Ghetto Cooling Technique

[markhagan]

I have been doing a lot of stove top all grain brewing (gas stove, 5 gal brews). One of the problems I have had when using my copper coil chiller is that it takes forever to get from around 90 to 70. I found a $2.99 solution rather than buying bags of ice to drop those last 20 degrees.

I fill my sink up with water (just as I would if I were going to give it an ice bath) around the brew pot. I bought some $2.99 massive pack of flav-o-ice things from walmart and had them iced up in the freezer already. Once my temps hit 90, I wrap those flav-o-ice things around the pot. Those last 20 degrees now go by super fast.

I am open to alternatives, but this gives me a reason to keep delicious iced treats around the house.

 

[stoutaholic]

If you are just cooling down from 90 degrees (not from high temperatures that could extract chemicals from plastic), you could freeze several plastic water bottles and then sanitize them before dropping into your wort. Basically like adding sanitized ice, but without the disadvantage of watering down your wort. This might provide better heat transfer than chilling the exterior of the pot.

 

[brokenanchor]

Hah funny that you mention this, because I was doing a gallon experimental batch last night and all of the ice packs were being used. I looked in the freezer for something to cool it down, and I saw my roommate had a giant box of those. I did the exact same thing you mentioned, and cooled the wort to 75 degrees inside of 15 mintues...and then I stole one

 

[Hambone]

good idea. I have a big box of those in my freezer. and to think that I waited forever two nights ago for my damn wort to cool. stupid

 

[markhagan]

If you are just cooling down from 90 degrees (not from high temperatures that could extract chemicals from plastic), you could freeze several plastic water bottles and then sanitize them before dropping into your wort. Basically like adding sanitized ice, but without the disadvantage of watering down your wort. This might provide better heat transfer than chilling the exterior of the pot.

That is a really good idea! I am going to freeze some bottles for next time.