Cheap Ways To Get The Cold Break

[thunderchild]

group,

Funds are light and copper is expensive so I have been experimenting ways to achieve the cold break. (I have tried no chill but have chosen to walk the other path)

Taking a leaf from Palmers book I have been using the frozen cleaned and sanatised bottles of liquid dunked in kettle method which has done an OK job but takes up a lot of space in the kettle and when the ice has melted I am left with a wort at 35ish degrees. I would like to get cooler but do not want to take the risk of fishing out bottles to make room for new ones at the risky temps.

So while trolling through Bunnings yesterday in the camping section I have come across some five and ten litre containers(Foodgrade of course.)

I bought two of the 10 litre versions for $7 ea with a dual purpose of temp control in my now dead fermenting fridge and on brew day dropping my 10L ice cube in the wort and due to the very nifty handle I can fish out with minimal risk and drop the second mega ice cube in to finish the Job.

Any Thoughts?

Am I nuts?

 

[jimi]

when I was brewing 14-15ltr batches I used to do the ice bath method all the time and it got the job done alright. Even used it once to cool a 23ltr batch, just took a little longer. I've never put anything directly into my wert though.
I used to use 7 X 4ltr icecream containers around my boiler which as I said held only 14-15ltrs. Based on that I reckon you may have to employ a few more of your "big ice blocks". Apart from making sure your container/cube is sanitised I'd also make sure that it was HDPE plastic to take the heat of the wert and not leech anything.
Good luck

 

[jimi]

Another late thought, these "big ice blocks" will float and displace the same volume of wert, make sure you have space in your boiler so that you can still put the lid on!!

Probably need a mighty big boiler

 

[thunderchild]

Another late thought, these "big ice blocks" will float and displace the same volume of wert, make sure you have space in your boiler so that you can still put the lid on!!

Probably need a mighty big boiler

have plenty of space, I boil 32 L in a 50L kettle ad have had 15 750ml plastic bottles in it at once and seems to be OK.

The sanatising and cleaning things goes without saying. As for the plastic taste I can only hope food grade will be kind to me.

I Might do a dummy run to check :chug:

 

[Bribie G]

I'm doing no chill and I agree that cooling can be a *******, especially at this time of year. Last night I just put the cube into my emptied out garage fridge and expected to find a nice cool wort this morning and on zapping the temp this morning it was still 44 degrees

I had also thought about dropping frozen bottles into the wort and started a thread on it about last October but AHB members with more Physics and Engineering knowledge than myself convinced me that this was a bit of a dead end.

My most successful method to date is to cube, let the cube cool overnight to about 50 then I put it in my dead fridge with about six frozen PET two litre bottles around it, changing around lunchtime. Usually gives me 24 hours from cube to pitch.

Why do you particularly want to get the cold break? The protein in the cold break doesn't apparently affect flavour or clarity (Coopers go into detail about this in the FAQ on their website) and I reckon it's probably a good yeast nutrient

 

[Jakechan]

Really, whats a copper chilling coil going to cost you....$50 in parts?

And here is how fast it chills.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=30229

Cheers,
Jake

 

[floppinab]

Why do you particularly want to get the cold break? The protein in the cold break doesn't apparently affect flavour or clarity (Coopers go into detail about this in the FAQ on their website) and I reckon it's probably a good yeast nutrient

I've had a gutful of cold break. I don't know if it's something to do with my process or what but the cold break I get is thick and sludgy and won't settle out all that well. I've had issues I reckon 1 out of every 2 brews, some as bad as this

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=23457

Seriously thinking of going to chilling