plastic chill panels

[Dr. Fedwell]

I am a caterer and have Plastic chill panels for soups, sauces, etc. They are a blue heavy hard food grade plastic ( I think PET) that you fill with water and freeze. You immerse and stir. Other than airborne contamination ( my pot is tall enough to insert the chill panel with the lid on), if properly sanitised, would this work.

 

[Nurmey]

I've been thinking about the same thing. I figured I would have to give it a dip in sanitizer before using it to cool the wert but it should speed things up a lot. I just haven't gotten down to the supplier to get one. Hope someone with some experience using them will chime in.

 

[Bobby_M]

If you're talking about a 5 gallon full boil, I don't think it will get you to pitching temps as the ice will all melt and warm before that happens. If you combine it with an ice bath you might be ok. Of course, you'll have to sanitize it and have room in the pot for the rising wort level. I know Superior Products stocks them but they are really pricey.

 

[EdWort]

Sounds interesting, but I think it would crack the first time you lowered one into 200+ degree wort. I don't think it could handle the thermal shock and rapid change of temp.

 

[Bobby_M]

Ed, They're actually designed for chilling soups and sauces in restaurants to get them out of the danger zone quickly. I'd suspect they'd handle the 200F area ok. The price gets you pretty close to a copper chiller though.

http://www.superprod.com/webapp/wcs...Id=804828&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=250511

 

[EdWort]

Cool! No pun intended!

 

[DAAB]

If you dip them in sanitizer, wont you get a layer of sanitizer frost over the panel ?

 

[C.O.]

How big are these things? I'd be worried about displacing too much of the wort and having a messy spill-over.

 

[mrk305]

I use a Juicy Juice bottle filled with ice, so why not. I santatize them for a couple minutes in a cooler filled with Idophor solution.

 

[Dr. Fedwell]

Thank you for your input. I have done it and the thing has never cracked. I use ice outside the pot as well, and have been able to bring my extract brews up to a full boil volume. But, now it is off to start collecting my gear for all grain brewing. Not so easy on an island with high shipping charges. Thank everyone here for their knowledge.

 

[PseudoChef]

I have 4, 1/2 gal milk containers that I have filled with water and frozen. I dip these in Star San and drop them in the wort once my chiller gets the wort to 100-90 degrees or so. Haven't had an infection or anything yet, and it definitely speeds up the latter stage of the cooling process.