Ice wort chilling

[beyernk]

Brewed an amber ale (LME based recipe) today, and I don't have a wort chiller. I usually dunk the kettle into the sink filled with ice water and stir. Takes quite a while. This time I filled 2 gallon ziplock bags with water about half way, purged out the air and froze them before hand. After boiling I took the ice bags, submerged them in star san solution for a little over a minute, then dropped them into the kettle. Cooled down to fermentation temp in less than half the time it usually takes doing the ice bath method. Has anyone else tried something like this?

 

[joebob296]

I used to use plastic soda bottles, sanatized of course. You can reuse these as well.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

That's a great method there. Although that takes some thinking ahead (Something that I've never been accused of). Before my wort chiller, I used to just put a lid on the kettle for a half an hour or so to cool a bit before transferring it to the ferm bucket. Then wait until the next day to pitch the yeast. This would be much more gooderer.

 

[beyernk]

I have that planning problem too. The only reason I had time to freeze the water was because when I went to start brewing I noticed I was out of star San. So I figured what the hell. Next time I'm going to make ice cubes out of the spring water I use and just dump them into my next partial boil brew.

 

[rupert130]

I have done extract batches where I freeze the top up water and add some to the kettle. Once it is cool enough, transfer to your fermenter and add the rest of your icy top up water.

 

[Dan]

We are all taught someway along the line that reaching pitching temp quickly is crucial and there are a number of methods to accomplish that.

The Aussie no chill method is a rebellious example of no chill (look it up)