cooling wort with ice packs?

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LouBrewcrew

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Hi all,

Curious if anyone has used sanitized ice packs, frozen gallon jugs, etc to cool wort instead of a cooling coil. Will this work without contaminating the wort as long as the ice pack is sealed? Any info would be appreciated!

Brew on!

Hunter

:rockin:
 
I would imagine if sanitized it would work fine. I would be more worried about the plastic melting in boiling wort.

You could freeze sanitized water in a big Tupperware container and empty the block of ice in the wort if your using top off water. Just be aware it takes a lot of ice to cool 3+ gallons of boiling water to pitching temp.
 
I don't see any reason why it wouldn't, but I'm with Chello, I use ice. I do about a 2.5-3 gallon partial boil. It takes about 1 gallon of ice (8lbs) for me to cool my wort into the 80 degree range by the time I finish filling it up with cold water.
 
I use ice all the time, some do not recommend it. But if you use top off water and that water is good enough for your beer then the same water frozen is too. I sanitize 2 pitchers, fill em up, put 1 in the freezer and 1 in the fridge. By the time i'm done the water is almost completely frozen i then put the pot in an ice bath in the sink then add the ice from the freezer directly in the wort and some cold water from the fridge and my wort is down to 70 to 75 in 15 to 20 minutes. I have never had a problem this way.
 
Are you doing an ice bath?
Just fill up your sink with water, put the pot in there and throw the ice packs in the water (not the wort).. It'll work fine.

I use a few 20oz bottles, frozen with water... I just refreeze it when im done and all is good.
 
spend the little bit of cash and buy some copper and make your own ic. it truely is simple and the cost is not that bad.
 
Are you doing an ice bath?
Just fill up your sink with water, put the pot in there and throw the ice packs in the water (not the wort).. It'll work fine.

I use a few 20oz bottles, frozen with water... I just refreeze it when im done and all is good.

This is what I would do..currently I just put my wort in the sink filled with cold water. Probably do this 2-3 times before my wort is cool enough.
 
I have a copper chiller, it works fine but the cooling seems to slow down after reaching 130F, so i was thinking of trowing the sanitized ice packs at that time to help things move along faster and not risk the heat melting the plastic. I think i will try it inmy next batch, still i worry i may get off flavors from the plastic bag, any comments on this?
 
I never trusted putting plastic or ice in hot wort. The plastic might add something nasty,especially if it melts. I put the BK in the sink,& fill the empty space with cold water for a couple minutes. This brings down the initial hot temps. Drain the water,then fill the empty space to the top of the sink with ice. Top that off with cold water. I put a floating thermometer in the covered wort at this point. It gets down to 65-70F in 20 minutes. I also get little or no chill haze this way when the conditioned bottles go in the fridge.
 
Ice bath...speaking of ice packs, I put four around the base of the pit before I add the ice...definitely cools quicker
 
I was thinking of trying ice packs strapped onto the side of the FV next summer to keep temps down. I saw a guy in AU do that on the cooper's forums once.
 
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