Advice on cooling wort.

[SkipMorrow]

Would it be ok to just add ice right to the wort? Instead of water? I mean, you've got like 3 gallons of wort, and you need to add water to it to get it up to 5. Why not just add ice?

 

[grrickar]

Would it be ok to just add ice right to the wort? Instead of water? I mean, you've got like 3 gallons of wort, and you need to add water to it to get it up to 5. Why not just add ice?

The ice would need to be made from pre-boiled water IMO, and you would be changing the gravity of the beer since you are adding water to the wort. Biggest thng as the wort cools is ensuring you don't allow an infection/bacteria to take hold. Brewing is a lot of work to lose a batch to an unwanted bug...

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Would it be ok to just add ice right to the wort? Instead of water? I mean, you've got like 3 gallons of wort, and you need to add water to it to get it up to 5. Why not just add ice?

It is a dangerous game of chicken...but, I have turned distilled water in the gallon jugs into near freezing and just dumped two in. This gets you instantly to about 140F or if you chill your wort to 140F first in an ice bath it gets you to about 97F.

My rationalization was that the water had to be germ free is it was distilled and packaged but the truth is you just do not know. Besides, by the time I started doing this I was already pitching monster starters so that further reduced the risks. Once I switched to all grain (about 4 batches later) the point became irrelevant.

 

[mcbar]

Those of you who use/have used the snowbank method, maybe you can shed some light on this.

On my last batch I stuck my kettle in a snow bank to cool it down, and it ended up taking longer to reach temperature than my usual ice bath method. I'm wondering if the snow acted as an insulator? Next time I'm going to try putting it outside in a basin of water and adding snow to that instead.

Freezing milk jugs, 2L pop bottles and reusing them in an ice bath works well.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

On my last batch I stuck my kettle in a snow bank to cool it down, and it ended up taking longer to reach temperature than my usual ice bath method. I'm wondering if the snow acted as an insulator? Next time I'm going to try putting it outside in a basin of water and adding snow to that instead.

Two issue with snowbank method:

Surface contact is only on the bottom after about 30 seconds
All other surfaces are well insulated after about 30 seconds if you bury it or it naturally sinks in

Snow replacing ice in an ice bath is going to me much more efficient.

 

[mcbar]

Two issue with snowbank method:

Surface contact is only on the bottom after about 30 seconds
All other surfaces are well insulated after about 30 seconds if you bury it or it naturally sinks in

Snow replacing ice in an ice bath is going to me much more efficient.

That's what I thought/figured out halfway through last time. Seems counter intuitive but makes sense. Thanks for confirming!