fast cooling

is there any good reason not to use a quantity of ice cubes in the mix to cool things down when i pitch the wort etc into the primary fermentor? Seeing as it'll just melt away and become part of the mixture. Would speed up the cooling process thats for sure!

The only reason some people say no is the possibility of baddies in ice cubes that you don't know where the water came from. If you boil up your home water and are sure there are no bugs in it and self freeze - sure. But do you trust those big bags of ice from the gas station?

Many people do use ice bags without much of an issue, just be sure to compensate for the liquid and use less top-up water.

chance of infection, even a small chance is not worth ruining even 1 batch IMO. I don't care if people do this and have 100 uninfected beers that 101st that goes bad is not worth the risk. Having a spoiled beer is really, really, really, crappy.

Like others have said the concern is contamination.

What you buy at the store is all reverse osmosis water, and perfectly fine. The only conceivable problem is that you might touch some of it (or someone else might've somewhere along the shipping line) but that's a pretty minimal concern.

Why waste your $$ on someone else's ice though? Just freeze a few milk jugs a day or two ahead of time, you'll know exactly how much water you're adding and you'll know it's clean.

I use gallon jugs of drinking water for top-off, or preboiled tap water but either way I put them in the freezer for about 3 hours before I expect to pitch. They are almost always just at or above freezing when I'm ready for them, usually with a little slush in them. While my boil pot is cooling in the sink (water bath), I'll shake-aerate and pour my near-freezing top off water into the fermenter then dump my partially cooled wort in on top of it, then any additional top-off water needed to reach volume or target gravity. I'm almost always at 70-72 degrees and ready to pitch within 10-15 minutes of flame-out with this method, and I think it's more sanitary than ice cubes.

So whats the big deal with giving it an ice bath?

I just let it sit in my sink in a bunch of ice cubes for about 20 minutes and Im good to go.

Is there any real chance of contamination doing it that way?

syd138 said:

So whats the big deal with giving it an ice bath?

I just let it sit in my sink in a bunch of ice cubes for about 20 minutes and Im good to go.

Is there any real chance of contamination doing it that way?

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Nope, there shouldn't be.

Some people just want it to go faster, a nice strong cold break is a good thing .

I find that emptying my freezer completely of ice into the sink doesn't really do as much as you'd think. It melts off very quickly if I use it all right off the bat.

No, if you put it in an ice bath, that's absolutely fine.

RyanL said:

is there any good reason not to use a quantity of ice cubes in the mix to cool things down when i pitch the wort etc into the primary fermentor? Seeing as it'll just melt away and become part of the mixture. Would speed up the cooling process thats for sure!

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Impurities in the air of the freezer can attach to the ice.

homebrewer_99 said:

Impurities in the air of the freezer can attach to the ice.

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Not to mention the slime that grows in the tubes and trays in industrial ice makers.

syd138 said:

So whats the big deal with giving it an ice bath?

I just let it sit in my sink in a bunch of ice cubes for about 20 minutes and Im good to go.

Is there any real chance of contamination doing it that way?

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the op was talking about putting ice in the beer itself, which is a bit of a contamination risk.

putting the covered pot in a sink full of ice water is totally fine.

Nurmey said:

Not to mention the slime that grows in the tubes and trays in industrial ice makers.

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I guess it gets me wondering why the ice industry isn't held to the same sanitary regulations as the rest of the food/beverage industry is, or are they? Most of us all started with ice baths, but we knew that putting ice in the wort was a no-no. I say we start a bug-free ice company!!

I am a total noob so this isn't expert advice by any means. I have only done 2 batches (3 by end of this weekend), but on last batch I did it somewhat like ifishsum said. I boiled 3 gallons (about 1/2 gal more than I needed) of water and let it room cool for awhile, so it wouldn't heat up my fridge. Then I put the lid on the pot and put it in my outside "beer" fridge which I keep extra cold. I did this early Saturday morn but I guess you could do it night before too. Anyway, I had a few other things to do that day and by the time I got around to boiling up the wort it was about 6 hours later. The water in the fridge was a good 40 or so I would say. I put the wort in the ice bath and stirred it for 10 or 15 minutes to help it cool. I poured it into the primary and topped it off with the cool water and the temp was around 68 so I pitched the yeast. I think this is all you need to do, i.e. I don't think freezing your water is necessary. The key was to keep stirring the wort in the bath, that really helped it cool as opposed to just sitting in the bath.

Dennis

shertz said:

I guess it gets me wondering why the ice industry isn't held to the same sanitary regulations as the rest of the food/beverage industry is, or are they?

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Of course they are. There's a huge difference in what will cause humans to get ill and what will ferment wort, they don't care about low levels of bacteria or wild yeast. I read there is something like 5million wild yeast on any given grape skin. 1 grape, 5million.

I assume you're doing partial boil extracts?

When I did partials here was my routine to get the wort down to 70 degrees in less than 15 minutes.

Before you start the brewing process, place three 1-gallon jugs of filtered (store bought) water in the freezer.

By the time your ready to take the wort off the stove, the jugs will have begun to crystallize.

Take your pot of wort and place in a sink filled with cold tap water. (I have a dual basin sink). Stir the cold water in the sink and also (gently) stir the wort inside the pot. (You need to keep the two liquids moving).

When the sink water begins to warm, drop the pot into the other sink with fresh cold water. Repeat this process until your wort is down to about 100 degrees. Should take about 10-12 minutes depending on the temp of your tap water.

Carry the wort over to your fermenter. Pour two of the three gallons of icy cold water in the fermenter first and then pour in your wort. Top off with the third gallon.

This should land you right at 68-70 degrees.

TeleTwanger said:

Of course they are. There's a huge difference in what will cause humans to get ill and what will ferment wort, they don't care about low levels of bacteria or wild yeast. I read there is something like 5million wild yeast on any given grape skin. 1 grape, 5million.

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But if the bottled water industry isn't allowed to have "X" number of bacteria in a bottle of water, why is the ice industry allowed? I could pour a bottle of water in my carboy without worry then I should also be able to with ice, just another form of water. There has to be a different set of standards.

A lot of people wouldn't pour a bottle of water in the carboy without worry. I don't worry about it but others do, they may be the same ones worried about ice from the store. I have a chiller now for my full boils. Another option is 20 liter bottles frozen and dipped in star-san then put in the wort.