Wort Chiller or Ice Bath?

[The_Fif]

I'm about to brew my first batch, and am trying to figure out some of the basics. Is a wort chiller a must, or can I get by with an ice bath?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[smalliewader]

You can get by with ice, a wort chiller just makes things so much easier.

 

[unionrdr]

An ice bath will do the job just fine in 30-45 minutes on average. A wort chiller is a bit quicker,but a "rib cage" chiller is said to be even faster. Greater cooling area from the doubled up coils. Here's a video I found on them;
I was thinking of making the rib cage chiller myself.

 

[doublebogey10]

FWIW...
I just did my first batch and kept pretty thorough notes throughout the process. When I scan my notes and get to the wort-chilling process, I have: "Ice bath is slowly getting the temperature down ... WORT CHILLER MAY BECOME NECESSITY!"

 

[JonK331]

Chiller is definitely better. Check out this thread though, another good option if you're doing partial boils: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/wort-cooling-ice-262909/

 

[twelvelookslikex]

Ice bath and adding cold water cools mine down in less than 10 min. I do Half boils

 

[Hefanatic]

I have found that with a 3 gallon boil, 12 pounds of ice gets me to 75 degrees. I start with about 10 lbs and put it directly in my primary when I pour in the wort and stir vigorously. I then add more until I hit my target temp. I top off with room temperature filtered water to 5 gallons and pitch my yeast. This has worked really well for me and it takes less that ten minutes. It also helps aerate the wort really well before pitching. Make sure you get ice from a trustworthy source to avoid contamination.

 

[The_Fif]

I only have a 5 gallon kettle. Will I be able to get by using the kitchen sink when doing an ice bath, or should I use something else? Thanks a bunch for the tips, the brewing community seems pretty awesome.

 

[unionrdr]

I use a 5G (20QT) ss stock pot myself,& it just fits the kitchen sink for ice baths. Just make sure you buy the large bag of ice. I've gotten the wort down to 67F in 30 minutes or so that way. But I'm still going to do a video for my new series on making a rib cage chiller. They're suppose to be pretty fast. Less hassle to me...

 

[WhiskeyR]

I do a partial boil and just put a 2.5 gallon Ozarca spring water bottle in the freezer before I start brewing.

Then I use a sponge in the sink to slow the drain of water and put the kettle in a water bath. I keep adding more cold water from the faucet to the sink. As the temperature goes down I then start adding ice.

I get down to about 100 pretty quickly, then pour the wort in the fermenter. Then I add the water from the freezer, which brings it down to 65 or so.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Ice bath will work fine for batches 5 gal and less IMO. Unless you have a lot of ice, i feel it is very helpful to chill once or twice with just tap water. Tap water will knock down the temp from boil pretty quickly, and then use the ice. If you use the ice immediately, there is a good chance your ice may disappear prior to a full chill. Another note, w/ warm summer tap water, even an IC will not bring you down to pitching temps...say 65.

 

[Jamminjoenapo]

An ice bath will do the job just fine in 30-45 minutes on average. A wort chiller is a bit quicker,but a "rib cage" chiller is said to be even faster. Greater cooling area from the doubled up coils. Here's a video I found on them;
I was thinking of making the rib cage chiller myself.

Any rib cage chiller will be just as efficient as a normal one with the same diameter tube and length of tube. Where most of the faster perceptions come in is probably due to it being more spread out in the wort. If you don't stir while cooling down the rib cage style will be faster, though if you stir the wort it should be even faster than just leaving it.

 

[unionrdr]

Well,that's the thing;the rib cage chiller looks to use twice the length of tubing to achieve the desired shape. The one in the video shows this. Using the same length as the single coil would've made the rib cage one much smaller than it was. Where the single coil would use 25',the rib cage would fit 50' in the same space,being doubled up.

 

[Jamminjoenapo]

Well,that's the thing;the rib cage chiller looks to use twice the length of tubing to achieve the desired shape. The one in the video shows this. Using the same length as the single coil would've made the rib cage one much smaller than it was. Where the single coil would use 25',the rib cage would fit 50' in the same space,being doubled up.

You should be able to fit 50' worth of 3/8" copper in a single coil (mine is that way), but yes double the surface area would roughly make it twice as efficient. Heat transfer unfortunately isn't that easy, but for brewing round numbers are more than adequate.

