Different cold crash question - logistics

[thejerk]

Heh...just got on to find some info on cold crashing...my question is different than the other guy's, though. I'm trying to do my first cold crash, but I don't have a fridge to crash in. What I tried to do was put my carboy in a big tub of ice water. But what I'm finding is that this isn't very practical. I have been freezing bottles of water for weeks in anticipation of this, but no amount of ice is enough! I just went and bought several bags of ice at the gas station to try to bring it down, but that's gonna be more money than I want to spend on it over a couple of days. Just a thin layer of frozen bottles and ice on the top only brought it down to around 45 F, I've got to get it down closer to 34-36 F, right?
So how do you folks actually do this?

 

[dontman]

You named the two ways. Refrigerator of some sort or ice bath.

I don't have as much trouble getting my bath cold as you seem to. How big is the tub?

I use one of those keg chilling buckets. I found it at my local true value and it only takes a bag of ice a day.

 

[WorryWort]

45F won't be too bad if you're just cold crashing an ale. For lagering though you would probably want it colder than that.

 

[thejerk]

I was just trying to crash it for 48 hours for clarity purposes. I guess I was just too stingy with the ice. I dumped in two bags and the probe in the ice bath now reads 39 F.