BrewinBromanite
Well-Known Member
Before I moved to full boil all grain BIAB, I was doing partial mash, and extract/steeping grains before that. I always added cold gallon jugs of water for top off, which had the added benefit of helping to cool wort, aided by an ice-bath in the kitchen sink to complete the chilling process. (I always considered freezing the top-off water and adding in the frozen water - like entire frozen gallon-jugs, then cutting open the giant ice cube out of the plastic container, but I never made it to that experiment.)
Now me and brew-buddy/bro-in-law do 2 batches side by side of 5-6 gal brews (full volume boil in 2 x 10.5 gal aluminum pots). The bathtub full of ice method works great. The last couple batches we did, we picked up 10-15 big bags of ice at the gas station during the boil. Put both kettles in the tub with all that ice, (mixed with water until the pots almost float - which is more efficient than just ice), and we hit 60-65 deg in 30 mins or less with occasional stirring (every 5-10 mins or so). Surprisingly very efficient, despite the small additional cost of the ice. A chiller might be nice some day, but at this point, we don't mind splitting the cost of ice for 10-15 bags, and it chills VERY quickly. We may take the ice-tub method to an extreme with so much ice, but it works well. With 5-8 bags on previous batches, it took closer to 45-60 mins to cool to 65-70. Never had any infections. Pitch a good healthy amount of yeast as quickly as you are able to get down to temp, and you'll be fine.
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Now me and brew-buddy/bro-in-law do 2 batches side by side of 5-6 gal brews (full volume boil in 2 x 10.5 gal aluminum pots). The bathtub full of ice method works great. The last couple batches we did, we picked up 10-15 big bags of ice at the gas station during the boil. Put both kettles in the tub with all that ice, (mixed with water until the pots almost float - which is more efficient than just ice), and we hit 60-65 deg in 30 mins or less with occasional stirring (every 5-10 mins or so). Surprisingly very efficient, despite the small additional cost of the ice. A chiller might be nice some day, but at this point, we don't mind splitting the cost of ice for 10-15 bags, and it chills VERY quickly. We may take the ice-tub method to an extreme with so much ice, but it works well. With 5-8 bags on previous batches, it took closer to 45-60 mins to cool to 65-70. Never had any infections. Pitch a good healthy amount of yeast as quickly as you are able to get down to temp, and you'll be fine.
Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
