chilling wort with ice

[regidoug]

I read once not to use ice to chill wort. What if I boil the water first, sterilize a plastic milk jug, then freeze? After my boil I could cut the jug open and drop in the ice. If I don't want to add water to the wort, I could just freeze a gallon of water in a milk jug, then before I'm finished boiling the wort, sterilize the exterior of the jug by submerging it into clorine and cold water for 20 minutes, rinse and dunk the whole thing the hot wort. I have a wort chiller, but my water is metered and it seems like a whole lot of water goes down the drain in 20 or 30 minutes.

[larin1477]

Hello and welcome!
Ive never done it myself (although it sounds like a good idea)...there are a few here who have mentioned that very thing...as long as you sterilize the jug...and boil the water you should be good...

[wortchillergoal]

Your way would be cheaper but there is a tool made for such use. Cook/Chill operations use a container desinged to be filled with water and frozen. It is made in such a way that it offers a handle to hold as you stir the pot. You can find them at restaurant suplly houses.

[SirVeza]

Hi,

It's ok to use ice to chill your wort and I have done so for years. A few words of caution will be in order.

Don't use plastic jugs or soda bottles to make ice. The ice must come from the inside (the sanitized part) and they are hard to open and difficult to handle. Rememer that your freezer is a most unsanitary place!

I do this for stove-top extract brews. I boil up a gallon of water and cool to near room temperature. Then I put it into heavy-duty freezer bags, zip-lok kind. Freeze them about 1 quart (1 litre) size is good.

When I want to chill my wort, I complete my boil tasks, and place the pot in the sink with running water. Before I put the pot in, I put a plastic bottle cap into the drain to slow the water flow. I then run the cold water and put my pot in. I adjust the flow rate of cold water to match the drain with my plastic cap holding back the flow.

I then open the pot lid and slip the ice blocks into the wort, being careful not to let the plastic bags or my fingers touch the wort. The plastic bag goes to the wayside while another ice block goes in. In about 1 minute out of the freezer the bags are ready to lose the ice, not to worry.

As long as your ice is made from sanitized/sterilized water and your bags are clean on the inside, your ice is clean. If your hands are washed and you handle the ice, no big deal.

Stir with your thermometer and enjoy the cooling effect on your wort. You should see your cold break and then you can get excited.

Cheers,

Dan Carol
Homebrewing In The Philippines (http://homebrewinghobby.blogspot.com/)

[c8h10n4o2]

I'm not sure if it is considered "the way" to go or not, but I've been using ice for over a year. Thus far I've had no problems. Fanatical brewers may one day tell me my brew tastes off but to this point I've received nothing but "give me more" from those who have tasted my brew.

At this point, I've done all 3 below & #3 tops it all off:
1) Set wart in a sink of ice.
2) Double wart chiller (first ring sits in a bucket of ice water as in TX our tap water is about 90 deg).
3) Gallon of frozen water as described below.


I purchase gallon jugs of filtered water @ the grocery store and freeze the entire bottle. When I'm reaching the end of my boil, I have a 5 gallon bucket of idopher solution I'm using to sterilize my stirrer, funnel, sharp knife, etc. I drop the water bottle in the idopher & let it sit about 10 minutes. This serves 2 purposes: 1) thaw the water from the side of the milk jug & 2) sterilize the jug. I then use the sterilized knife to cut open the jug and just let the ice drop straight into the brew. It drops the temp down faster than my wart chiller ever did and doesn't drive up my water bill.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by c8h10n4o2
I'm not sure if it is considered "the way" to go or not, but I've been using ice for over a year. Thus far I've had no problems. Fanatical brewers may one day tell me my brew tastes off but to this point I've received nothing but "give me more" from those who have tasted my brew.

At this point, I've done all 3 below & #3 tops it all off:
1) Set wart in a sink of ice.
2) Double wart chiller (first ring sits in a bucket of ice water as in TX our tap water is about 90 deg).
3) Gallon of frozen water as described below.


I purchase gallon jugs of filtered water @ the grocery store and freeze the entire bottle. When I'm reaching the end of my boil, I have a 5 gallon bucket of idopher solution I'm using to sterilize my stirrer, funnel, sharp knife, etc. I drop the water bottle in the idopher & let it sit about 10 minutes. This serves 2 purposes: 1) thaw the water from the side of the milk jug & 2) sterilize the jug. I then use the sterilized knife to cut open the jug and just let the ice drop straight into the brew. It drops the temp down faster than my wart chiller ever did and doesn't drive up my water bill.

I have expounded a similar process that I used, only I boiled water & frozen them in large tubs. Note that I swithced to a CFC when I began all grain brewing, this works only for extract & mini-mashing.

[EBW]

Originally posted by c8h10n4o2
I'm not sure if it is considered "the way" to go or not, but I've been using ice for over a year. Thus far I've had no problems. Fanatical brewers may one day tell me my brew tastes off but to this point I've received nothing but "give me more" from those who have tasted my brew.

At this point, I've done all 3 below & #3 tops it all off:
1) Set wart in a sink of ice.
2) Double wart chiller (first ring sits in a bucket of ice water as in TX our tap water is about 90 deg).
3) Gallon of frozen water as described below.


I purchase gallon jugs of filtered water @ the grocery store and freeze the entire bottle. When I'm reaching the end of my boil, I have a 5 gallon bucket of idopher solution I'm using to sterilize my stirrer, funnel, sharp knife, etc. I drop the water bottle in the idopher & let it sit about 10 minutes. This serves 2 purposes: 1) thaw the water from the side of the milk jug & 2) sterilize the jug. I then use the sterilized knife to cut open the jug and just let the ice drop straight into the brew. It drops the temp down faster than my wart chiller ever did and doesn't drive up my water bill.


I do mine almost exactly this way too. The only difference is that I agitate the ice water on the outside of my kettle with a large spoon and I also agitate the wort inside the kettle with a sterilized whisk. By agitating I have found that the outer cooling bath keeps cool water arround the entire submerged part of the kettle surface and not just at the bottom. In addition to this, by agitating the wort with a spoon I end up cooling the entire solution faster and I blend in some of the oxygen that is needed by the yeast for the respiration cycle.

Just make sure that you account for the extra ammount of water you add to the batch in the form of ice, or your beer will be weaker than you expected.

I have done this for my last five beers and have had great results. I have even won 1st place at my town's local brewoff using this method. In addition to this, my beer is very clear and clean with no chill haze. In addition, I also use Irish moss in all of my beers which also helps alot.

Mind you, I have only done extract brews this way.

[untothee]

I too do the frozen gallon of filtered water.
If I forget, and most of the time do, to put one in the freezer I have a frozen Gatorade bottle full of water always in there.
So an ice bath with the Gatorade bottle in the pot. Works nicely. And the bottle won't go "pop" from the heat like a water, soda bottle or the like since it's a heavier plastic.

[MmmBeer]

I used to do this. It worked really well; I used 1 and 3 gallon tupperware containers that I would sanitize, put the (sanitized) lid on and pop in the freezer ( store filtered or pre-boiled). If you leave them out of the freezer for like 3 minutes the globe of ice slides right out. Kind of miss this since I truly feel like it was easier than having to clean my wortchiller after every use. That being said it takes a little more forethought because if you don't stick them in the feezer--you're waiting to brew another day.