BetterSense
Well-Known Member
Does anyone else cool wort by ice bath immersion?
I don't have a proper wort chiller and with the price of copper they are now like $75. The last (and the first) all-grain batch I brewed, I put some water and ice in my metal trash can and set the whole kettle in there. It took about a half hour to cool down, but didn't require any equipment and since I didn't stir the wort at all, all the sediment in my wort agglomerated into nice easy-to-avoid clumps. I calculated that depending on how much water you have to add to the bath, this should take about 15-20lb of ice for 5 gallons.
I've been shopping for a deal on a wort chiller but I think I will just keep using the trashcan method. The way the solids clumped together and separated from the clear wort was really an unexpected benefit. The downside is that you have to be strong enough to pick up your boiling hot kettle into a trash can of ice.
I don't have a proper wort chiller and with the price of copper they are now like $75. The last (and the first) all-grain batch I brewed, I put some water and ice in my metal trash can and set the whole kettle in there. It took about a half hour to cool down, but didn't require any equipment and since I didn't stir the wort at all, all the sediment in my wort agglomerated into nice easy-to-avoid clumps. I calculated that depending on how much water you have to add to the bath, this should take about 15-20lb of ice for 5 gallons.
I've been shopping for a deal on a wort chiller but I think I will just keep using the trashcan method. The way the solids clumped together and separated from the clear wort was really an unexpected benefit. The downside is that you have to be strong enough to pick up your boiling hot kettle into a trash can of ice.