Good Eats Style...

[militarymech]

Hey all, new to the forums and have been just reading a lot. I'm on my second batch of home brew (A Hefeweizen).

I'd always wanted to home brew and saw an episode of "Good Eats" with Alton Brown where he walked you through the process step by step.... I can do this!!!! So I did! ;-)

Any ways, in his show, he talked about getting the wort cooled down as quickly as possible to prevent infection (A concept I think we can all appreciate). His method was to dump 7# of store bought ice into the hot wort. This is the method i tried. After topping up with cold water, the temp was just about perfect for pitching the yeast!

Does anyone else use this method? Any reason not to? My first batch came out great (the Dirty Blond from NW brewers) and my second seems to be doing fine in the bucket....

 

[sfrisby]

Same episode that got me into homebrewing almost 7 years ago. I think you'll find an ice bath for your pot or wort chiller will give you a better product. You can't guarantee the cleanliness of that ice.

 

[militarymech]

It's got to be better than the ice in my freezer!!! The water where I live is HORRIBLE!!! I get the self vend water at the grocery store and that ice seems pretty clean.... I could always make ice in trays and store it up....

 

[robfar]

Congrats on your first brew and thank you to Alton for introducing you to the obsession. Alton Brown, however, is not a homebrewing expert. Keep reading this and other forums and John Palmer's "How to Brew" (1st edition is online at howtobrew.com) Join a homebrew club if you can find one locally. Welcome!

 

[rklinck]

Ice scares me because of all the Kitchen Nightmares and Restaurant Impossible episodes I've seen. The ice machines always seem to be the nastiest parts.

 

[DrunkleJon]

Ice scares me because of all the Kitchen Nightmares and Restaurant Impossible episodes I've seen. The ice machines always seem to be the nastiest parts.

Because when was the last time you cleaned out your icemaker in your freezer? How often do you wash out your ice trays? I am pretty sure the bagged ice companies have requirements on how often to clean their machines, but yikes. I have seen some nasty stuff in icemakers.

 

[unionrdr]

I was getting gallons of spring water from the store for 79c per gallon. I went to Artisian Springs out on rt113 & I think it's west river & get it for 10c per gallon right out of the spring. Seems to be working quite well with my partial mash ales. The kolsh yeast semes to work fine with it.
In winter,I keep the jugs on the garage steps. It's really coldso I use the typical ice bath to cool the wort down to about 70F. Strain into fermenter,then top off with the now ice cold spring water to get it down to 64F. I keep the man cave chilly where the fermenter stand is,& it goes no higher than 68-69F. Keeping the ice out of the wort & using sealed jugs of cold spring water gives me more piece of mind.