Cooling with Ice Bags

[danielofthedale]

I am brewing at my girlfriends house for the first time and I have noticed her sink is much smaller than mine that I usually ice bath by brew kettle in to cool down the wort.

Since I will not be able to effectively use this method I was wondering if I could fill up some Ziplock bags with ice and star-san them down and add them to wart to help cool them down? Has anyone tried this method before and how did it work?

 

[ill4delph]

ive seen people use frozen (and sanitized) water bottles. Just fill up a few bottles of water, freeze, sanitize...and plop them into your hot wort. Haven't tried it myself, but ive read good things about it. Good luck!

 

[webby45wr]

Are you doing a partial boil? I've heard of people boiling water for 10 minutes to sterilize, then freezing it. Then they add the whole ice block. It cools the wort and adds top-off water for you. Note: I've never attempted this strategy, but it seems reasonable.

 

[JonM]

Got a cooler or Rubbermaid tote big enough to hold your kettle? Just do the ice bath in there. (Maybe put a couple pieces of wood or something under te kettle to keep the kettle from being in direct contact with the plastic just in case it could melt and spring a leak)

 

[E_Marquez]

Freeze a gallon of spring water.. drop that in the wort as both cooling and top off.

Or get a cheap plastic tube/ trash can at a local dollar General or what ever you have there.

Last resort, big strong cardboard box and some heavy duty trash bags to make a tub for the pot.

Or... does she have a bath tub?

 

[Loftearmen]

I freeze 1.5 gallons of water the night before, do a 3.5 gallon boil and pour it over the ice and stir until it's all melted. It's ready to pitch the yeast in less than a minute.

 

[rsyb]

I purchased a 70 quart muck bucket at my local farm and home store. Place colander upside-down in the bottom and place my brew pot on top. Fill with ice a couple of inches from the top of the pot. Takes about 40 pounds of ice for the whole process. Can get to 70 degrees in about 20 minutes.

 

[Rhumbline]

Are you doing a partial boil? I've heard of people boiling water for 10 minutes to sterilize, then freezing it. Then they add the whole ice block. It cools the wort and adds top-off water for you. Note: I've never attempted this strategy, but it seems reasonable.

this is what I do. simple, but takes a bit of time to freeze that much water

 

[3_Creepio]

Is it okay to just buy a bag of ice (Happy Ice or whatever) from the grocery/corner store and dump it in at flameout to both cool and top off? Or does it have to be boiled/sterilized ice?

 

[Loftearmen]

It would be better to use boiled/sterilized ice but I don't because I'm lazy.