Ice In Wort

[alfadog]

So it is getting freaking hot here in Brissy and my recently acquired plate chiller seems only to get the wort down to 34 deg.

My question comes as i pass the bags of ice at work each day thinking that I can somehow utilise this resource in beer making.

Has anyone just thrown a bag of ice into the fermenter? (I usually have to top up the batch with water to get my desired SG anyways)

Or is it efficient enough to dunk the plate chiller in a bucket of iced water?

thoughts please ppl!

 

[pk.sax]

Ppl have said a bunch of things but I've seen a guy connect an immersion type chiller inline with tap water and stick that in an ice bucket - aka - pre-chiller for the water going to plate chiller. Works quite well.

 

[alfadog]

Ppl have said a bunch of things but I've seen a guy connect an immersion type chiller inline with tap water and stick that in an ice bucket - aka - pre-chiller for the water going to plate chiller. Works quite well.

Yes I can see how that would work, maybe I can try that one

 

[ekul]

+1 to the prechiller idea. Throwing ice into your fermenter is just asking for infection

 

[Tilt]

+1 to the prechiller idea. Throwing ice into your fermenter is just asking for infection

+1 on commercial ice in the wort - the only time I've used ice in the fermentor is when I've pre boiled to sanitise and then frozen at home.
Could you use the freezer at work to freeze decent volumes of ice to use at home? Old icecream buckets work as OK containers.

I've used 3m of coiled copper in an ice bucket for a pre chiller and it drops the tap water about 5 degrees. It works better if you drop the water flow rate a bit which isn't so good during the first 10 minutes or so of cooling. As a result I only use the pre chiller once the wort is down below 40 to drop the last 15 degrees (which seems to take forever). Another option could be using an ice/salt mix to see if it can go lower but I haven't tried it yet so can't tell you how it goes.

 

[Nick JD]

...only to get the wort down to 34 deg.

Belgian Saison. Ferment at 34C too! WHOOOOOOSH.

 

[alfadog]

Belgian Saison. Ferment at 34C too! WHOOOOOOSH.

This is a style that I am thinking of trying.... it does sound nice, but still sceptical of fermenting at 34C, but you never know unless you try

 

[alfadog]

+1 on commercial ice in the wort - the only time I've used ice in the fermentor is when I've pre boiled to sanitise and then frozen at home.
Could you use the freezer at work to freeze decent volumes of ice to use at home? Old icecream buckets work as OK containers.

I've used 3m of coiled copper in an ice bucket for a pre chiller and it drops the tap water about 5 degrees. It works better if you drop the water flow rate a bit which isn't so good during the first 10 minutes or so of cooling. As a result I only use the pre chiller once the wort is down below 40 to drop the last 15 degrees (which seems to take forever). Another option could be using an ice/salt mix to see if it can go lower but I haven't tried it yet so can't tell you how it goes.

I don't have the means to freeze the water at work, it is just the 3kg bags that you get from the servo. It would make things easier though, I may have to look into this method too

 

[Northside Novice]

i use a $25 pond pump to pump ice cold water threw my immersion chiller for the sub 45 *c chill, tap temps for the first chill.maybe you could use the same to pump ice cold water threw the plate chiller? i just use i big 50 ltr plastic garbo bin two bags of ice n 3/4 fill with tap water, cold as fuk mate ! got the pump and bin from you know where (brunings warehouse dananana na na) 10-15mins from 45 to 20

 

[argon]

I have a 6m copper prechiller for the water and I get down to about 25C. It's just a bag of ice and some water in the bigw 19L pot in line feeding the chiller water. Use a bitch load of water though, but ends up getting used about the house in some fashion before the next brew.

 

[kieran]

still sceptical of fermenting at 34C, but you never know unless you try

In the lab, we culture S.Cerevisiae yeast at 30C, as it is its optimal metabolic growth temperature.
It is also the same in wort, however, when yeast works at its optimum, the byproducts of that metabolism aren't great tasting in (nearly all) beers... that's why we force the yeast to ferment slower.