No ice!!! So would tap water or freezer cool down wort faster?

[deeve007]

Yep, 4 gas stations around me all out of ice on the same day!?!?!

So, in sink with tap water running, or in freezer best bet for faster cool down after boil?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Tap water bath.

 

[deeve007]

No bath, but pot fits in sink

 

[RPh_Guy]

If you can plug the sink a little to raise the water level to at least the wort level (a bath), that'll help heat exchange. Keeping the wort moving will also help.

You want to get it under 170°F quickly. After that it doesn't matter quite as much.

 

[deeve007]

Wort moving good tip, wasn't aware that would help.

And yeah, will plug up sink enough so outflow is slow, but just enough I can keep the tap on with new cooler water being added. Pain in the ass but you work with what you have, right?

 

[Lefou]

Take it from a guy who's tried multiple cooling approaches from a running water sink bath to a snowbank in winter to simply adding ice-cold chilled water to hot kettle wort.
A sink bath without ice will take a while but it's better than putting a vessel with hot wort in a freezer. I've done the freezer cooling of hot wort in a 7 cubic foot freezer unit just to see how efficient it was.
It's not very efficient.
The thermal mass of a hot 5gal kettle will contribute enough heat to defrost the freezer without affecting the wort much.
Why? Because the wort doesn't get a thermal transfer without motion, it simply radiates heat if not disturbed o stirred.
I boil on the stove and don't use a cooling coil so the typical approach for me is a 3-4gal boil diluted with 2 gallons of ice-cold water. That cools the wort substantially and adjusts gravity at the same time.

 

[kh54s10]

While a water bath should be more efficient, here with the tap water being in the mid to upper 80s it would still take a considerable amount of time. I use an IC, get it as cold as I can without taking hours. Then I put it in my chamber. I let it cool to pitching temperature then pitch the yeast. That usually takes 6-8 hours so I pitch right before going to bed.

 

[Lefou]

Gotta get around to bending my IC. I bought a length of 1/2" copper, clamps, and vinyl tubing for this but can't seem to recall where my copper coil got hidden ....

 

[Bobby_M]

Water moves heat like 20x better than air. Cool it to 90 with water first swirling the pot in circles to stir the wort and water bath. Then move to the freezer.

 

[Miraculix]

Just to keep in mind, cold water drops to the bottom of the sink due to maximum gravity at about 4 degrees Celsius.

This means, if you open the tap, let it run slowly and then let the overflow of the sink take the water slowly from the surface, you'll be exchanging the warmest water for the coolest, which is great.

For the same reason moving the wort is important. The chilled wort would otherwise sit at the bottom of the pot while the hot wort would sit on top of it with no contact to the cooling liquid.

Sincerely,

The kitchen sink cooler.

 

[kh54s10]

Just to keep in mind, cold water drops to the bottom of the sink due to maximum gravity at about 4 degrees Celsius.

This means, if you open the tap, let it run slowly and then let the overflow of the sink take the water slowly from the surface, you'll be exchanging the warmest water for the coolest, which is great.

For the same reason moving the wort is important. The chilled wort would otherwise sit at the bottom of the pot while the hot wort would sit on top of it with no contact to the cooling liquid.

Sincerely,

The kitchen sink cooler.

The best is to move both the wort and the chilling water for the fastest heat exchange.

 

[Beernik]

The freezer method is only good if you have a fan in there with it to move air around. Otherwise air works as an insulator between your hot BK and the freezer’s temperature sensor.

 

[deeve007]

Thanks for all advice guys, really appreciated!!

 

[deeve007]

...diluted with 2 gallons of ice-cold water.

I have a new/sealed 5L water bottle in the freezer right now getting chilled, to add when needed.

 

[smata67]

Best price for ice are the dollar type stores, Dollar General in our area has 10# ice for $2. Rednecks like their cola ice cold. I set my brew pot in a large sink and onto a plant stand to allow flow underneath. I also circulate the bath using a fountain type pump. Mine is a Rena Flow 400 Made in France if you can believe it. Works great when there is ice in the bath, probably not so good when there isn't, so get yourself some ice. The wort stratifies quickly in the pot, so stirring every now and then helps also, but I usually don't bother.

 

[deeve007]

I usually have access to ice, and not aiming to purchase more "stuff" for the place I'm in for the next half year (not the US nor my longer term home).

But in the end, constantly circulating both the wort and the water around it worked a treat, cooled down far quicker than I expected, probably around an hour or so close to pitching temp. Though did add some ice cold water to the wort that would have helped that of course...