• Welcome to the new forum! We upgraded our forum software with a host of new boards, capabilities and features. It is also more secure.
    Jump in and join the conversation! You can learn more about the upgrade and new features here.

Ice in the Primary

S

skiprbridge

I'm new to homebrewing, I just finished my sixth batch and ever since I started I use Ice in my primary fermenter to bring my wert down to pitching temp. I know a little about the commercial Ice biz and know that no human hand touches the ice and that the machines that freeze the ice are sanitized on the hour. I can go from the stove top (Boiling) to pitching my yeast at 75 degrees with 10 pounds of ice in the bucket in three minutes!!!!. No wert chiller mess or hassle, My buddies who brew think i'm crazy but I love being a loose cannon. Does anyone else do this trick ;D
 
  I've heard of this being done, though I've never tried it.  Back when I brewed extract, I used plain cold water to fill out the batch. 

  I think it can be an effective measure if you don't have a chiller.  There is some risk of infection, but it is probably not too high.  If I were using this method, I would probably drop the ice in the boiler (if you have a big boiler) since you could get the cold break and trub in the boiler - then siphon only the good stuff off into the primary fermenter.

Cheers!
Brad
 
I got the Idea from the "Food Channel" the program was called "Good Brews" and it inspired me to try brewing i'm glad I tryed it.
 
I do it too.  There is no more risk of infection than just using tap water to fill the fermenter.  And is does bring that temp down.  I've actually had to add warm water after the ice to bring back up to pitching temp.  Never had a problem after about 22 batches.
 
I did that also for about the 1st year I brewed.  I never had a problem.  It worked really well..

Don
 
  I did this a couple of times, but I made my own ice by boiling water for 5-10 minutes and put it into sturdy plastic containers while it was still 160 or so and into the freezer.
  I stopped because it was a lot of hassle; never thought of store bought ice.
 
I just use the ice from the ice maker in my fridge.  It's filtered and enough to get me most of the way or even a little too far.  Soemtimes it gets to 68deg.
 
Beer_Tigger said:
I just use the ice from the ice maker in my fridge. 
Carefull with ice from your freezer (where you store food).  It is possible for the ice to pickup aroma from the food in the freezer.  I'm not saying not to do it, just be careful.

Fred
 
I like to keep a bunch of frozen plastic water or soda bottle in the freezer for chilling the wort.  Just pull em out, dip them in sanitizer, and cool.
 
When I did extract brewing, I put ice in the primary for many years. I too saw the episode of "Good Eats" where Alton Brown put ice in his primary. I have moved over to all grain brewing and in my study / reading to brew all grain I found a couple of books that say this is not a good idea. There is no risk of infection if you use store bought ice BUT you do risk oxidation of your wort which can throw your flavor off.

Like I said, I did this for many years and I never had a what I thought was a bad batch.

Cheers,

Marc
 
Back
Top