Wort cooling with ice

I am new to home brewing, or I will be after Christmas ;-). The thought of using a wort cooler does not appeal to me mostly because I am cheap and lazy. So, I thought, why not just fill the fermenter with ice and just port the wort over the ice? After googling and reading what John Palmer said about the subject I have some questions (not all, or even any of them practical):

  1. OK, the ice in my freezer has stray organisms that can ruin the beer. Can you use a sanitizer to pour over the ice and get rid of the bacteria? Aren't there sanitizers you don't have to rinse off? I suppose the presence of sanitizer in the fermenter when you try to pitch the yeast would not be a terribly good idea.

  1. John says boil some water and freeze it in Tupperware to avoid the organism problem. What about just sanitizing the water instead and then freezing it. Does the sanitizer still remain active after freezing? If this crackpot scheme would work, what would be a good container to create the ice in? Something the size of frozen juice containers would be just about ideal.

I guess the answers to the above depend on the sanitizer chemical. If, for example, the sanitizer produces ozone to do its job, does the ozone dissipate quickly? Bleach is not good because the NaOCl remains in solution and is harmful to yeast and people. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Frank

Reply to
Frank
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Sanitizers require contact time that would melt your ice. Other than bleach (which I don't use), the most commaon sanitizers are Iodophor (iodine based) and StarSan (acid based).

If your water is good, there's no need to preboil it to dsanitize it, although that's the safest thing to do. You can sanitize a plastic container internally, fill it with water, freeze it, then cut awya the container to use the ice. A PITA, IMHO.

Well, you could just do it the easy way and set the pot in a sink full of ice water...I did it that way for years before I goa a chiller.

--------->Denny

Reply to
Denny Conn

Yes, you are supposed to immerse stuff in the sanitizer for a little while. Not practical with ice cubes. I kind of figured this one was off the wall.

Only if you use a container that has an opening smaller than the rest of the container would you have to cut it away. That was never my intent, I like reuse.

I don't think my wife would let me get away with this. I am too clumsy and would spill stuff all over the kitchen.

Thanks for the reply,

Frank

Reply to
Frank

Boil the water and let it cool till the pot is cool to the touch. Add to new ziplock bags, seal and freeze. The bags are sanitary and shouldn't introduce any bacteria into the nearly sterile water. You can dump the ice chuncks in the beer to cool it. Warren Place

Reply to
Warren Place

Thanks for the idea. I took it a step further and looked online for those Ziploc reusable containers. They have the added benefit of being tapered with the wide end at the top so forcing the ice out *should* be easy. It's the boiling water part that seems tedious. I guess at some point it is not worth cutting corners. What about bottled water, like Crystal Geyser? I can get a whole flat of them for $3 at Costco.

Frank

Reply to
Frank

It's a lot easier to use crushed ice than 2L chunks. Here's our current ice procedure.

At least a day before brewday, fill some sanitized 2L bottles about 2/3 with clean water. We use charcoal filtered tap water and seltzer bottles rinsed with a little peroxide.

Put them in the freezer until they're almost frozen solid (overnight for us). There should still be some water in the ice's core. The ice will have expanded to nearly fill the bottle. Crack them open to let out the extra pressure.

Seriously whack the bottles all around with something blunt and heavy. I use the bottom of a large ceramic mortar. Instant sanitary crushed ice.

Put the bottles back in the freezer if you're not ready to use the ice. Whack them again in an hour to loosen the ice. I'm not sure if this is necessary, but it's still new enough to be fun.

When ready to use, whack them again to loosen up the crushed ice. Cut around the tops where they start to taper, and pour. Much easier than cutting away the container, and there's no huge chunk of ice to manage without touching or splashing.

4 bottles seems to be more than enough for a 2 gal. boil. 16:58 - 212F - Turn off heat; add finishing hops. 17:09 - ? - Finish adding 3 bottles crushed ice to brewpot. 17:14 - 84F - Begin racking to primary. 17:37 -
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Rocco Caputo

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Frank

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Bill Tapley

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