rms5555
Member
Why is it bad to add ice directly to the wort to cool it. Just thinking of ways to coll wort quickly until I upgrade to a wort chiller.
Weizer said:I second the 2 above posts. Besides, why would you want to water down your beer?
Most extract brewers don't do full boils. They have a 3 gallon pot and top off with water.
I've used ice and it turned out fine. I only did it once though. It's a small risk. Whether it is an acceptable risk is up to you. It sure cooled it down fast! That batch probably had the best head of any beer I've made. I've wondered if the ice was part of that.
I did not boil the water but I did filter it and sanitized the ice trays. I'm gonna try it. Took a few days but I have about 7 lbs of ice which should be about a gallon of water. I'll let you guys know how the beer turns out.
It's not overkill. Contrary to some mid-informed opinion, proper sanitation is not a myth. Anytime you deviate from that you risk an infection. Pretty much nothing we do involves sterility so there is always a competition going on between your yeast and any contaminants. It's it up to you to see that the yeast wins the battle. Just because someone has gotten away with poor sanitation practices so far and is comfortable with the risk is not good reason to arbitrarily declare it a myth and suggest newbies do the same.
Rant over. Shields deployed.
Why is it bad to add ice directly to the wort to cool it. Just thinking of ways to coll wort quickly until I upgrade to a wort chiller.
Before you boil?? Hell, you can practically spit in your wort BEFORE THE BOIL! But the OP was talking about adding ice to cool his wort post boil. Unless I'm mistaken of course, which my wife believes is more often than not! de01
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