I have two beginners questions. One; is it bad to be brewing in aluminum pot? If so what are the effects it can have on finished product. Second question; I don't own a wort chiller yet so I have been adding 1 bag of ice to wort to help speed up cooling time, is this ok and if not then please explain.sny advice would help, thanks!!!
Two questions!
- Thread starter dmbshen41
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nothing wrong with aluminum pots, I use one myself. just make sure that if you buy it new or used to boil some water in it before boiling anything else to add a layer of oxidization over the pot.
don't use ice IN the wort. ice can be contaminated, put the pot of wort IN an ice bath to cool it off
A) A lot of folks use them. I want to say aluminum requires some special treatment, but I don't use it so I don't remember off the top of my head.
B) If the ice is sanitary, that's fine. If it's just your generic ice from the convenience store, you could be opening up to contamination. What most folks without a chiller do is a simple ice bath. Take your whole kettle, and stick it in a sink full of ice water. Not as fast as a chiller, but gets the job done.
B) If the ice is sanitary, that's fine. If it's just your generic ice from the convenience store, you could be opening up to contamination. What most folks without a chiller do is a simple ice bath. Take your whole kettle, and stick it in a sink full of ice water. Not as fast as a chiller, but gets the job done.
kandofab
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I have to second Ohrumphf. Using an aluminum pot is fine i used two in the begining and had no effects. As far as ice i would go with the ice bath and cool it that way to keep from any kind of contamination. you could use 2 litters frozen and sanatize them befor putting them in, i did that befor i got a chiller plate. Keep it up and you will be buying more and more to " accomidate " your hobby. lol
J187
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Ice from a store can be contaminated already. Ice from your freezer, unless you planned on using it for brewing and already had it in an air-tight container. Freezer hold dormant bacteria. You can freeze sofa bottles and sanitize them to add to the wort, personally, I just use an ice bath around the wort.
What some folks have done is sanitize the inside of a container (Tupperware, soda bottle, something like that), then fill with distilled and/or boiled water and freeze that. Adding that ice seems to work okay for them, but again I've never done it so YMMV.
bottlebomber
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Ice from the store has an extremely small chance of being contaminated, just like water from your faucet. For bacteria to be attracted to something in any great number, there has to be a food source. The volume that most ice producers move is sufficient that I think it is a minimal cause for concern. What would attract bacteria or wild yeast to an ice machine? I've used ice to chill many, many times.
I keep a couple of 1/2 gallon water jugs in the freezer all the time. I use them for the ice bath. No need to keep buying ice. Recycle be green. LOL
bottlebomber
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C-Rider said:
This is what I do lately, since I can really only justify chilling down to about 90 using all the water that it does past that. I just have a chilled ice chest full of water ready with one of those bad boys in it, and the bucket goes in the ice chest. Who needs a fermentation chamber?
45_70sharps
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I put ice from the store in the bucket and poured the wort over it for a couple of my batches before I got an immersion chiller.
I was doing partial boils and I figured it was as sterile as the tap water I used to top off.
I never had any issues, but I only did it a couple times.
I would have done it more, but I didn't always know when I was going to have time to brew so I wasn't always as prepared as I wanted to be.
I was doing partial boils and I figured it was as sterile as the tap water I used to top off.
I never had any issues, but I only did it a couple times.
I would have done it more, but I didn't always know when I was going to have time to brew so I wasn't always as prepared as I wanted to be.
ButcherBoy
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I'm an appliance service tech and occasionally work on ice machines, mostly small to mid size units in bars and restaurants. You would not believe how dirty these things can get, lots of wet places for bacteria to grow. The user is supposed to do regular cleaning and sanitizing, but most don't because it's a pain in the neck. Understand I have never seen a high production 'ice plant' like they would be using for bag ice at the grocery, but I have to expect it to be similar. Use commercially produced ice IN your beer and you are at risk of an infection. If you're going to put ice in your brew, make it yourself and be sure it's clean.
jtbradshaw
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Wormraper had it right. If you have a deep metal sink, an ice bath is the way to go.
Pie_Man
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No, you do not need to boil water prior to each batch. Boil plain water in the pot for about an hour then dry. This should start to build up a grayish film (sometimes it turns the aluminum black) on the inside of the pot. That's what you want. To clean, I just rinse the inside of the pot, wipe it down with a damp cloth or paper towel, then dry; you don't want the inside to be new and shiney looking. Use a mild pbw or oxiclean free solution if necessary.
Reference: http://***********/stories/projects...d-it-yourself/1149-metallurgy-for-homebrewers
Regarding contamination, watch for mold growth or a film in your beer, maybe a really horrid smell. Searching this forum will give you some photos. Keep in mind that fermentation can look and smell weird, so don't panic about having used the bagged ice, but learn from the advice others have mentioned on this thread.
