tnlandsailor
Well-Known Member
This may have been discussed before, but I wanted to present this to the new brewers as a quick method of chilling.
While teaching a beer class last year, I needed a very quick way to chill the wort prior to pitching yeast. I did not have the class time to wait for an immersion chiller or the means to use an in-line type chiller, I so I came up with the idea of using sanitary ice. I had read that spring water straight from store bought bottles was "sanitary". So I took some 1 quart plastic containers with snap fitting lids, sanitized them along with the lids, and filled them with water straight from these 1 gallon spring water bottles. I placed these in the freezer overnight. This gave me 2 lbs of sanitized ice with which to chill. After some calculations, I found that with a post boil wort volume of 3.25 gallons, adding 18 lbs of ice yielded a total wort volume of about 5 1/2 gallons at 70 - 75 F. The chilling was almost instantaneous, taking only about 3-5 minutes, just enough time to melt the ice while stirring the mixture with a sanitized spoon.
The numbers presented above are approximate and based on a pretty involved set of calculations, but can be used as is with good results. Some caveats:
- This only works with open plastic bucket type fermenters.
- Use regular drinking water (spring water) from unopened, store bought bottles. Don't use water from a consumer type filter on your sink.
- Use 1 quart plastic deli containers with snap on lids. Sanitize both the container and the lid prior to use with any of the popular sanitizers (I used Iodophor).
- Leave about an inch of space when filling the containers to account for the expansion of the ice. Otherwise the ice might push the lid off during freezing and contaminate the ice.
- Take out the containers about 15 minutes before you need them. The ice wants to stick in the containers until a thin film of ice melts between the ice and the cup.
- Use a towel to wipe off the outside of the container before you dump it in the fermenter bucket. The water that condenses on the outside of the cup won't be sanitary so you want to make sure the outside of the cup is dry before you dump the ice in.
- Remove the lid carefully. Do not touch the ice inside!
- Dump all the ice into the bucket first, then pour the hot wort in on top of the ice. Stir with a sanitized spoon until the ice is all melted.
There were no ill effects from using this method of chilling. All of the beer fermented without incident and showed no signs of infection.
If you are new to brewing and want to minimize the amount of equipment you buy before you "commit" to homebrewing, this is a very economical way of chilling your wort safely and quickly with minimal effort and expense. As long as you are careful with the containers, they can be reused.
While teaching a beer class last year, I needed a very quick way to chill the wort prior to pitching yeast. I did not have the class time to wait for an immersion chiller or the means to use an in-line type chiller, I so I came up with the idea of using sanitary ice. I had read that spring water straight from store bought bottles was "sanitary". So I took some 1 quart plastic containers with snap fitting lids, sanitized them along with the lids, and filled them with water straight from these 1 gallon spring water bottles. I placed these in the freezer overnight. This gave me 2 lbs of sanitized ice with which to chill. After some calculations, I found that with a post boil wort volume of 3.25 gallons, adding 18 lbs of ice yielded a total wort volume of about 5 1/2 gallons at 70 - 75 F. The chilling was almost instantaneous, taking only about 3-5 minutes, just enough time to melt the ice while stirring the mixture with a sanitized spoon.
The numbers presented above are approximate and based on a pretty involved set of calculations, but can be used as is with good results. Some caveats:
- This only works with open plastic bucket type fermenters.
- Use regular drinking water (spring water) from unopened, store bought bottles. Don't use water from a consumer type filter on your sink.
- Use 1 quart plastic deli containers with snap on lids. Sanitize both the container and the lid prior to use with any of the popular sanitizers (I used Iodophor).
- Leave about an inch of space when filling the containers to account for the expansion of the ice. Otherwise the ice might push the lid off during freezing and contaminate the ice.
- Take out the containers about 15 minutes before you need them. The ice wants to stick in the containers until a thin film of ice melts between the ice and the cup.
- Use a towel to wipe off the outside of the container before you dump it in the fermenter bucket. The water that condenses on the outside of the cup won't be sanitary so you want to make sure the outside of the cup is dry before you dump the ice in.
- Remove the lid carefully. Do not touch the ice inside!
- Dump all the ice into the bucket first, then pour the hot wort in on top of the ice. Stir with a sanitized spoon until the ice is all melted.
There were no ill effects from using this method of chilling. All of the beer fermented without incident and showed no signs of infection.
If you are new to brewing and want to minimize the amount of equipment you buy before you "commit" to homebrewing, this is a very economical way of chilling your wort safely and quickly with minimal effort and expense. As long as you are careful with the containers, they can be reused.
