Adding ice to lower pitching temp

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I use a wort chiller but it has difficulty bringing the 3 or 3.5 gallons of wort down to 70F this time of year. Does anyone see a negative to adding some ice for topping up to 5 gallons? I thought topping up with cold tap water would do it but I only got the wort down to 80F.

Thanks.
 
IMG_20190818_200755.jpg
Hi David this is how I am doing mine today
 
I've done it with no harm. I can't see any risk.
I didn't think so either. I read something or heard something where it's not a good idea but I couldn't think of why.
I have a brewing season, more or less, where I do 5-6 batches. I'm right at the beginning and I think getting that 70F is important for pitching. I'll just make about a gallon of ice and put it directly in (plus using my wort chiller and cold water) and top off.
 
I use a wort chiller but it has difficulty bringing the 3 or 3.5 gallons of wort down to 70F this time of year. Does anyone see a negative to adding some ice for topping up to 5 gallons? I thought topping up with cold tap water would do it but I only got the wort down to 80F.

Thanks.
Is that because your tap water is too hot?

What brew setup are you using?
 
Is "no chill" where you cover it and let it come to room temperature on its own, maybe use a water bath?
I use a chiller to get it down to something like 40c then put it in the fv lid on airlock and pitch the following morning, today I stuck in the sink with cold water as per pic earlier just pitched at 22c with gervin which is Nottingham yeast
 
Yeah, the tap water doesn't have as much oomph this time of year and I don't want to run the tap endlessly through the wort chiller.
I can say that I have three gallons of hot wort that I use the wort chiller in to get it down to about 90F. Then add tap water to get temp down further, ideally, to 70F. That's where I thought ice, instead of tap water, would do the trick.
Edit 80F (27C) isn't bad but 70F is definitely my goal.
 
Yeah, the tap water doesn't have as much oomph this time of year and I don't want to run the tap endlessly through the wort chiller.
I can say that I have three gallons of hot wort that I use the wort chiller in to get it down to about 90F. Then add tap water to get temp down further, ideally, to 70F. That's where I thought ice, instead of tap water, would do the trick.
Edit 80F (27C) isn't bad but 70F is definitely my goal.
Do you use a pump with your brew setup?
 
No, nothing like that. I just use a regular, big pot plus a couple smaller ones to steep grain and then pour hot water through over it. Just the minimum.
Ah okay, I was going to suggest pumping wort round the immersion chiller rather than water. With the immersion chiller sat in ice water.
 
Cooling your wort in warm weather can be a real pain especially when temperature doesn't fall much below 30C even at night. Happily those days seem to be behind us and we're back to low 20s. Cooling in the kitchen sink is always fun. I tried waiting until the temperatures had levelled out and then threw frozen picnic-box ice packs in the sink-water (not the beer) didn't reduce the temp by more than a couple of degrees, though. Then I hit upon a much better idea: my small batches are invariably 1 to 1½ litres short of target volume of 11½ litres or 2½ gallons because of the size of my stove-top pot, so I chill as much as I can in the kitchen sink, which usually brings the wort down to about 30C and then top up with still mineral water (supermarket's own brand is cheapest) which has been in the freezer and on the point of freezing. This works a treat. If you're not sure about the bacterial content of your mineral water then use boiled tap water the same way. Topping up with 1½ litres in this way should reduce the body of liquid by 4C by my dodgy calculations making a significant difference to the pitching temperature.
As for the bigger batches of 25 to 30 litres, I don't do them when it's hot, but otherwise I've connected my garden hose to the outlet end of the chiller coil and run the outflow into a rainwater vat at the bottom of the garden for watering the vegetable patch (when it cools).

If you're going to drop frozen things into your wort, don't use bleach.
A good soaking in strong sodium metabisulphite solution would do fine. athumb..
 
@An Ankoù

I truly do need to get that water collector. I've got five more batches to do this year and the collector would put my mind at ease. It's so easy besides since I've a window directly above my kitchen sink and the hose faucet is right outside. Further more, my exit tube on my chiller has an outdoor hose connection I put on it when I made the darn thing.
 
Ah okay, I was going to suggest pumping wort round the immersion chiller rather than water. With the immersion chiller sat in ice water.
What kind of pump does that? It sounds like it would make warm weather a non-factor. Even though I've brewed quite a bit (only extract with grain), I've not familiar with any of the useful ancillary equipment.
 
I am sure one user used to spray star san on to bottles of frozen water and dump that in the kettle
That's an idea. Definitely a possibility. I used to be "afraid" of Starsan and would rinse the bottles with running water but I've gotten over that fear. I do make sure I let it drip dry now so I could get behind frozen bottles that have been sanitized.
Thanks.
 
Yeah, the tap water doesn't have as much oomph this time of year and I don't want to run the tap endlessly through the wort chiller.
I can say that I have three gallons of hot wort that I use the wort chiller in to get it down to about 90F. Then add tap water to get temp down further, ideally, to 70F. That's where I thought ice, instead of tap water, would do the trick.
Edit 80F (27C) isn't bad but 70F is definitely my goal.
If you have 3 gallons at 90°F and your goal is 5 gallons at 70°F.
then the 2 gallons of water to add will need to be at 40°F

No need for ice, just chill the 2 gallons in the fridge overnight.


to go down the ice route
if you have 3 gallon at 90°F
your tap water is at 70°
And the Ice temp from your freezer is -13°F

then you will need 0.73 gallons of ice at -13°F + tap water to make up to 70°F
 
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