Wort Chilling Ideas

September 24, 2009 1:54 PM

Any good ideas for quickly cooling a 5 gallon stock pot full of homebrew Wort without scalding myself or others?

I want to be able to do this without scalding, and I won't have a chance to get a copper chilling device before brewing party. I just don't want to scald people or contaminate. time isn't a huge issue for us. Thanks for your ideas or experiences. in the basement I have a huge laundry tub, which would be ideal for ice chilling. just don't that that carrying 40 pounds of boiling death down the stairs is a good idea.

posted by Amby72 to food & drink (20 comments total)

What about those big plastic tubs that are frequently used to ice down kegs? You can get them at most big-box / home-goods stores, or (at greater price) some beer distributors.

I'd put some ice in the bottom, then put in the stock pot, and then pour more ice in around it on the sides. Maybe then add some water so you get 100% contact between the pot and the coolant. Salt, too, if you want it to be even faster.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:59 PM on September 24

It's a misnomer that 5 gallons of brew = 5 gallons of boiling wort. I have been extremely successful prepping my wort using 2-3 gallons of fluid and adding the remaining 2-3 gallons after "cooking." Added slowly and while stirring, this will bring down the temperature of your wort to pitching-temperature very rapidly.
posted by TomMelee at 1:59 PM on September 24

Go to the hardware store, buy a long piece of hose with a sink attachment, When you are ready wrap it around the 5 gallon tub with the end in the sink and turn it on cold, it would be better with the copper tubing in the tub, but it might quicken the pace. Just a random idea.
posted by elationfoundation at 2:00 PM on September 24 [1 favorite has favorites]

I've always cooked 3 gallons of wort, then added 16 pounds of ice.
Cheap, easy, fast.
posted by piedmont at 2:16 PM on September 24

I also cook 3 gallons of wort, though I generally boil and cool my top-off water separately, since there is a worry that ice will be contaminated with crawlies, and this is the period where your beer is most open to infection. While the chances of infection are fairly small, it's not a risk I like to take.

I have a large sink in my kitchen; I just move the wort the 5 feet or so into the sink full of cold water and frozen 2L bottles of water. I then do what I can to circulate water through the 2L bottles; it usually takes 4 ice bottles and about 25 minutes to drop to pitching temp.
posted by craven_morhead at 2:23 PM on September 24

I've always cooked 3 gallons of wort, then added 16 pounds of ice.

And if you're worried about contamination, you can just freeze a couple gallons of spring water inside their unopened plastic jugs, then use a sterilized knife to cut off the plastic.
posted by Greg Nog at 2:34 PM on September 24 [2 favorites has favorites]

Eh, the ice I buy is made from purified water, or so they claim. The guy that taught me to brew bought the dollar gallons of water and froze them in their jug, then just cut the jug off.
Neither one of us has had any infected batches.
posted by piedmont at 2:35 PM on September 24

Beat me to it Greg. Should've previewed.
posted by piedmont at 2:36 PM on September 24

I get gallons of water from the supermarket to add post-boil and put them in the fridge overnight. Not quite as good as ice, but it takes less freezer space and pretty much does the trick.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 2:37 PM on September 24

What others have said regarding making slightly less wort and then adding ice/cold water to it to bring it up to volume is dead-on.

The other thing is that, at least in my (admittedly limited) homebrew experience, the biggest risk in not cooling your wort fast enough is going to be chill haze - which won't affect the taste of your beer. So even if you're not the speediest with cooling things down, it should be fine for a party.

That said, hey - just put your stock pot in the kitchen sink with tons of ice surrounding it, and stir it around to circulate the wort that has surface contact with the sides of the pot. It should still be good enough for your purposes.
posted by kaseijin at 3:01 PM on September 24

Alternately, why not get a portable burner and cook your wort in the basement by the tub? Or cook it outside, and keep the tub out there with it?
posted by kaseijin at 3:02 PM on September 24

Mythbusters did a show on rapidly cooling beer. A dry fire extinguisher worked well to cool a can of beer.
posted by theora55 at 3:26 PM on September 24

Get 4 or 5 bags of loose ice at the store and dump them into your bathtub. Then run cold water into it until it's about half full, forming an ice bath.

Carefully carry the pot into the bathroom and immerse it in the tub.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:37 PM on September 24

Get 4 or 5 bags of loose ice at the store and dump them into your bathtub. Then run cold water into it until it's about half full, forming an ice bath.

Bonus points: Put lots of salt in the water, which lowers the temperature of the ice bath even further. Also, stir the wort and the ice bath water while doing this, to circulate both against the sides of the pot, which increases heat conduction and chills the wort faster.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:41 PM on September 24 [1 favorite has favorites]

Kaseijin is right--rapid cooling just makes your beer clearer. If you want the same effect and do not mind breaking the Reinheitsgebot, add a little irish moss to the wort.
posted by A Long and Troublesome Lameness at 7:16 PM on September 24

Pay attention to Chocolate Pickle's ratio. Ice bath theory 101: the ice keeps the water cold, the water cools the wort. Even a little bit of ice is enough; more only makes it harder to stir with the necessary vigor.

If you want to be a little more daring, get some dry ice and slowly submerge it into the wort itself. That'll bring the entire bucket down to any temperature above -78C within minutes. The only danger is of submerging the dry ice so fast that when it sublimes it throws up a fountain of boiling wort, like water in hot oil---hence the slowly. On the bright side, there will be no residue in the wort.
posted by d. z. wang at 11:12 PM on September 24

Even though no known pathogens can live in beer, the need for speed goes back to FAT TOM cooking principles. The faster that warm, friendly bacterial Nirvana gets chilled, the better your beer will taste and the clearer it will be.

I made my own wort chiller a few years ago when I was brewing. A few feet of copper tubing and a way to attach it to the kitchen sink is all you need. Whoever's working the aisle at your local Lowe's or whatever can probably help you quickly and easily.

As with everything else, sanitize the copper before it contacts the wort.
posted by phrits at 5:44 AM on September 25

Prior to brewing, I put 1 gallon of water into my primary fermenter and put that into a chest freezer. I pour the hot wort onto the ice, stir then top up to 5 gallons with COLD water. That gets me pretty dang close to ideal yeast-pitch temperature in a few minutes and doesn't waste as much water as a traditional wort chiller.
posted by plinth at 7:58 AM on September 25

Regarding kaseijin's suggestion to take the burner down to the laundry tub, I wouldn't use an outdoor-use propane burner in a basement. Could get carbon monoxide-ey.
posted by craven_morhead at 8:11 AM on September 25

Get a big plastic tub. Place this in your bathtub under the tap. Place two bricks on the bottom of the tub. Place the hot pot (covered) on top of the bricks. The bricks do two things: they prevent the plastic from melting and raise the lip of the pot above the lip of the tub. Now, turn on the tap.

The idea is to get the water to flow around (not over!) the pot, then spill out of the plastic tub into the bath. Don't turn it on full since you don't want crazy splashing to contaminate the wort. You may need to place a weight on top of the pot to keep it from floating.

Ice is a waste of time. Flowing water is the way to go.
posted by chairface at 9:07 PM on September 27