Wort Ice Cubes? Any problems?

[SKMO]

I do about half partial and half full grain mashes. There are a lot of times I need to reduce the heat of something, maybe a mash, maybe a wort boil, maybe a yeast starter, maybe a boil I need to get to pitching temp quick and could use another gallon of volume but don't want to lose gravity, whatever. If I have thought ahead I might have some boiled and frozen water which might work, but which will reduce the SG of whatever I am playing with.

Is there a problem with making ahead of time a simple mash or extract boil to say 1.040 SG, and freezing a bit of it in sanitized containers, like large ice cube sized up to maybe 8 ounce blocks? That way when I need to lose some temp in something I can toss in a cube or block of sterile ice "wort".

Would the freezing of the wort, after a hot break, mess it up? Basically it seems like I commonly have the need to lose some temp for various reasons, and wondered if pre-boiled converted sugars, frozen in a sanitized condition, make sense.

Thnx

 

[devilishprune]

If you have extract on hand, why go through the trouble? Just boil some up in a gallon of water to get you to your recommend gravity and you'll be set.

 

[SKMO]

If you have extract on hand, why go through the trouble? Just boil some up in a gallon of water to get you to your recommend gravity and you'll be set.

I guess I did not explain that well. I need cold, i.e. ice at times, to get something down to temp.

I can and do boil extract, grain, honey, etc and add it to the total volume. If the heat won't hurt I add it warm or hot, pasturized.

My question was can I add frozen fermentables if and when I need 1) lower temps and/or 2) more sugars and/or 3) more volume without reducing SG.

Everything does not always work out perfectly for me. Say I end up a half gallon short and a little warm to pitch, and do not want to drag out and re-sanitize the immersion cooler. Could I not toss in a clean 1/2 gal block of 1.040 I made and froze a month prior?

Or if the cold would not hurt and I just needed a bit more volume at this SG, it seems like a quick and easy way to do it. ??

 

[dzlater]

If it's the mash just use cold water or ice. You won't be lowering the gravity, you will just have less sparge water, or may need to boil a bit longer.
If it's a starter just let it sit a while longer or put it in an ice bath.
As far as the boil check the preboil gravity, and you can then figure out how much to boil off to hit the target OG. If you need to boil off more and you won't get the volume you want, you can add the make up water and add some DME, or sugar to make up the gravity.
I guess you could add some frozen wort but I would think it needs to be boiled.