Best way to cool wort

[joydivision]

If it's below freezing would it be better to take the pot outside? If so can I take the lid off to swirl it some? I'm thinking if I rap a wet towel around it and place it out side it will drop the temp much quicker than an ice bath.

 

[inhousebrew]

Before I had a chiller I used the bathtub. The sink just doesn't hold enough water. Fill the tub up to the level of the wort in the potand it will work way faster than a sink. If you really want to do it quickly a 10-20 pounds bag of ice (or a bunch of snow?) will help. I think the water displaces heat faster than the air.

 

[cpac2k]

I like to use a large cooler outside and i fill it with water and ice or even snow it seems to work really well for me and usually gets the wort down to 68 or 70 degrees in about 15 or 20 min with enough snow or ice. I always leave the cover on the pot just to keep out anything that could cause an infection and what I do is just grab the handles of the pot and gently twist it back and forth several times every couple of minutes to get the wort moving around a little bit. I also bob it up and down as it tends to float in the water.

 

[beergolf]

Liquid will trasfer heat. (cool) faster than air will.So an ice bath will work better than the air.

cpac2K's suggestion is a good idea.

 

[IanJ]

In my old apartment I used a wort chiller with a garden hose adapter screwed into the faucet, in my current apartment the sink has a sprayer, so I can't figure a way to rig the chiller to it.

In this case, I just fill the sink with ice and water, to the level of wort, and place the pot in. It's slow, but it works. Better than filling my entire bath tub with water, just not as useful as a wort chiller. Speaking of which, if anyone knows how to rig a sink sprayer to a wort chiller, please PM me!

 

[F250]

In my old apartment I used a wort chiller with a garden hose adapter screwed into the faucet, in my current apartment the sink has a sprayer, so I can't figure a way to rig the chiller to it.

In this case, I just fill the sink with ice and water, to the level of wort, and place the pot in. It's slow, but it works. Better than filling my entire bath tub with water, just not as useful as a wort chiller. Speaking of which, if anyone knows how to rig a sink sprayer to a wort chiller, please PM me!

Well, you could do what I did. You could find the nearest cold water line that is convenient to work on and install a brass faucet in the middle of it. Of course you have to know how to sweat copper, but it works great with an RV hose and my wort chiller.

Rick

 

[roastquake]

I think the best equipment purchase decision I ever made was to spent $30 on the cheapest immersion chiller from Midwest Supplies. 20 minutes of stirring against the flow = 68 degree wort and no WORRIES about infection. that was my biggest problem when I started all-grain, WORRYING about infection while I waited for my 5 gallons to cool in an ice bath. This hobby is not suited for worries, I like for my brew-days to be relaxing.

 

[wilserbrewer]

If you are asking the question, I'm guessing you are a little unprepared....haha...If that is the case I would set it outside in the below freezing temps w/ the lid on for 6-8 hours...or the next morning...don't fear a no chill slow chill RDWHAHB.

 

[stevehardt]

I use an ice bath and stir the wort almost constantly. I keep the thermometer in while I do it and its amazing to see how much faster the temp drops with stirring. While this isnt easy as a wort chiller, I can get 5 gallons down to pitching temp in a reasonable time. Also helps aerate the wort.

 

[roastquake]

Steve, thats true, aeration is the reward for constant stirring, and it does cool faster!

 

[captainkirk83]

Good suggestions for new guys like me without much equipment

 

[Rainman667]

It was suggest to me that I add ice water straight to the wort as I had to increase my volume before the pitch anyway. I dropped temp in no time but nobody has suggest it here. Is that a bad idea for some reason? I guess there is a reason I bought budget ingredients for the first batch.

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

This will work for 12 applications and only cost $15

 

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

If it's below freezing would it be better to take the pot outside? If so can I take the lid off to swirl it some? I'm thinking if I rap a wet towel around it and place it out side it will drop the temp much quicker than an ice bath.

You want to surround the pot with cold water. Because of the properties of liquids cold water brings down the temperature of hot liquid much faster than cold air.

 

[voltin]

It was suggest to me that I add ice water straight to the wort as I had to increase my volume before the pitch anyway. I dropped temp in no time but nobody has suggest it here. Is that a bad idea for some reason? I guess there is a reason I bought budget ingredients for the first batch.

Ice and tap water is not sterile, so there could be some baddies lurking in them. But chances are everything will be fine, I know lots of people top up with cool water and ice with out any problems.

 

[cpac2k]

That's why I keep the lid on and keep the ice, water and or snow outside my brew kettle.

 

[orion7144]

When I did kits I only did 3-3.5 gallon boils so I have RO water in the fridge all day. Cooled in the sink to 80 then added the (usually) 2 gallons to the fermenter. This did two things. It helped aerate (pouring from shoulder height) and cooled the wort to pitching temp. I wish it was that easy now doing 10g ag batches outside. It takes me forever to chill with my immersion chiller.

 

[stevehardt]

It was suggest to me that I add ice water straight to the wort as I had to increase my volume before the pitch anyway. I dropped temp in no time but nobody has suggest it here. Is that a bad idea for some reason? I guess there is a reason I bought budget ingredients for the first batch.

I never felt comfortable with this. As other have said, if you place the pot of hot wort in a tub, surround it with ice, and stir it like it owes you $, you get down to pitching temp pretty fast, and will not need to top off with ice. And it also aerates the wort really well.

That being said, I wouldnt think adding ice probably hurts anything, especially if you have add top off water anyway.

To each his own...

 

[kyle6357]

Getting that wart chiller to work will be your best bet. I got mine from the LBS and it drops temps fast!