Cooling Wort Fast Without A Chiller

[Zoidberg]

If you're doing partial boil this is easy as hell. Just freeze 1 gallon of distilled bottled water and get another one near freezing by shaking sporadically while it sits in a freezer, dump a little out first to allow room for ice to expand. Now do a 4gallon boil which will end with somewhere around 3.25 gallons. Cut the container off the completely frozen container, add wort, then top off to your total amount with near frozen water. If this is combined with even a mediocre icebath you can be in pitching temps in 15 minutes or less

 

[kpwright]

Method 3: Get a frig with an ice maker and run it until the bucket is full. When your wort is done boiling add the entire bucket of ice (about 1 gallon of water) directly into the wort and stir. In less than 60 seconds the wort will be around 85-90F degrees. Add 2 gallons of cold water (45F) to your fermenting bucket and pour the warm wort over it. Now the final mixture is 5 gallons at about 60 degrees.
I know the purists don't like this method but frankly it's really easy and it works great. I have brewed about 30 batches of high gravity ale this way and every batch turned out fine.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

"You might need to add some water to keep the ice floating. I keep the water and ice moving around by stirring, and stir the wort at this time, too, as this helps the heat transfer faster."
So it IS technically safe to an extent to have the lid off during the chill phase.

 

[WileECoyote]

@MyCarHasAbs, I have the lid off for the pics and to stir the wort to get better heat transfer.
Cheers

 

[J0EBEER]

Yes. I use 5 gal of spring water. I boil with 3, and put the remainder in the freezer, then adding it back into the fermenter along with the hot wart at cool down time. Helps speed things up. Also, for those who soak the pot in ice baths, try adding salt to the bath, it greatly reduces the bath water temp!

 

[J0EBEER]

7 bucks for 3 pounds of ice? Good Lord, do you live on an island in the Caribbean, lol. $6.75 gets you 40 pound bag in my area!

 

[MB331]

That's what I do. To minimize the chance of bacteria I wash and Starsan Rubbermaid containers and lids. I then fill them with bottled water and freeze them for a few days before using. From them I get two 1/2 gallons of ice blocks------- a full gallon of an ice block becomes pretty cumbersome using tongs. Using an ice bath in tandem really speeds up the cooling and it is the only water I'm wasting.
There is a drought occurring from NYC up to Maine and I can't see myself wasting 30-40 gallons of water using a chiller to cool 5 gallons of wort.