Cooling your wort

[Curtis2010]

Yes, 5 gallons is liftable, but bad news if you drop it or spill hot wort all over yourself.

(Reminds me a of 4 year old boy who fell into a large caldron of chicken soup here last year...the locals often cook on the ground over a wood fire. Really ugly -- we evac'ed him to good medical care in Guate City....a 5 hour very unpleasant journey for him followed by a full month of medical care (equally unpleasant). Good news is he fully recovered with minimal scaring and he now has a whole new level of respect for hot liquids!).

 

[nvr2low]

Yes, 5 gallons is liftable, but bad news if you drop it or spill hot wort all over yourself.

(Reminds me a of 4 year old boy who fell into a large caldron of chicken soup here last year...the locals often cook on the ground over a wood fire. Really ugly -- we evac'ed him to good medical care in Guate City....a 5 hour very unpleasant journey for him followed by a full month of medical care (equally unpleasant). Good news is he fully recovered with minimal scaring and he now has a whole new level of respect for hot liquids!).

well, the photo is a bit misleading, its not quite as high as it looks, its a pretty easy lift....

i have had really bad second degree burns on my foot, almost 3rd degree from hot liquid. its not that bad, a little pain and some scar tissue, no big deal.... LOL!!!

 

[bergy]

I wouldn't use plastic bags, as this is still going to be almost 200 F wort at the start, so the plastic bags aren't quite hearty enough and may melt.

Plenty of people on this board sanatize plastic bottles, fill them with boiled then frozen water, and submerge them. I'll tell you that it isn't going to speed up your cool down THAT much compared to an ice bath, and it can't be more sanitary than an ice bath, since you are actually putting plastic into your wort.

I personally use a combination; I use a water bath until I'm below 150, replace the water with icewater and used 2 sanitized plastic ice bottles to stir the wort. I can get the wort down below 90 in about 20 minutes that way.

 

[jesus16x]

I myself prefer the old school method and just let it sit covered in the brew pot in my basement for 8 hours or so.

Yes I'm completely aware of what can happen by not cooling and starting fermentation ASAP, but that's part of the experiment for me.