Chilling wort in freezer

Just did a brief search, and couldn't find anything specific on this, but would there be any problems with cooling boiled wort in a regular freezer/refrigerator?

 

I imagine it's a good bit slower than an ice bath. Good way to defrost your freezer though.

 

Agreed. This will certainly defrost/melt anything in your freezer and if you are not careful, it will trap the heat in once the temp raises which could slow cooling and possibly cause your freezer compressor to burn up constantly running trying to cool itself back down.

If you are looking for a "no-chill" option, just leave it at room temp overnight and it will cool itself down..Once its to a manageable temp (nowhere near close to boiling), you can drop it in the fridge to drop it the rest of the way without overtaxing the fridge/freezer.

I had a no-chill batch I tried to do this with and ended up having to pull it out of the freezer and just let it sit at room temp before transferring it to the freezer to knock to pitching temps. The freezer was just trapping the heat and acting like an oven once it defrosted everything. That sucked.

 

Thanks for the replies - I had imagined it would be quicker than an ice bath in the kitchen sink, but I'll stick with that till I can get a snake wort chiller.

 

Lately, I just toss mine in the fermenter overnight at 65 until it's cool the next day. Works fine. No dreaded "off flavors" or "infections" ;-)

 

I actually just had a nightmare brew day, up at two in the morning, got impatient and added boiled water to make volume before it had cooled which raised my wort temp to 80 degrees. At that point I gave up, popped on the airlock, and went to bed. Next morning (five hours later) it was down to 66 degrees and I pitched my yeast, and it's rocking along just fine right now. I'm not saying you shouldn't cool your wort as quickly as you can, just that it might not be such a big deal if it takes longer than planned. Cheers!