Question about cooling wort.

[mcodville]

Hey all, just finished my second extract/steeped grains brew last night. I have a question about cooling the wort after boil. My first batch I just did a straight ice bath, changing the water and ice when it started to warm up a bit. It worked good, but I felt it took a bit longer than it should have. For this second batch, I did the ice bath, but I also froze a 4L plastic milk jug full of water (scrubbed clean, soaked in star-san for the duration of my brew) and put it directly in the wort while i stirred it around. This seemed to cool the wort significantly faster when coupled with an ice bath.

My question is, in anyone's experience, has this caused any adverse effects to a batch of beer? I made sure my sanitation was top notch, as I know I am adding a foreign body to the wort after boil. I figured since you can throw a wort chiller in there after boil with no problem, as long as its clean and sanitized, how different can a frozen milk jug be.

Any input on this method would be great, I can't really afford to make/buy a wort chiller right now.

 

[unionrdr]

As long as the outside of the frozen jug was clean & sanitized right before dunking it it should be ok. I don't know about the plastic though...

 

[chickypad]

That would be the only thing I'd worry about - throwing the plastic in near boiling wort. Did you try stirring with just the ice bath? That makes a big difference.

 

[unionrdr]

I put the kettle in the sink, then fill with cold tap water to the top of the sink. Let it sit till the water gets warm. Drain, plug & fill with ice to the top of the sink first. Then top off with cold water to the top of the sink. You get more ice in there that way. Stirring the wort whirlpools the gunk & helps transfer wort heat to the kettle where the ice water can get to it. I keep a floating thermometer in mine.

 

[Spartan300man]

I'd let the wort cool a bit before dunking the milk jug in, but the HDPE should be fine. Beware that it could soften a bit and the cap could loosen.
Before using, I would recommend taking off the cap and sanitizing in the threads, and dunking the threaded part of the jug, then capping and continuing the sanitizing process.
Regarding the wort chiller, those are put into the wort for the last 15 minutes of the boil, so their sanitization is a bit different than the milk jug.

 

[aprichman]

Milk jugs are textured making it one of the worst surfaces you could use. Textured surfaces are very, very hard to sanitize. Bacteria can get into tiny "grooves" and form biofilms that would protect them from sanitizers. You are probably fine this time but I wouldn't use it again. Your best bet would be a stainless steel water bottle or something like that.

 

[jschein]

Old school,way cool. http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter7-4.html
This is how I started. Never had a problem.

 

[Ski12568]

I once threw a roll of otterpops into my wort because all my ice melted. I put it in starsan for a few seconds then into the wort. Only helped maybe a degree or two but it made me feel better... The beer turned out very good

 

[andy6026]

Lowball your water a bit and use some pre-boiled ice to top off with - add it directly to the kettle.