can i use ice to chill wort

[raf1919]

i dont have a chiller or big enough sink. can i just fill bucket with ice cube and pour the boiling wort into that to chill it?

 

[CaptChet]

No because contamination can occur. I used a large rubbermaid container filled with ice water and placed my brew kettle in the water bath. It took awhile but until it worked. The goal is getting to below 80 deg F as quickly as possible to prevent chill haze and off flavors. I built a immersion chiller and will be using it for the first time in about an hour.

 

[CaptChet]

If you dont have any other means, you can freeze soda bottles and float them in the wort after the outside of the bottle is sanitized.

 

[billf2112]

I use ice to chill my wort. I sanitize 4 half gallon cheap glad tuperware like containers and fill them with boiled water the night before I brew. I then put them into the wort one at a time until they melt. The usually get the wort to 70 degrees in about 20 minutes. This as volume to my wort since I do partial boils and does not waste water.

 

[D0ug]

I used a similar method to what billf2112 did, and it worked very well for my recent partial boil batches.

 

[ChshreCat]

If yo have a bathroom nearby, you can chill in the tub.

I've also done something similar to billf, where I froze some preboiled water in tupperware containers to make a couple big ice cubes. I did this along with a water bath in the sink to cool the wort quicker on partial boils. Some folks have used storebought ice or ice from a freezer's ice maker, but I wouldn't trust them.

Another thing I do for my partial boils is to put the top up water in the fridge. I buy gallon jugs of drinking water for my brew water, so I put a few in the fridge the night before. Then, I only have to cool my wort down to 90F or so and the top up water takes it the rest of the way down. I keep a couple jugs out at room temp just in case because sometimes I've hit 60F and still have a gallon to go to hit 5 gallons.

 

[superjunior]

i dont have a chiller or big enough sink. can i just fill bucket with ice cube and pour the boiling wort into that to chill it?

yes, you can if you remember a couple key points.
never use commercial ice, it can harbor dormant bacteria that could spoil your beer and always boil the water before freezing in an airtight plastic food container, the container must be airtight because most freezers also harbor dormant bacteria