Ice instead of a wort chiller?

[JWWard03]

Hi all. I use the Northern Brewer 5 gallon LME kits and have had good results in all 8 batches I've tried. I do not have a wort chiller and have no plans to invest in one. I typically put the whole brew pot in a cold cooler with circulating water and it takes 15 minutes to get down to the 70 degrees. Can I just put some good quality ice in the wort to bring it down to 70 degrees quickly instead? I have to put one or two gallons of extra water in there anyway to get to the 5 gallon mark so I feel like it's the same in the end. Is it just a contamination issue? Thanks.

 

[Immocles]

I recall reading or hearing on a podcast where a brewer would sanitize a big plastic container, boil water, let it cool and freeze the water into the sanitized container to plop into the wort on brew day.
I'd hesitate because I wouldn't want any weird freezer flavors crossing over into the beer. I know the ice from our crappy fridge water line takes on some nasty flavors when it neglected. Store bought, might run into the same concerns. But then again, back when I was topping off extract batches, I never thought twice about just dumping tap water from the faucet that our cats lick on a daily basis...

But honestly, if you're getting wort down to that temp using your current set up, I would stick with it. I can't remember how long my ice/water baths took, but it was longer than that.

 

[JWWard03]

Well, all of my water comes from the backyard hose so I don't think it will hurt it to come from the fridge ice maker. We have pretty good water in our neighborhood. I wasn't sure if there was a specific reason for cooling it down slower than ice will do.

 

[davidabcd]

The water you normally use is fine or you could freeze a couple gallons of distilled or mineral water. I can't imagine off-flavors from exposed ice that's just been frozen.
Your first method seems better though, if one is chosen over the other. A hybrid of the two (circulating and cold/frozen water) is what I'd do.

 

[Jag75]

When I extract brewed I'd start with 3 gallons . Then top off with 2 to 3 gallons of bottled water that had been in the fridge . It was a way to cool the wort down quick . I never tried by freezing it. Your chilling time of 15 minutes isn't really that long .

 

[GoodTruble]

Like others mentioned, the two big considerations are making sure the ice/water is sanitized and avoiding off-flavors from the freezer.

Even if the water comes from the same source, the water in the hot wort gets sanitized by heating. Freezing won't do that.

That being said, I've boiled water and froze in a sanitized container for this purpose (and the turned out great). I've also just put store bought distilled water straight into the freezer and used it. That also worked, but is a bit riskier.

And like others said, your current system works pretty well at 15 minutes. Many wort chiller take longer than that.