Adding ice to cool the wort down?

[ACbrewer]

My first post here..I am also from Tijuana Mexico, and I use a combination of ice surrounding the pot, cold water and some ice cubes inside...this ice cubes are from a bag I got from the around the corner store, so it is sanitized....my batches are 5 glls, so my question here, is, does this changes the OG drastically?

It is generally a bad practice to add ice cubes to your wort as they can pick up bacteria while freezing. Usually something settles in an ice tray or there is something in a commercial setup, etc. OK to eat, but leaving it in a sugar solution for a week with yeast can cause a bad batch of beer.

As to your question. your OG should be calculated to a given volume. So if you use extract, and are suposed to start the ferment at 5 gallons, then adding ice and water to a partial boil til it gets to 5 gallon you should be fine. I'd still be concerned about ice and it possibly carrying bacteria, but other than that, as long as your final volume is about what you were supposed to have, adding water or ice wouldn't change OG

 

[CSS]

It is generally a bad practice to add ice cubes to your wort as they can pick up bacteria while freezing. Usually something settles in an ice tray or there is something in a commercial setup, etc. OK to eat, but leaving it in a sugar solution for a week with yeast can cause a bad batch of beer.

Don't make the ice in an ice cube tray.

I bought zip lock containers. The night before I'll boil a bunch of water. While the water is boiling, I'll soak the containers and covers in sanitized solution. Allow water to cool a bit, pour in the water, and seal. Place in freezer overnight.

During the brew, take out containers. As long as the sides melt, the block of ice will fall right out.

Hint: Use the stirring spoon to gently drop the ice block into the wort. Otherwise you'll get wort on your ceiling like I did.

 

[FrostyJR]

And now I am worried... Why couldn't I have read this post Saturday before I used ice from the freezer tray to cool down my Irish Stout wort? Guess I will just cross my fingers and hope for the best. We'll call this part of the learning process.

 

[ZombieBrew83]

And now I am worried... Why couldn't I have read this post Saturday before I used ice from the freezer tray to cool down my Irish Stout wort? Guess I will just cross my fingers and hope for the best. We'll call this part of the learning process.

RDWHAHB

I made this mistake on my first batch and it fermented just fine without getting infected. Using ice directly from your freezer is not a guaranteed infection, it just increases the risk. Proper sanitizing practices are all about mitigating this risk. You'll most likely be fine!

 

[glenn514]

I have used store-bought ice on a couple of brews, to no ill effect, but I did check over the bag carefully before I bought it.

glenn514

 

[brumanchu]

I use 3 20ounce bottles that I've frozen, I soak them in a large bowl of starsan with a lid for a couple of minutes. I'll pull the bottles out and place on a sanitized surface and let them drain for a few minutes, transfer the starsan out of the bowl and put the bottles back in the bowl. Cover the bowl with the lid again and throw the bowl back in the freezer. When I get the wort below a hundred degrees or so I'll add the sanitized frozen bottles to the wort with sanitized tongs. This along with my wort chiller helps drop the last 20 or 30 degrees much more quickly.

 

[dstranger99]

^

Same here, but I also use a 1/2 gallon frozen water bottle, and drop it right in the hot wort. I just rub them down with Starsan first, then drop them right in.......

 

[bootscity]

Sooooo I just brewed using ice to cool the temp. down instead of my wort chiller (well that was the plan). So we added 1 gallon of near frozen water, 33F to 4 gallons of wort.....the temps went from around 200 to about 140! Pretty fast drop, but far from where I need to be, around 70F. I ended up hooking the wort chiller up to bring it the rest of the way down. I think next time I will use the wort chiller to bring the temps down to around 90 then add some ice to finish the job, for me the last 10-20 degrees are the hardest to drop, probably due to the fact that the water going into my wort chiller is around 80F (I live in the desert).

