wort chiller

[mountain beer]

Does anyone now how to chill the wort without using the copper tubing. I have been keeping the wort in the brewpot and putting it outside. I live in PA so it is pretty cold here. I am looking for an easy way to chill the wort. any suggestions?

[BigIndieBeerMan]

Last summer some friends of mine and I brewed up a batch of ale. For reasons of space we did it in a friend's garage. To cool down our wort we used a big wheelbarrow filled with ice and water staight from the hose. We just stuck the kettle right in the middle of the ice bath. It probably wasn't the fastest way, but it cooled down the brew sufficiently. I hope this helps.

[toneyc]

OK, I know I'm gonna get it for this, but what I have taken to doing is buying a couple of 8 lb bags of ice and dumping one and a half of them into the 2.5-3 gallons of hot wort. Brings the temp down to about 75 in 5 minutes. My thoughts are that the ice has to be made from reasonably pure water or they couldn't sell it for food purposes so it should not be bad for the beer. I have only done this for the last two batches, but they have turned out very well. I have tried the wort chiller and the ice-in-the-bathtub methods and neither have left me very pleased. This method seems both logical and fast and so far has not caused me problems. I would like feedback if you don't feel this is a safe method.

:) Toney.

[BigIndieBeerMan]

Originally posted by toneyc
OK, I know I'm gonna get it for this, but what I have taken to doing is buying a couple of 8 lb bags of ice and dumping one and a half of them into the 2.5-3 gallons of hot wort. Brings the temp down to about 75 in 5 minutes. My thoughts are that the ice has to be made from reasonably pure water or they couldn't sell it for food purposes so it should not be bad for the beer. I have only done this for the last two batches, but they have turned out very well. I have tried the wort chiller and the ice-in-the-bathtub methods and neither have left me very pleased. This method seems both logical and fast and so far has not caused me problems. I would like feedback if you don't feel this is a safe method.

:) Toney.

Toney,
On a recent episode of the tv program "Good Eats" (airing on the food network) the host brewed a batch of beer. He used the a similar method. I think he used one bag of ice and a pint of bottled water, but I could be mistaken. It seems if it weren't safe it wouldn't have been endorsed on a cable television show.

[Aleman]

Most authorities advise against adding anything to the wort once it drops below 120 degrees or so. Bacterial contamination is a big risk for you using this procedure. My start in brewing avoided this advise and bad things did happen. I use an immersion wort chiller and it works well for me. I brew full 5 1/2 gallons batches and can cool it in 25 minutes with an immersion chiller.

I am considering adding a pre-chiller that sits in a pale of ice water before going to the chiller in the brewpot. This should reduce cooling time to 15 minutes or so. At least here in Sunny Southern California.

[BigIndieBeerMan]

Thanks for that tip about adding ice and water to the wort. I'm surprised a cooking show endorsed the practice if it's not such a good idea. Oh well, just goes to prove you can't believe everything you see on T.V.

[mountain beer]

Thanks for all the replies---I decided to put my brew pot into the sink filled with ice and water. It seemed to work pretty good. It worked out a lot better than when I first started brewing. I put the hot wort into the glass carboy. I then put water into the carboy and put it on ice---it cracked the carboy in half----3 hrs of brewing down the drain.

[beerman1001001]

The ice bath method had always worked well for me, too. But when I switched to all grain a couple of years back, the ice bath was just not doing the trick for cooling a full 5 1/2 gallons of hot liquid. After a couple of all-grain batches, I got a wort chiller, and my wort chilling time went from 2-3 hours down to about 15 minutes.

Another thing I've heard about, but never tried, is freezing water in a couple of 2-liter soda bottles, and washing them thoroughly with b-brite or PBW before throwing them in the wort.

[newsomer]

" . . . Oxygen is both your friend and your enemy. It is important to understand when which is which.

You should not aerate when the wort is hot, or even warm. Aeration of hot wort will cause the oxygen to chemically bind to various wort compounds . . ."

Dumping ice into the hot/warm wort can have bad effects too. If you are going to do this try to minimize your disturbance of the wort.

Above quote from the How To Brew Site (http://www.howtobrew.com/). You can find the quote [HERE (http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-9-3.html)].

[Beer Nazi]

There are many ways to chill your wort, but from personal experience, the best methods are the "beer bath" method and using a wort chiller of some sort.

I prefer using the wort chiller, It works faster than the beer bath method, even using warm table water such as found here in San Antonio, Texas.

[Bobb]

A wort chiller is worth it's weight in gold. I would not be without one!!!!

[MrBrewEsq]

Re: Chillers

I have used both an emertion chiller, and a counterflow chiller. Both I have been made from about 25 feet of 3/8 copper tubeing.

The emertion chiller works, but requires gently moving the wort past the chiller to get better efficiency. If snaitation is a concern with an emertion chiller, clean it good, spray it down with sanitizer, (I like to rinse it off) then just drop it into your brew pot the last 5 minutes of your boil. That will sanitize it.

The counterflow chiller was made from again, 25 feet of 3/8 copper inside a 3/4 inch ID garden hose. The wort is passed inside the copper, with cold tap water running through the garden hose in the opposite direction of the wort flow. I can chill 10 gallons from near boiling wort to 70F in about 20 minutes. Remember with the counterflow chiller you have to flush the chiller out with hot water after each use, and run some sanitizer through it prior to your next use.

I have brewed Lots of beer with my system and no problems so fare (knock on wood).

[billy frank]

I was under the impression that boiling the wort knocks excess oxgen out of the solution, so it seems that just adding ice would introduce a bit more oxygen. I know that goes against basic chemistry theory as two hydrogens and one oxygen make one water molecule, but oxygen can be absorbed in excess in a regular water solution. I don't know how much oxygen can be stored in ice, must be a question for the chemist's. I myself use an immersion chiller, and it works fine.
Billy

[drstandley]

Mountain Beer - "I put the hot wort into the glass carboy. I then put water into the carboy and put it on ice---it cracked the carboy in half".

Don't take this the wrong way, I'm laughing with you. I was cracking up when I started reading your post. You put boiling hot wort in glass and stuck it in ice water. :)

I have a wort chiller and love it. It takes 25 to 30 minutes to cool down. I do add my water first to make sure I've got 5 gallons, then use the wort chiller. That 25 to 30 minutes gives me just the right amount of time to drink a beer, and clean the stove up a bit.
Wort Chillers cost about $35, so I found it a reasonable choice.