Cooling Wort w/ Sterilized Ice in the Kettle

[derekp83]

So my question is not actually about the effectiveness of this: I pre-boiled about a half gallon of water, let it chill and poured it into a sanitized container, sealed it and freezed it. I plan to cool my wort by gently transferring the ice cylinder into my kettle at flameout (in a cold water bath in the sink). However, this was my plan a week ago, when I intended to brew the following day. The brewing didn't happen.

What do you think the chances are of the ice still being sterile a week or two later? When it's sealed, do you think it would take months for there to be a problem? Thoughts please.

 

[TallDan]

Well, it wasn't sterile in the first place, so it's certainly not now. It shouldn't be a problem though, I used to do this when I did partial boils and used ice for top-off.

I wouldn't drop it in at flame-out though. Chill in the cold water bath first, then drop the ice in to get the last part of the chilling done. If you have 3.5 gallons of boiling wort, a half gallon of ice is only going to give you 4 gallons of diluted and still pretty warm wort. Use the water bath to chill down to 100F or so, THEN drop the ice in for the last part.

 

[derekp83]

Well, it wasn't sterile in the first place, so it's certainly not now. It shouldn't be a problem though, I used to do this when I did partial boils and used ice for top-off.

I wouldn't drop it in at flame-out though. Chill in the cold water bath first, then drop the ice in to get the last part of the chilling done. If you have 3.5 gallons of boiling wort, a half gallon of ice is only going to give you 4 gallons of diluted and still pretty warm wort. Use the water bath to chill down to 100F or so, THEN drop the ice in for the last part.

I should mention I do mostly 1-2.5 gallon batches, so in the case it's the latter, it should be more effective than cooling down 3.5.