I’m about to start my second batch of beer and was wondering if sing dry ice to cool down the wort would work? I know that some home wine-makers use it. Last i took advantage of cold weather. I really don’t want to pay for a wort chiller or run all the water required to use one. I appreciate any and all suggestions
it would work, some people though worry about infection. i have a gallon jug of cider i think i may use some to carb it and see what happens. i have not been worried about introducing infection. i have also toyed with putting in a little liquid nitrogen to condition. try it. i will probably it for conditioning, not sure yet about cooling
oh, about cooling, i dont know how much residual co2 would be present and i dont think this is particularly good at the start of ferment. liquid oxygen would be a cool pun not intended, idea
I wouldn’t trust it. Part of it is not knowing how food grade it is.
The other has to do with it being a lousy coolant. The dry ice gets a coating of ice in a hurry and then is thermally jacketed.
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Agreed on both of these points and the CO2. I use dry ice quite a bit for fog machines and based in what I’ve seen I’d never assume it’s food grade or clean. Plus, it’s expensive. After using dry ice a few times you could have bought a chiller with the money you spent.
Agreed. The crap left in the bottom of the bucket after you’ve used dry ice for Halloween fun would be enough for me to never want to add that to my beer.
How much beer are we talking about cooling? You can place the pot in the sink if small enough and do a water bath. Or a plastic tub or bathtub if larger. Then dump ice in the water when it’s cooled down a bit. When I cool a couple gallons I just do it in the sink and swap out ice-packs or frozen soda bottles until it reaches the desired temp.
You could always make a dry-ice bath. It would give you that whole mad-scientist vibe too. Probably want to have some fresh air for breathing available nearby, though. ;D
Yeah, I wouldn’t put it directly in the wort, but if you get it free at work or something, you could make a bath with dry ice. It can freeze a keg solid before you know it though (strongest batch of Charlie I ever tasted) so use it with caution.
thanks for all the suggestions. I think i will cool with the sink bath or just go ahead and by a wort chiller
If you look at enough pictures of the immersion chillers you can build one yourself for about $20.00, i did and it’s the best $20 I spent, I’m now making a convoluted CFC and that will only cost me $52.00, a couple hours and knock 20-30 minutes off my chill time, can’t wait!
I also just thought of another question. If i sat the wort chiller in a cold water bath and ran the wort through the chiller would that work, vs running cold water through the wort chiller tubing?
That in essence is counter flow chilling or CFC. Accepted practice.
Scuuse the thread drift…so at the “professional level” you use dry ice for smoke? I use “fog juice” but…I’m just an amateur.