Handling Ice

[Galaxy_Stranger]

I haven't got my hands on a chiller yet, so I thought I'd do this - drop a block of ice in the wort. I thought I'd sanitize a couple Gallon Zip-Lock bags and fill them with filtered water that's been boiled, and dump them in the freezer. Then, I can put the wort pot on a pile of ice and put a gallon or two of ice in it.

Can anybody see any problems with this?

 

[GaBrewZoo]

I have done it with water bottles. Freeze, drop them in a bucket of sanitizer for a minute and use them. Not the best solution, but if ya gotta, ya gotta. I have also used my swimming pool as an ice bath.

 

[user 19629]

If you top off with cold water, and place the kettle in an ice bath, I don't think you would need to add the ice directly to the wort.

 

[Subdivisions]

Ya, it'll work. Put the kettle in a water bath with a bunch of ice and get the temperature down. Stir the wort to get good transfer to the sides of the pot. You'll probably need to drain the water and re-fill and add more ice at least once. When it's down in the lower 100s then add the frozen ice bags to the wort. This should take it down the rest of the way.

You could use frozen 2-liters as stated above also. There's less chance of those opening and dumping water into your wort.

 

[Bellybuster]

or you can research the no-chill method. many are having great success with it, including me.

 

[Galaxy_Stranger]

Thanks for the info everybody. I hadn't thought about freezing the bottles themselves and dipping the whole thing.

I need to stay away from no-chill for the time being because I'm trying to figure out where my weird results are coming from. I had been getting bagged ice from the gas station and using that - but I need to get that out of the way first. No-chilling would still leave an uncontrolled variable in the way.

 

[shortyz]

i just fill my bathtub up with cold water.

 

[flars]

Thanks for the info everybody. I hadn't thought about freezing the bottles themselves and dipping the whole thing.

I need to stay away from no-chill for the time being because I'm trying to figure out where my weird results are coming from. I had been getting bagged ice from the gas station and using that - but I need to get that out of the way first. No-chilling would still leave an uncontrolled variable in the way.

Bagged ice can have some contaminants. The contamination could be from the water/equipment used to make the ice or a punctured bag in a dirty freezer at the place of purchase.

You would have more control making your own ice in sanitized bags.

 

[unionrdr]

I use about 2/3's of a large bag of ice to chill with, outside the kettle. Plug the sink, put the kettle in, then fill to the top of the sink around the kettle. Top that off with cold tap water. Add ice as needed to get down to 75F or so. Then use spring water that's been in the fridge a day or two before brew day to top off in fermenter to recipe volume.

 

[Galaxy_Stranger]

Yeah, I've been using a bath since the beginning. Dumping ice in the wort makes the chill time well under 10 minutes. The guys at work are telling me to just chill a few gallons of filtered water so they can be poured in. I may try that as well.

 

[kh54s10]

When I do extracts. I chill the wort in the sink. Ice and ice bottles on the outside of the kettle. Gently stirring the wort speeds things up. It does not take long to cool 2.5 gallons. Then add Brita filtered cold tap water to top up. Chill some more if necessary. It usually isn't necessary.

 

[Galaxy_Stranger]

Ok - how long should that take the 2.5 gallons to get down below 100°?

Also, when you say 2.5 gallons - do you mean the 2.5 gallons you started with, or 2.5 gallons minus whatever's evaporated?

 

[slym2none]

I am cheap, and don't use ice until the wort is below 100° F. It takes about 45 minutes total to chill 2.5 gallons of wort using two sink "fulls" (not really full with the BK taking up most of the space) of tap water, with a third fill getting the ice. My last batch, I got down to 65 or so and still had some ice in the sink.

I am sure if I wanted to use more ice earlier on, I could cut that time to 20 minutes or so.

 

[Hello]

If I recall, I was able to chill 2.5 gallons down to 80F in about 35-40 minutes using an ice bath. The rest of the way was taken care of with cold top off water.

 

[unionrdr]

I ice bath down to 75F or so, then strain into the fermenter. Top off with chilled spring water that's been in the fridge a day or two before brew day to recipe volume. That typically gets it down to 65F or a lil less.

 

[IslandLizard]

Get your temps down with water first from 212F to say 100-120F. Then ice for the last 40-50F. Otherwise you're simply wasting ice.

I always capture the hot water from the (plate) chiller in 2 big (!) buckets and use it for clean up.