would it be a bad thing to put ice in your fermentation bucket and pour your wort over it to cool it down, instead of cooling it in your sink and continuing to change your water to get it cool enough to pitch your yeast? thanks for any advice
cooling after boil
- Thread starter dbr80
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Castawayales
Well-Known Member
General rule is no. Ice cubes can contain bacteria.
Some brewers will freeze plastic bottles sanitize them and drop them in.
Liquid has the highest surface area and will provide the fastest cooling, even faster than setting the brewpot in a snowdrift.
Barry
Some brewers will freeze plastic bottles sanitize them and drop them in.
Liquid has the highest surface area and will provide the fastest cooling, even faster than setting the brewpot in a snowdrift.
Barry
frolickingmonkey
Well-Known Member
I'll attest to that... I tried using a snowdrift today and after only getting down to 140 in 30 minutes, hauled my brew kettle back to the kitchen sink...
I like to use ice as an economical and fast way to cool down the wort. However, you must be sure that the ice is made from water that is not contaminated. If you are OK with adding your tap water to cooled wort, then you can use that for making the ice. Otherwise, boiling the water before you make it into ice cubes is a good solution. Also, it is important that the ice is not exposed to air in the freezer as there can be bacteria in there.
Remember to account for the volume of the ice cube water if you are adding a lot of ice.
I like to make a couple of giant ice cubes in quart-size rubbermaid containers. I use a starsan solution on these first, then fill them most of the way with clean water, then cover tightly in foil and put them in the freezer a day ahead of time (I use foil due to the expansion; lids may pop off). It only takes a minute or two to do this, but you have to plan a day ahead so they will freeze through by brewday. I have never had a problem with this method and will continue to augment my sink-bath cooling with ice until I get a chiller some day.
Remember to account for the volume of the ice cube water if you are adding a lot of ice.
I like to make a couple of giant ice cubes in quart-size rubbermaid containers. I use a starsan solution on these first, then fill them most of the way with clean water, then cover tightly in foil and put them in the freezer a day ahead of time (I use foil due to the expansion; lids may pop off). It only takes a minute or two to do this, but you have to plan a day ahead so they will freeze through by brewday. I have never had a problem with this method and will continue to augment my sink-bath cooling with ice until I get a chiller some day.
Captain Damage
Well-Known Member
Last batch, after adding 1 gallon of chilled water, I put the brewpot in the sink, filled as much ice as I could around it, sprinkled with salt, and sprayed with water until the brewpot just started floating. I was down to pitching temp in about 30 minutes.
