Wort boil directly to ice?

[brandonp22]

Is there a drawback to pouring the wort boil directly into my primary fermenter which is full of ice to help chill the wort??? Then to top off, pour necessary amount of water to fill to 5 gallons.

 

[9/9]

I have read about people doing that, but make sure that you don't use bagged ice from the store. Not very sanitary.

 

[brandonp22]

Bagged ice is not sanitary? If I have 2 gallons of wort boil and then add 3 gallons of fridge chilled water, will my temp fall easily enough in order to pitch?

 

[Bearcat Brewmeister]

Depends on where the ice is from. If it was from boiled water that was not exposed while in the freezer, then no problem whatsoever. In most other cases, it is probably not an issue as well since many bugs that could be in the ice are killed when frozen for a while. That said, it is many and not all of the bugs that are killed when freezing and a lot of folks do not want to take the chance. Plus if it is bagged ice from the store, you don't know what is in it.

On the other hand, you have to weigh those risks against how well you can protect your wort in a slower cool down. My opinion would be to cover the wort to protect it immediately after shut off and use the ice as an external ice bath to chill the wort down, then use sterilized water to top off.

 

[Funkenjaeger]

If I have 2 gallons of wort boil and then add 3 gallons of fridge chilled water, will my temp fall easily enough in order to pitch?

No. 2 gallons at boiling added to 3 gallons at 35F would only get you down to about 106F. You would need to cool the wort to around 120F before adding to the chilled water to get the final temp below 70F.

You can cool the wort right in the brew pot by submerging it in a sink full of cold water. It can be pretty slow to get you all the way to pitching temp, but in this case where you would only need to get down to 120F, it might take a more reasonable amount of time.

 

[Dinbin]

I cool my wort in a cold ice-water bath in the sink. After about 10 mins i change the water and give the wort stir with my sanitary beer spoon. another 10 mins with the lid on and I mix the wort with 3 gal of bottle drinking water that i have chilled in the fridge for a few hours. Its slower then a wort chiller but I can usualy pitch 20-30 mins after taking the pot of the flame.

 

[sirsloop]

You would need to get that 3gallons of ice down to about -10-15°F in order to cool 2 gallons of 212° water down to 78°.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Everyone complains about bagged ice being unsanitary, but the reality is that it works. I did it...twice. My beer was fine. Try it. If your beer gets infected, don't do it again. IMHO, everyone is making much ado about nothing.

 

[2pugbrews]

I had a question something like this a while back. Someone warned against pouring hot wort into cold or icy water. Causes an undesirable phenomenon called "Hot Side Aeration" and suggested I do a search on that term. I did and decided not to do it.

 

[DRAGGER]

I do it on a regular basis with bagged ice..... I have cleaned and sanitized gallon milk jugs filled them with water froze them..... When ready beat them with a hammer cut off the top and pour the ice chunks into the bucket...... Works GREAT.....

DRAGGER.....

 

[HP_Lovecraft]

Before I built an IC, I would use bottled water to "top off". Many hours before I would put the 2-3 gallons in the freezer to get it as cold as possible.

This method worked perfectly fine for rapid chilling for me, though my books say that this will still oxidize the beer.

Nick

 

[mrk305]

My LHBS has a class every couple months teaching extract with steeping grains. They use a bagged ice and top off with water, so that is how I learned. For several months I would use all the ice out of my ice maker (which sometimes pissed off my wife) and got away with it without any infections. I probably made 20 batches that way.

I don't think the owner of my LHBS has ever made an all grain batch. He was asking me how I have converted my cooler.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I had a question something like this a while back. Someone warned against pouring hot wort into cold or icy water. Causes an undesirable phenomenon called "Hot Side Aeration" and suggested I do a search on that term. I did and decided not to do it.

HSA is a VERY overstated risk when it comes to homebrewing. It's POSSIBLE that HSA could cause long term stability problems, but I challenge you to find a homebrewer who can definitively nail down HSA as an issue with any of his brews. With the wort getting chilled almost immediately upon contacting the cold liquid, you really aren't creating HSA, anyway. HSA is most commonly encountered during the mash or during transfer to the boil kettle.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I place 4 1 gal jugs of PUR filtered tap water in the freezer for 4-5 hours prior to brewing. The temps are down to the 60's within the time it takes to top off to 5.25 gals. I've been doing it for years.

 

[Poindexter]

This topic, ahem, is searchable.

For extract brews I have used both store bought national brand ice, and I have made ice, two quarts of boiled tap water per one gallon ziploc freezer bag at a time.

My only hang up about using ice to fill out the water volume in an extract brew is make sure the bag isn't torn. Doesn't matter who made the ice. I haven't had a bad brew yet doing this.

 

[explosivebeer]

I froze a 2.5 gallon container of store-bought water for my last extract batches. I cut the container off the ice block and put it in the ale pail, carefully pouring the wort over it (watch out for splashes).

The end result was that the temperature was actually a little too LOW for the yeast I was using. I haven't done another extract batch since then but I'll probably do this again the next time I do one.

 

[mgoldey]

I think there's a worse risk of infection from adding 3+ gallons of cold water to the wort and winding up with something at 80 degrees that takes time (maybe hours) to cool down to 70 in a warm room, at which point it has to be opened to the air to add the yeast. I'd rather overshoot to 60 degrees and let the mixture warm up a bit with nothing living in it but the yeast.

I've got a couple of 1 liter seltzer bottles that I took the labels off of. The day before I brew, I fill them 3/4 with water and sanitize them with iodine solution. Then they go into the freezer. When the wort comes off the stove it goes into my primary and then the two frozen bottles go in for 5-10 minutes. That brings the wort down to 160 or so. Then, I take out the bottles and add the 3+ gallons of cold water, right out of the fridge, always gets me to pitching temperature.