 

[unionrdr]

Well,the small ones I've seen can't be more than 25' or so. so I figured his was so big that it had to be 50-60'. I'll have to watch it again. But for my 5G BK,that length should work great for a partial boil. The faster it chills down,the more protein break is had,& the less chill haze is encountered.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I only have a 5 gallon kettle. Will I be able to get by using the kitchen sink when doing an ice bath, or should I use something else? Thanks a bunch for the tips, the brewing community seems pretty awesome.

Kitchen sink is fine....a huge tub might be better but the sink will work..

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

Definitely go with a wort cooler, once you've used one you'll know why. No need to have a bunch of ice handy whenever you decide to brew and they work even faster during the colder months of the year.

 

[Beezy]

Ice bath will work fine for batches 5 gal and less IMO. Unless you have a lot of ice, i feel it is very helpful to chill once or twice with just tap water. Tap water will knock down the temp from boil pretty quickly, and then use the ice. If you use the ice immediately, there is a good chance your ice may disappear prior to a full chill. Another note, w/ warm summer tap water, even an IC will not bring you down to pitching temps...say 65.

Thats what I do. Have done 5 full boil chills this way. Dreaming of a chiller tho.

 

[BigTerp]

I've only used a wort chiller. 25' of 1/2" copper. Works great for me. I have COLD tap water (deep well). I brewed on Saturday in 90 degree temperatures and my tap water was at 64 degrees. Brought my boiling wort down to 70 degrees in about 12 minutes and didn't have buy ice and deal with all that mess. If your tap water is warmer you can only cool your wort to the temperature of your tap water. Something to consider.

 

[BetterSense]

I cool my 5 gallon aluminum kettle by setting it in a trashcan with water and ice. It cools off to 20C in less than a half hour, with absolutely no stirring, which is fast enough for me, and it causes a really nice cold break with all the solids clumping up nicely. I've considered a chiller, but with Texas's 28C tap water, plus the price of copper, I think I will just stick with the ice method since I really like the cold break I get and it's less equipment to store and clean.

 

[MikeyLXT]

If u are sound a full boil then a wort chiller is a necessity for most. If u are doing partial boils u can add ice directly to the wort and cool it very fast.

 

[cheezydemon3]

I put a gallon or so of ice from my ice maker into the 4 gallons of wort. Cools it in 5 minutes or so. Never had any infection or off flavors and beers clear fantastically.

 

[Beezy]

This is where I think I am going to make a pre-chiller. I can get 20 feet of copper pretty cheap but I don't think that's enough for the chiller itself.

 

[MikeyLXT]

This is one time that it is nice having cold well water.

 

[TopherM]

I did a group brew two Saturdays ago with a guy that has a immersion chiller. It took him 25 minutes to chill his wort to 80 with his IC. It took me 18 minutes in an ice bath.

Here's my secret: I bought my propane burner in a turkey fryer kit. It came with a 7.5 gallon aluminum pot. This pot is WAYYYY to thin to use as a brew kettle, but because it is so thin and made of aluminum, which conducts temperture like crazy, it is an asset in the ice bath.

So I go through a normal brew day in my 11 gallon SS brew kettle, then I transfer it to the 7.5 gallon aluminum just for the ice bath. Cools almost twice as fast as it would in the SS pot.

 

[Beezy]

I did a group brew two Saturdays ago with a guy that has a immersion chiller. It took him 25 minutes to chill his wort to 80 with his IC. It took me 18 minutes in an ice bath.

Here's my secret: I bought my propane burner in a turkey fryer kit. It came with a 7.5 gallon aluminum pot. This pot is WAYYYY to thin to use as a brew kettle, but because it is so thin and made of aluminum, which conducts temperture like crazy, it is an asset in the ice bath.

So I go through a normal brew day in my 11 gallon SS brew kettle, then I transfer it to the 7.5 gallon aluminum just for the ice bath. Cools almost twice as fast as it would in the SS pot.

I use one of those pots for boiling as well. Not sure why it would be too thin to brew with. Works just fine for me. In fact when I buy a new pot I will probably just buy a bigger thin aluminum one. They would suck to mash in for sure but I use a cooler.

 

[The_Fif]

Thanks for the tips everyone. Definitely going to invest in a wort chiller; my first batch was pretty frustrating. My sink sprung a leak, I dropped the thermometer in the wort, and it took almost 30 minutes for it to get cool enough.

 

[ajosin]

This little app should tell you the exact amount of ice to use depending on the brew-day situation...

http://myplace.frontier.com/~jenlbreva/WortChillJApplet.html

Let me know of any feedback
PS - If the applet does not have the right size or does not draw itself properly, try zooming in and out of the page (Ctrl + Mouse Wheel). I can work on the applet if people are actually using it (let me know)