In my experience, cooling down a full boil (5 gallons) with a kitchen sink ice bath took forever and I never seemed to have enough ice on hand. I'd definetly recommend the wort chiller. It really made my brew day easier and saved time, well worth the money. You can find instructions and youtube videos of people making their own wort chillers too. If you're buying bagged ice, it will pay for itself over time, plus it will likely save you time.
Thanks all for the advice!, so glad this forum exists. Makes brewing for beginners a hell of a lot easier. Can you make a wort chiller out of a different material than copper tubing, maybe stainless?? The price if copper is ridiculous. I originally starting brewing to save money on beer. Jokes on me!!! But I now really enjoy it as a new hobby.
You can, I believe people have, but the thing about copper is that it transfers heat very very well. Other metals wouldn't be as efficient. Also, copper is a lot softer and easier to coil.
Could have told you that. You start spending money on equipment. Always something new to buy, and always something to upgrade. Then you start buying even more commercial beer as "research".
dstranger99
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^ Same here, I keep about 6 frozen water bottles on brew day, star san them and drop into wort....Done deal.
Pie_Man
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I know some people have bought there copper online from a site like this: https://coppertubingsales.com/storefront/index.php?cPath=223_119&osCsid=o5h7g2ngdap3l418v5e8m4bjc3.
It might be better than HD or Lowe's prices, I'm not up with the current prices. I ended up just buying mine from morebeer. as I thought there's was well made.
Also, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/diy-wort-chiller-any-real-savings-248396/index4.html
J187
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Ice has a much better chance of having contamination than you might think. The water used to make ice can often be contaminated with bacteria or viruses. Numerous studies have found levels of E. Coli, fecal matter, etc. ESPECIALLY in ICE machines where ice is not in bags. Still, even when in those bags, the quality control is intended to make sure that the levels of contaminates in there are under the standards for human consumption - even a little bit can cause problems with beer.
This is just one quick thing that I found:
http://www.eat-safe.com/Templates/InsideTemplate.aspx?PostingId=50
kombat
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As others have noted, aluminum is fine, just be aware that you shouldn't soak it with an oxygen-based cleaner, as it will damage the metal. A quick wash is fine, but don't fill it with Oxyclean and leave it overnight.
As for the ice question, I'm paranoid about contamination and would never consider dumping ice straight into post-boil wort. Why introduce another variable? Get/build an immersion chiller.
As for the ice question, I'm paranoid about contamination and would never consider dumping ice straight into post-boil wort. Why introduce another variable? Get/build an immersion chiller.
J187
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The big question is, what size boils are we talking? If we are talking 3.5 g or less, all you should need is a sink or a tub with an ice bath. Take the kettle off the heat and submerge it into cold water first - should drop pretty rapidly at first, then the water warms up... drain it and refill, this time, add ice and salt to the water. You'll have to do this at least one more time. Continuously and carefully stir the wort to circulate and you can drop 3.5 gallons of 212 deg wort to 70 deg in less than 30 min. Then if you move to full boils, you can buy a chiller.
You can also store your pre-boiled top off water in the fridge or freezer with good sanitation and add that to the wort toward the end to bring it the rest of the way down.
You can also store your pre-boiled top off water in the fridge or freezer with good sanitation and add that to the wort toward the end to bring it the rest of the way down.
I am an HVAC technician, and work on a lot of commercial ice machines. Do no assume the ice is clean no matter where you get it, and I would certainly refrain from putting it in my wort. Even systems that utilize high level filtration systems tend to develop a "slime" from bacteria growing on all parts contacted by water (gross if you think about it too much).
As for a potentially infected batch. If it looks good, smells good, and TASTES good then go for it.
Before I had a chiller and was doing partial boil extract batches, I would just put a couple gallons of my "top off" water into the freezer before I started brewing. Once I had finished the brew, the water was just starting to freeze (not solid, but sort of a crust would be forming on the top). I dumped that freezing cold water into the kettle to rapidly cool it from boiling. From there it was into an ice bath in the sink to finish cooling.
If I do build a immersion chiller can I solder elbows on the tubing instead of bending on the end that will be physically in the wort. Or will the solder possibly harm the brew. I've read somewhere that this could be possible
45_70sharps
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You can solder. You can even solder where it's in the wort if you felt the need.
Just use the proper solder without lead in it.
Have you ever sweated a pipe? If it's a first try you will want to pressure test it out side so you don't en up with a mess in the house.
Before I bought my chiller, I thought about building one but the price of copper was up and I bought one cheaper than I could build one at that time, at least with my sources for copper around here.
Just use the proper solder without lead in it.
Have you ever sweated a pipe? If it's a first try you will want to pressure test it out side so you don't en up with a mess in the house.
Before I bought my chiller, I thought about building one but the price of copper was up and I bought one cheaper than I could build one at that time, at least with my sources for copper around here.
bottlebomber
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Same as when I bought mine. Priced DIY and it was more expensive. Go figure.45_70sharps said:
