fridge it up nice and cold before adding your wort to it? Maybe chill or almost freeze a few gallons of bottled water?

Tommy
 
I use bagged ice from walmart all the time. It's never given me a problem and it's not like they can sell you bad water -- I'm pretty sure they sterilize it before they freeze it, then it's put in a sealed bag.

I use 10 lbs of ice every time, with a 2.5 gallon boil. My yeast usually gets pitched five minutes after flameout. That leaves very little time for those microscopic beasties to take over.
 
i would say that is assuming a lot, and you've been lucky, but that's just what i think...
 
I place 4 gals of PUR filtered water in the freezer about 4-5 hours prior to brewing. It gets the temp down into the 70s every time...unless I brew with 2 gals of water then it's the high 70s, low 80s.

I've been doing this procedure for 13+ years.:D
 
you brew with only one gallon of water? you must have to use a tremendous amount of hops to get any decent utlization. i boil off one gallon just through brewing...
 
Interesting to hear that from HB99. But maybe one should look at it this way: look at all those brews HB99 has put away in a year. Sounds to me like he has a real system going, and don't forget he brews hefe's like a fiend so he doesn't necessarily need a huge amount of hops in them. :D
 
Levers101 said:
don't forget he brews hefe's like a fiend so he doesn't necessarily need a huge amount of hops in them. :D
Click to expand...
Rizight, like a mofo!

I'm an IPA guy, though. I do two gallon extract boils and get plenty of hop taste. Even for a hop head like myself. I'd love to go to 5 gallon boils, but the 2 gallon ones are pretty easy and it seem to me like you can get plenty of hop flavor.
 
Thank you for the responses, I guess what I was really concerned with was that chilling the concentrated wart by adding cool fluid might disturb some chemical process, like how the speed at which you chill down fudge can greatly impact the texture and size of the crystals that form... well, I can't think of any better examples. But if there is no chemical reason why you can't just refridgerate the water you're going to add to your wort, why even bother with a cooling system or anything fancy?

Hook'em,
Doug
 
actually, the faster the chill, the better, generally. if you do it fast enough, you can actually watch the cold break form and settle. when you 'crash' the temperature so quickly, it breaks proteins out a lot better than slow cooling, making for a clearer beer.
 
I don't add ice because wort chillers are so cool. ...and because adding ice is a possible source of infection (yes, even store bought ice). I also have no patience, so the fact that cooling quickly is a good thing (cold break - mentioned above) makes my brewing more enjoyable.

4688-3diagram.JPG
 
I apologize for hijacking.

How do you like that tall and narrow boil kettle, Yuri Rage? It is a welded construction or seamless? What's the capacity? What brand and where'd you get it? Would you recommend it? Any especially good or bad features?

That is, if you don't mind me asking. :)
 
beer4breakfast said:
How do you like that tall and narrow boil kettle, Yuri Rage? It is a welded construction or seamless? What's the capacity? What brand and where'd you get it? Would you recommend it? Any especially good or bad features?
Click to expand...
I never mind a question about brewing gadgets! I really like the pot. It's a relatively cheap one with crimped/welded seams. So far, so good, and it fits nicely on the Bayou Classic turkey fryer burner I got from Home Depot. The 9 gallon capacity nicely contains a 6 gallon boil and most possible boilovers. The spigot is nice, removable, easy to clean, and the height of the bung is good for leaving the hot break in the kettle. The lid is really cheap with sharp edges (they took the time to make a warning label for it, but they didn't roll or file the edges...silly Italians!)...but who uses a lid very much in homebrewing anyway? I got it from Williams Brewing.
 
Great, thanks.

If the inside diameter is 12.5 inches (I'm not sure if the quoted diameter on the Williams Brewing site is inside or outside diameter), and 1 gallon of liquid occupies .134 cubic feet, then five gallons of liquid is .67 cubic feet, or 1157.76 cubic inches. So five gallons of liquid in that cylinder would come to 9.43 inches in height.

Hmmm. They say it is 35 liters, which is 36.98 quarts (closer to 37 than 36). But if it's really 22 inches tall and 12.5 inches in diameter, as they say, then it should hold 2699.8 cubic inches of liquid. That's 1.56 cubic feet, or 11.66 gallons! Yet they say 36 quarts which is nine gallons.

Either one or more of the stated measurements on that pot is off, or the inside dimensions are less than 22 inches by 12.5 inches, or I messed up my calculations.
 
beer4breakfast - Williams Brewing gives the outside dimensions of the pot. The inside dimensions are 11.75" x 21" - giving you 1.32 cubic feet or 9.8 gallons.
 
That puts the height of five gallons of fluid in the cylinder at 10.68 inches. Thank you.
 
Blender said:
You most certainly can do it but bagged ice may contain some nasties that you don't want it you fresh wort. You can make your own ice or use cold water that you know is clean. That said ice or very cold water won't bring a boiling amount of wort to pitching temps. You would still need to cool it down a bit before adding ice or cold water.
Click to expand...

I do extract only, but 14 pounds of ice mixed with my three gallons of wort gets me to the low 60s within 10 minutes. I've done this for each of my batches and have had no problems.
 
I dumped ice into my very first batch, a NB Cream Ale, and I've always wondered if that played a part in it turning out so good. I haven't had the nerve to do it since though.
 
I use ice blocks I make. If you want, you can use the 32oz takeout tubs for soup at those restaurants. Fill them with tap water and freeze the day before. Takes about 16 hours to get to ~ 30F.

Important thing is to let the faucet purge. According to some NIH research, if the water is "first burst" from the tap, you get 3x the bacterial count vs. letting it run 2 minutes to clear out the line. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22994033. If you are OCD, heat up the water to 150F and let it sit there and cool to room temp before freezing. That will kill anything.

Recently, I froze 2 gallons of tap water (without additional sterilizing) and added to boiled wort. Temps dropped to about 110F in like 2 minutes. Since hot wort if 220F, if you can get away with 1 gal extract boils, then 4 gallons of ice is the perfect ratio to get down to 70F almost instantly.
 
UTDoug said:
Why can't you just add ice or at least refridgerated water to bring down the temp. of the wort faster? I don't see any drawbacks to at least slowly adding in refridgerated water to accelerate the cooling.

Thanks,
Doug
Click to expand...
 
We do it all the time. Probably the last six brews. We add a couple bags and we're ready to pitch in just a few minutes. It has not adversely affected any of them. It's basically the same water as bottled spring water.
 

Similar threads

N
Wort chilling and brew pot water volume
Replies
7
Views
531
Bobby_M
Bobby_M
B
Newbie already made a mistake?
3 4 5
Replies
187
Views
5K
Bagarge
B
Bilbo24
Wort temperature when pitching????
Replies
21
Views
1K
Tony B
Tony B
V
Whirlpooling and chilling
Replies
15
Views
1K
JohnDBrewer
J
YaleH
Accidentally watered down my wort!!!
Replies
4
Views
287
YaleH
YaleH
BrewSwag 300

Latest posts

Back
Top