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):
- 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.
- 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