Ghetto wort chiller

[TheDrunkChef]

I was just curious if anyone uses frozen milk jugs to cool their wort? I have been using this method until my neighbors wort chiller arrives, works great in a pinch and cools the wort down fast. I just finished boiling my "San Diego Red Tide Ale" and the temp dropped to 120 in less than 10 minutes and falling fast.

 

[buckeyebrewer]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/frozen-pet-bottles-wort-132911/

 

[JebCkr]

I've done that for full boils and poured over ice for partials. Never had a problem with either.

 

[bhatchable]

Hey!!! I know your neighbor! What an ******* for leaving you without a wort chiller, hahaha

 

[leavitt87]

I bought my first homebrewing kit through the Sam Adams homebrew contest. It came with a 'How To Homebrew" DVD made by Sam Adams founder, Jim Koch. He took 2 frozen gallon jugs of water, cut the plastic off and put the ice in his fermenting bucket to cool the wort. I was only doing extract brewing with partial boils at the time. I did this for a few batches until the day I forgot to put the meat back in the freezer after making room for my water. Needless to say, SWMBO was not happy.

I'm guessing you're doing full boils so putting the water bottles directly into the wort sounds like it works pretty good. A lot faster than setting the pot in a snowbank or ice bath and waiting for ever.

(I've got an immersion chiller now so everything is good)

 

[TheDrunkChef]

I bought my first homebrewing kit through the Sam Adams homebrew contest. It came with a 'How To Homebrew" DVD made by Sam Adams founder, Jim Koch. He took 2 frozen gallon jugs of water, cut the plastic off and put the ice in his fermenting bucket to cool the wort. I was only doing extract brewing with partial boils at the time. I did this for a few batches until the day I forgot to put the meat back in the freezer after making room for my water. Needless to say, SWMBO was not happy.

I'm guessing you're doing full boils so putting the water bottles directly into the wort sounds like it works pretty good. A lot faster than setting the pot in a snowbank or ice bath and waiting for ever.

(I've got an immersion chiller now so everything is good)

You got it, full boils in an 8.5 gallon pot. worked great with three frozen gallons, I was able to drop the temp in 20 minutes. Next month I will just use a wort chiller though. Only problem was when I forgot to remove the labels and one came off into the wort, oh well shouldn't hurt anything.