Wort chilling question

[Traz1986]

I'm about to attemp my first 2 gallon brew. I have not invested in a wort chiller. Can I boil 1.25 gallons of wort an pour over .75 gallon equivalent in ice to bring the temp down. There is a lot of info scaring people about the harm of slowly reducing the wort temp. Curious if this will work in a pinch. Thanks! Jim

 

[Craftfan]

Since you are only doing a 2 gallon batch, putting the pot into a sink filed with ice water should cool it sufficiently fast. I did my first extract batch this way without issue.

 

[Furore]

There is nothing wrong with just putting the pot in an ice bath in the sink to bring the temperature down. I have never had an issue. Just be mindful of contamination. Lately I started to bring my wort down to 100 degrees and then adding it to the remainder of my water which was refrigerated and it almost always shakes out to a perfect 72. Whatever you do just don't pitch the yeast if the temp isnt right. Also dont forget to aerate your wort. RDWHAHB.

Cheers,
Furore

 

[HopHeavy]

Yes, as Craftfan says, chill the wort in an ice water bath. You will be fine. I would refrain from ever exposing wort to regular old ice. There are plenty of critters that could be harbored there and in turn cause an ugly science project.

 

[flars]

Using ice to chill the wort is acceptable if you are certain the ice contains no contaminants. A safer way to cool the wort would be placing the kettle in your sink with the ice and water surrounding the boil kettle. Gently stirring the wort will speed the cooling. Don't worry about hot side aeration. It doesn't exist on the homebrew level.

Chill some sanitary water to top off the fermentor to the recipe volume to further cool the wort to pitching temperature. Pitching temperature for most ale yeasts is in the low 60°F range.

In areas where tap water is always warm, and ice comes at a premium price, no chill brewing is practiced. The boil kettle is sealed and the yeast pitched the next day without any quality problems. The necessity of chilling the wort to prevent off flavors is sort of old school as long as you can keep the wort from being contaminated.

 

[EDF713]

I wouldn't add ice, like Craftfan says, it should be easy to cool in an ice bath. You could also do what a lot of extract brewers do and add cold spring or distilled water do it. Putting ice in it could expose your wort to whatever could have gotten into the ice in the freezer.

 

[Rockn_M]

An ice bath with about 10lbs of ice should cool sufficiently.

 

[Painter]

I have had success adding the hot wort to cold water to bring up to 5 gal, then putting it all in an ice bath. Most of my brewing is in the winter so I can get the water cold just by putting it outside for a while. We haven't had significant snow this year (really unusual for upstate NY), but in the past I have sometimes prepared my chilling tub with snow and ice in advance, molding a solid block right around a fermentation bucket.

A two gallon batch should chill very fast using the ice bath technique.

 

[koontzjr]

Ice bath and boil the full amount. My first two were 2.5 gallon batches and they cooled fairly quickly in an ice bath.

 

[tektonjp]

Save yourself some money on ice. Don't put your boiling hot kettle into an ice bath right away. First, use a regular tap water bath. That will take the initial brunt of the cooling and should take your temperature down quite a ways. Add your ice add at the end of the cooling process to bring it down to final pitching temperature. You should be able to use a lot less ice this way.