Cooling wort

[7 Slot Brewing]

So I was watching a Mythbusters the other night, and they were tasked with finding the quickest way to cool a 6 pack of beer. They did a regular cooler full of ice, a cooler full of ice water and salt, and then a fire extinguisher. After their testing it was determined that a fire extinguisher aimed at the 6 pack could cool it within about 30 seconds, going from room temp to 3X degrees. Obviously not practical, but could work in a pinch. So obviously I am not saying we should cool our wort that way, but it got me thinking about the ice water and salt since it was the second fastest at 5? minutes I think.

So I did a 2.5 gallon boil the other night for my Oktoberfest. I have a large tall cube cooler that I use as the ice bath and typically use cubed ice and water. This time however, I got a block of ice, added a large amount of rock salt, and then added some water. I let that sit for about 20 minutes while finishing my boil. I didn't think about it, but I should have taken a temp reading, but I assume it was very cold. I lowered my kettle into this bath, and topped off with another bag of cubed ice, and then swirl the kettle every 7-8 minutes. This wort cooled the fastest out of any of my batches! Again I should have timed it, but it was definitely faster that previous cool downs. So on my next brew, which will be a full 5 gallon, I will take temp readings of the water before placing the kettle in, and also time it.

Just thought I would let people know so they can try.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

never thought about rock salt, great idea

I have a 12 " plate chiller which in the summer doesn't get the temp down enough to ferment on its own so I decided to prechill my water before it reaches the plate chiller.

I use a house carbon filter for my water connected to the hose closest to the water coming in to the house so I now submerge the filter into an ice bucket which seems to work but the ice melt very fast, that rock salt might help, thanks for the tip

 

[LarryBrewer]

Indeed salt lowers the freezing temperature of water. Same reason the roads get salted in the winter.

 

[chessking]

Don't forget homemade ice cream.

 

[7 Slot Brewing]

Don't forget homemade ice cream.

which is only second to beer...

 

[Nosybear]

I'm imagining circulating the salt-ice solution through a wort chiller.... Need a pump, though, another moving part to fail. But it would cool the stuff quickly! My wort chiller cools from boiling down to about 80 in a half-hour even with our warm tap water temps!

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

on 5 gallons mine will do that in 5 minutes, but I want 70 at least and at 11 gallons I'm using 50 gallons of water to do that buy its self.
I was thinking there's got to be a better way; so doing the prechill works perfect.

still use allot of water and $5 worth of ice though lol

 

[7 Slot Brewing]

I'm imagining circulating the salt-ice solution through a wort chiller.... Need a pump, though, another moving part to fail. But it would cool the stuff quickly! My wort chiller cools from boiling down to about 80 in a half-hour even with our warm tap water temps!

you could recirculate it if you used a pump. that would cut down on the amount of water, but would require more ice I would think. but you could make your own blocks if you had the freezer space. hmmm, got me thinking of making something like this to move the water around the ice bath :|

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

yes I have a full size freezer hmmm

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

even a better idea, put a container in the freezer that holds the ice water and use the salt to keep it from totally freezing, then run the hose through it all and recirculate

 

[TheZel66]

the fire extinguisher is the same as cooling a beer instantly by spraying compressed air on the bottle, while the air can is upside down...