Cooling my Anvil SS 7.5 bucket FV - is this going to work?

[sixstring]

Decided to try cold crashing an American Pale Ale and it's actually working. It's not "perfect" but I've got the temp down to 45F so far. Loading up the ice box tonight to stay cold through the night and then dropping the temp more tomorrow. Bucket thermometer shows as 46. So it just took a little patience and a bit more baby sitting the cooler to keep changing out the ice packs (1 gallon jugs of water and some smaller gel packs).
The main point is, it can be done. Just need to be willing to put in the work if your fridge is full
Kegging on saturday, so we'll see how it turns out.

 

[Whisky River]

If you’re looking to get the temps really cold you might try switching from the gallon jugs to crushed ice, or at least free floating ice blocks. They cool much more effectively than frozen containers which wind up trapping most of the ice in the center surrounded by a layer of melted water which reduces the cooling effect. That’s not necessarily a bad thing if you are trying to make them melt more slowly and last a long time but for fast cooling you might try letting the ice free float.

When I used to do ice based cooling I used the large (32oz/2lb) yogurt containers to freeze my ice. They are tapered so the ice block slides out pretty easily and then you can just scoop up some of the cooler water and put them back in the freezer.

 

[sixstring]

If you’re looking to get the temps really cold you might try switching from the gallon jugs to crushed ice, or at least free floating ice blocks. They cool much more effectively than frozen containers which wind up trapping most of the ice in the center surrounded by a layer of melted water which reduces the cooling effect. That’s not necessarily a bad thing if you are trying to make them melt more slowly and last a long time but for fast cooling you might try letting the ice free float.

When I used to do ice based cooling I used the large (32oz/2lb) yogurt containers to freeze my ice. They are tapered so the ice block slides out pretty easily and then you can just scoop up some of the cooler water and put them back in the freezer.

That's a great idea, I have some silicon containers that make 8lb bricks of ice that I use for immersion chiller water on brew day. But they're rather flimsy.