Cooling on the cheap

[wyreforestred]

Already at the limit of what I can spend on my hobby for the time being and keep my wife!! Welcome to home brewing I suppose! But I really want a way to quickly chill the wort without buying a chiller or even the gubbins needed to make one and fit it to my taps. Is there any reason why, once the temperature has come down from the boil, I couldn’t plonk a couple of 2 litre pop bottles full of frozen water into my stock pan? I use them all the time on camping trips, as long as the temperature is low enough to not melt them it should be ok to bring the wort temperature down shouldn’t it?

 

[MyQul]

No you can do this. I used to do it before I started doing no chill. But you'll need to sanitise them

 

[wyreforestred]

No you can do this. I used to do it before I started doing no chill. But you'll need to sanitise them

Many thanks. Just need to negotiate my freezer space now then!

 

[Clint]

Look on the forum...there’s a draw for a free chiller...gotta be in it to win it!

 

[carljbray]

I had to put mine in the bath the other day!

 

[AXW123]

I freeze boiled water in sanitised boxes and chuck them in like big ice cubes. My BIAB pan isn’t that big so my wort is always concentrated and needs diluting. Works fine for me.

 

[wyreforestred]

Many thanks all. This reassured me that I can keep brewing cheaply, without the need of a wort chiller, for a few months yet. It’s easy to look on here and on homebrew websites and come to the conclusion that it costs a fortune..... I simply don’t have the cash. I’ll keep brewing in small batches with what I’ve got until Santa comes..... or I win that competition!

 

[BradleyW]

I freeze boiled water in sanitised boxes and chuck them in like big ice cubes. My BIAB pan isn’t that big so my wort is always concentrated and needs diluting. Works fine for me.

I was just about to ask if this was feasible! Nice one

 

[Druss]

I use a few of those freezable gel pack things for cool boxes and chuck them in the kitchen sink full of water and let them float around outside the immersed pan of wort.
Works pretty well, only takes a couple of sink fulls to get it down to fermentation temp.