dry ice?

[6midgets]

has anyone ever tried to cool their wort with dry ice?

 

[bonzombiekitty]

It has been discussed before. It seems the consensus was that it doesn't sound like a good idea. Assuming you mean just adding the dry ice to the wort:

1. It's not clean
2. It's so cold it will end up freezing the wort.
3. The sublimation of CO2 solid -> CO2 gas might result in a lot of foam that will over flow the pot.

 

[Scruffy1207]

Hmm good question, maybe if you threw it in a completely sanitized bag and kind of swirled it around so it doesn't freeze. Unless that was covered too.

 

[bad67z]

Hmm good question, maybe if you threw it in a completely sanitized bag and kind of swirled it around so it doesn't freeze. Unless that was covered too.

The bag would explode! The dry ice changes from a solid to gaseous state at a rate of 1:554.

 

[Scruffy1207]

It wouldn't explode that fast with no water in it, keep it open to prevent epic wort explosion. Gallon ziplock should work imo

 

[asterix404]

For the price of dry ice, why not get an immersion chiller? Unless you just happen to have a lot of dry ice sitting around, If you actually did put dry ice in a plastic bag, wouldn't the beg just freeze too?

 

[Scruffy1207]

For the price of dry ice, why not get an immersion chiller? Unless you just happen to have a lot of dry ice sitting around, If you actually did put dry ice in a plastic bag, wouldn't the beg just freeze too?

allegedly

 

[unionrdr]

I'm having flashbacks to the Addam's Family,imagining dry ice in the water bath for the BK...

 

[bad67z]

I'm having flashbacks to the Addam's Family,imagining dry ice in the water bath for the BK...

Thanks! I know what I'll be humming the rest of the day.

 

[unionrdr]

Thanks! I know what I'll be humming the rest of the day.

lolz! It's creepy & it's cooky,mysterious & spooky. It's altogether ooky,the Addam's brewery!

 

[SimonHucko]

as someone who has spent many hours dumping dry ice into warm water to watch it bubble and smoke, it's not going to freeze the wort. it's not *that* cold.

as for causing foam overs, I can't answer to that. if you have access to some free or cheap, might be worth a try. honestly I think it'd take a lot of dry ice to cool down 5 gallons of water appreciably.

oh! definitely bag it - if you put it right in the wort it'll keep lowering the pH of the liquid as the CO2 dissolves. probably not a huge deal, but might not be the best for pitching yeast.

 

[Scruffy1207]

oh! definitely bag it - if you put it right in the wort it'll keep lowering the pH of the liquid as the CO2 dissolves. probably not a huge deal, but might not be the best for pitching yeast.

hah! I got something right!

 

[bad67z]

As I stated earlier, as the dry ice as it "melts" will change to gas and take up 554 time the space/area. The bag will burst, or the "zipper" will come unzipped quickly.

 

[SimonHucko]

as the dry ice as it "melts" will change to gas and take up 554 time the space/area. The bag will burst, or the "zipper" will come unzipped quickly.

right, so don't seal the bag and don't just let it float around. really, this all sounds like more trouble than it's worth, but I don't see anything wrong with the concept.

something else you could try would be making a dry ice/ethanol slurry in a smaller (sanitized) pot and dipping that in your pot of wort, should give you the heat transfer without worrying about bags and contamination

 

[Gameface]

I made some rootbeer recently and the recipe called for adding dry ice to cool and carbonate. I did it in a 6gal bucket. It bubbled a lot, but didn't cause a lot of foaming in the water/sugar/flavoring mixture, but it probably would in wort. 4lbs cooled down 5gal of room temperature water very quickly.