Cooling wort with ice?

[AJT]

Hi guys

So thinking about doing mini mash or biab but wondering how I can cool the wort without buying a wort chiller. I have seen videos of guys using ice to bring the temp down. Is it ok doing this or can this cause any issues.

As always any thoughts or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Just leave it somewhere cold, overnight

 

[honeymonster]

I think the poor mans way to do it is to freeze some 2l plastic bottles of water and place them in the hot wort.

You could leave it to cool naturally but I've read it's better to get the temp down as quick as possible.

 

[AJT]

Yeah I believe its to achieve the cold break when the proteins drop to the bottle and help to give a clearer beer.

I may try the water in the fridge.

 

[MyQul]

I do BIAB and also don't have a wort chiller, I use water and ice. I have managed to get my cooling down from two hours to one hour, which is pretty good as a wort chiller will chill wort down from boiling to pitching temp in twenty mins.

Two of the most important thing I've learned using water and Ice are

1. Don't underestimate how effective water baths are. I can't lift a full 20L pot due to my back. What I do is sit my FV in a 40L builder's trug, transfer my boiling wort to the FV then fill the trug with cold water. As soon as the water in the trug has warmed up I syphon it out and refill with cold water. I do this two times. You could do this lots more than two times but i'm a bit squeemish about wasting too much water (I find I can use one lot of waste water for washing up but haven't really found a use for more than one change of water bath water). You'd be amazed at how much heat you can draw off from the wort doing this, its effectively doing what a wort chiller does but from the outside rather than from inside.

2. Stirring is the key when using ice. I have a lot of 500ml coopers pet bottles. I keep 20 permantly frozen full in the freezer. After doing the water bath I sterilize 5 at a time frozen pet bottles and put them in the wort. I used to just leave them there and replace when melted but now I stir them constantly until they melt. As you can imagine stirring makes sure hot wort is constantly being circulated around the ice bottles and thus cools the wort that much faster

Between the the two techniques I reckon if your not as squeamish about wasting water as i am /can find a use for the repeat change of water and you were to both constantly stir/change Ice bottles as well as repeatedly change the water bath water I reckon you could get a full length brew down to pitching temp in something close to 20 mins

 

[chrisstuarthall]

I use ice bath to cool my wort.

I also add frozen Tesco spring water directly if my length is short.

I would be interested in how many litres a wort chiller uses, I have a metered supply and often wonder what the cost would be.