So if one wants to use ice to bring temps down from boiling I'm assuming you would have to use at least a 50/50 ratio of ice to wort, that makes doing a full boil impossible, and this is why people use wort chillers. TA-DA! I knew there would be a reason, but no one seemed to have the answer.

Not 50/50 if the water is frozen.. In fact it will need to be much less since latent heat (melting) is so much bigger than sensible heat.

To decrease temperature almost instantaneosly from 100ºC (boiling temp) to 24ºC (about 75F) you will need 0,72 liters of frozen water for every liter of most (I assumed sensible heat of the most to be the same as water). That means about 3,7 gallons of frozen water for 5 gallons of most (using your nonsense measurments).

I would suggest about 3 gallons inside bottles to not dilute, and about 0,7 gallons of ice to compensate for boiling water.

I really liked the bottles with frozen water idea, I'm gonna use it in my next batches

 

[ronjonacron]

I keep several frozen gallon jugs for use in my son of fermentation chamber. Like other have said, its that last 20 degrees that are a pain when your ground water is 80 degrees.

Ill try using my IC until 85 or so then drop in a couple santized frozen jugs. Tired of having to overnight chill for the last 20 degrees.

 

[Nummey]

Forgive me if this has already been asked. Assuming a partial boil in a 5 gallon pot. Starting with 3 gallons and then getting down to 2.5 at the end of the boil. Couldnt I just add say 2-2.5 gallons of near frozen store bought water directly to the 5 gallon pot and then use an ice bath to get me to pitching temps. I realize I'd still need a little top off wather to get a bit over the 5 gallon mark in the fermenter. Has anyone done this...how much quicker did the temp drop by adding 2 gallons to the kettle as opposed to adding 2.5 gallons to an ice bath and topping off in fermenter?

thanks

 

[ronjonacron]

Did you read any of this thread?

That is explained in like the three posts before my own. I dont mean to sound like an ass but your answers are literally in this thread. If you need further clarification, just specify which part doesnt make sense and we would be happy to add to it.

 

[Nummey]

Did you read any of this thread?

That is explained in like the three posts before my own. I dont mean to sound like an ass but your answers are literally in this thread. If you need further clarification, just specify which part doesnt make sense and we would be happy to add to it.

No worries, it's all good. I did read the thread but didnt see anything referenced about adding 2 gallons of near frozen/or even frozen water to 2.5 gallons of wort.... adding 1 gallon yes but not 2. Regardless, I'll experiment with this on my next brew to see where it gets me

 

[cheezydemon3]

its a sanitation problem. you can freeze ice in bottles and toss those in if you sanitize the bottle



commercial ice is actually considered unsanitary.

sanitized bottles are not foodsafe over 180.

Don't get me started!

Never had a problem with ice, but I exclusively buy KROGER ice, which they claim is purer than the high quality drinking water here.

 

[NateLTB]

When I was brewing extract I would always buy a couple of gallons of distilled water and freeze them in the jug. Just use a sanitized knife to cut the jug away and add ice directly to wort after boil.

 

[ronjonacron]

No worries, it's all good. I did read the thread but didnt see anything referenced about adding 2 gallons of near frozen/or even frozen water to 2.5 gallons of wort.... adding 1 gallon yes but not 2. Regardless, I'll experiment with this on my next brew to see where it gets me

The math was referenced (in celsius). Add equal parts boiling water and near freezing water and you would get the average of the two. 200 degree wort mixed with 32 degree water would get you to about 115 if my math is right, and its easier to chill 2.5 gallons than 5. Chill your 2.5 gallons down to say low 100s then use the cold water to get yourself to pitching temps.

 

[Srekaneb]

I built a wort chiller using 25 feet of 3/8 cooper tubing. The total cost was about 29 dollars. I have a 8 gallon kettle and boil from 6.89 gal to 5.70 and then chill in a ice bath and use a immersion chiller. I let my sink drain slowly and replace my baths ice as needed. In 95 degree weather this summer I chilled wort from 212 to 70 in under 30 minutes. How much do you guys spend on ice?