Ice to cool wort

[Screech]

I know that you are supposed to cool the wort as fast as possible. If you are doing an extract brew, are there any side effects of cooling the wort by placing ice straight into the wort? I have just read on here of people placing the pot into the sink filled with water to cool it off.

Kevin

 

[iskeptici]

I did this for my first couple brews... It's a pain but I didn't have any problems other than a long cooling time. After $20 worth of ice on my 3rd batch I invested in a wort chiller. Your beer will be fine with ice but you will not regret the extra purchase.

 

[Ultrazord]

Ice works, but it is trickier to measure how much to add to get to exactly 5 gallons.

 

[AgentHubcap]

You can use sanitized ice (i.e. boiled water that has been frozen) as top-off water. I keep ziplock bags of sanitized ice in the freezer that I re-sanitize and add to the wort to cool it down (I'm doing a full boil, and don't want any extra volume).

Works great.

 

[bleme]

The downside is there 'might' be bacteria in either your water supply or your freezer. Some people use ice right out of their ice maker (filtered by their fridge) and do just fine.

More cautious brewers boil their water, cool it, pour it into sterilized containers, freeze those containers, sterilize them again when they pull them from the freezer, and use that ice.

Either way, you can chill your wort in under 5 minutes, faster than any ice bath or immersion chiller. I researched it extensively and haven't found a single person who can point to ice as the source of an infection. Everything is a gamble though.

 

[scottedk]

The only possible problem I can foresee with placing the ice directly into the wort would be risk of contamination/bacteria in the ice itself. I you could guarantee that the ice tray was sanitized and if you were to boil the water before freezing it this would help.

On my first batch I simply put the kettle in my sink surrounded with ice and water (I didn't put the ice in directly) and decided after that to buy a wort chiller. If you think you'll be brewing for awhile then I would highly recommend purchasing one.

 

[MikeYoung]

The concern with cooling the wort rapidly is to minimize the opportunity for infections to take hold before the yeast gets started. Unsanitized ice would defeat the purpose.

If that doesn't deter you, 16.6 lbs of ice (2 gallons of water) will chill 3 gallons of wort about 130 degrees F, pretty close to pitch temperature.

 

[stumpie]

As your boil phase is over, sanitation should be of great concern. I'd be worried about the water quality. Bagged Ice is commonly made from chlorinated, impure water using non-sanitary equipment. At best, RO filtered water is still being frozen in a commercial freezer that has probably never seen a sanitation rinse.

 

[Screech]

Ok. Hopefully my first brew is fine. I was just wondering for the next. I have definitely learned quite a bit from this brew and will be doing alot of things different next time.

Kevin

 

[stumpie]

Thats what shoe tying's all about.

 

[bkl63]

I boil water a few days before, cool over night and put into a Sanatized Corny Keg and chill it to 38° in my kegerator. With this and a Wort Chiller I cool in under 10 mins. Brew 3 gallons and add a 4th to the kettle of this cold water and fill to 5 in the fermentor, stir and airate and pitch the Yeast. First batch was an ice bath and took 30 mins to chill.

 

[kevokie]

I do not work for an ice company, nor do I know anyone who works for an ice company. However, seeing as we humans use ice for consumption, I would not imagine the sanitary conditions in an ice manufacturing facility would be so bad that we wouldn't be able to use in our beer. After all we put it in our water or pop, which could be full of sugar...ya know food for yeast and bacteria. I really think that if It were unsanitary and unfit to put in beer, that company would no longer exist. That's just me thinking out loud.

 

[FlyDoctor]

This logic is flawed, since use added to soda only sits there for ? Minutes - not long enough for microbial growth to be a real issue, and anything we put in our stomachs is immediately sterilized due to stomach acid. So I don think one can assume that something meant for human consumption is sterile enough to dump into wort

 

[kevokie]

Well, I understand what you mean, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it is sterilized when it hits the stomach acid, otherwise nobody would ever get food poisoning.

Back on topic, use clean ice. That being said, you can never be certain what someone else is making. Make your own ice using your own sanitary techniques and you should be fine.

 

[scurry64]

Is it any safer to put a a 25' to 50' coil of cooper, or stainless steel into your wort than a 7 lb. bag of ice?

I can't calculate the surface area of a standard wort cooler, but it is significant, that's why they are effective. I have a hard time believing that their is more "bad stuff" in a bag of ice, than there is hidden between all those coils.

 

[CykoAGR]

Is it any safer to put a a 25' to 50' coil of cooper, or stainless steel into your wort than a 7 lb. bag of ice?

I can't calculate the surface area of a standard wort cooler, but it is significant, that's why they are effective. I have a hard time believing that their is more "bad stuff" in a bag of ice, than there is hidden between all those coils.

Your point would have merit if people didnt boil their chiller for 10-15 min during the last of the boil. This process kills any bacteria on the chiller because of the temp, ie a built in sanitizing process. You could try adding ice the last 15 min of the boil and see what happens . . .

 

[JonK331]

Your freezer has tons of bacteria blowing around in it. Don't make your own ice. You can however, buy that expensive alhambra ice and use that. I used to do it all the time back when I was doing partial boils with extract. Even better though is to buy a gallon of spring water from the grocery store and freeze it a couple days in advance (it takes a while). Then when you are ready to chill, sanitize the whole container, then cut off the plastic with a sanitized razor blade (be very careful), you might have to break the ice in the handle of the jug to get it out. This works very well and there's no danger of contamination.

 

[scurry64]

You've seen my freezer? Creepy.

 

[JonK331]

You've seen my freezer? Creepy.

Everyone's freezer smart guy