Why not use ice to cool wort?

[Marius]

I've done it several times, sanitize an hermetic plastic 0'5 litre box (don't know how this is called in English) an fill it with bottled water. Freeze it night before brewing. If you can't get your temps down fast enough it's a good solution. I stopped using this but just because now i don't need to do it.

 

[Brewkowski]

If you're dumping the ice in right at the end of the boil, the water is about 200F, how much of any bacteria is on the surface of the ice? If you're killing bacteria at 180 or so I would think that by the time the ice melts and the water is cool the surface bacteria has been killed???

 

[The Soft Underbelly]

Man y'all have me convinced, i'll try ive directly in my wort next time out. Took me 45 min in an ice bath to cool my beer today. Which i poured directly onto some ice mountain water which was in my carboy. Why not ice i say!!

It'll be a small batch...

 

[duskb]

Okay, I get that ice from the factory is an unknown. What I am still wondering is why is it that I may safely pour water from my tap into the fermenter, but I should not use ice from my own tap. The same tap that I would use to top off the fermenter.

I do full boils. BUT, for a 5.25 gal recipe why not boil down to 5 gallons or so and add a quart of ice to get the wort down from the 80's or 90's to a nice pitching temp?

I'm not trying to debate something that has already been hashed out. I am just trying to understand what is the problem with pitching homemade ice.

I don't use tap water, hence why I wouldn't use "frozen" tap water. I suppose in some municipalities you can get away with it, but ultimately your beer is only going to be as good as your water. I can't understand why someone would go to all the effort that brewing requires just to cheap out on the main ingredient. Seems counter-productive to me.

I'm not saying it wouldn't work but I'm sure if one A/B'd a beer made with filtered water versus the typical tap crap you'd notice a difference. Hell, that's what Coors bases their entire value of their name on...it certainly isn't the taste.

I personally pull my water from my fridge door which has a filter on it. I have never topped my beer off with tap water.

YMMV

 

[trailblazer]

idea:

put an unopened gallon jug of water into your freezer till its about to freeze....


when its nice and cold (after your boil) pour it into your wort

3 gallon boil + two gallons 35 degree water = pitching temp ( possibly)

 

[gator_brewer]

idea:

put an unopened gallon jug of water into your freezer till its about to freeze....


when its nice and cold (after your boil) pour it into your wort

3 gallon boil + two gallons 35 degree water = pitching temp ( possibly)

I use this method and it works fine.... I do a single ice bath (single as in I only added ice once and once it all melts I move one to step two)

Basically I add my water to the freezer before I turn on the stove for the seeping grains.

Once everything is finished, I put the pot in an ice bath and stir the **** out of it to aerate and speed up cooling.

Once the ice bath is hot, I add a gal of freezing water to the pot, one to the bucket... add pot to bucket... stir more... and my temps are usually in pitching range.


But to stay on topic, the answer seems to be, don't use store bought ice, make it yourself in sealed tupperware and you'll be fine.

 

[Talloak]

When I was doing extract, I would boil my top off water a day ahead of time, then put it in the freezer in gallon jugs. Then I would bring it to about 35 degrees or so to top off. Worked great. But now I do allgrain with full boils, so no topping off.

 

[ElPresidente77]

I've been doing the ice thing for quite a while now with no issues. The only problem I've found is that pouring it over 1 bag of ice in a 5 gallon buckect. Just melts your ice real fast and doesn't really bring the wort down in temp enough. What I have found to be more effective is when you use a carboy as a fermenter you put the ice in your funnel and pour over the ice. This cools wort much faster.

Although my new wort chiller came today. So, no more ice for me.

 

[rico567]

It's not sanitary, and I don't do it. OTOH, I do full boils and use a wort chiller, so I don't really need to, either. That being said, last Tuesday I attended a brew session as guest where the brewer was doing exactly what is stated in the OP- adding ice to top up & chill. I've had this guy's beer before, and it's OK. My guess is it's one of those things that will work for them......until it doesn't.