Has anyone ever....

[edisonst]

used dry Ice to help chill wort in the summer months. My tap watewr here is about 8o degrees and it takes forever to chill to pitching temp during the summer. Today I put my brewpot ontop of a 5 # block of dryice and was able to get to pitching temp in about 45 minutes. Has anyone experimented with using dry ice in the chilling process?

[Blowmax10]

used dry Ice to help chill wort in the summer months. My tap watewr here is about 8o degrees and it takes forever to chill to pitching temp during the summer. Today I put my brewpot ontop of a 5 # block of dryice and was able to get to pitching temp in about 45 minutes. Has anyone experimented with using dry ice in the chilling process?

Sounds like a good idea if you can get it cheap

[Phil]

could you just chuck a block of dry ice straight into the hot wort?

[Bugeater]

could you just chuck a block of dry ice straight into the hot wort?

The short answer is NO!

Most dry ice is produced under much less than sanitary conditions. The dry ice itself is fine but the equipment used to cut it and handle it is usually contaminated with oils, dirt, and lord knows what. You can find "food grade" dry ice some places but that is even more ridiculously expensive than the regular dry ice. This lack of sanitation is due to the fact that dry ice is not intended to come into direct contact with food or drink.

You might be able to get away with it, but I wouldn't risk it.

Wayne

[Phil]

could you just chuck a block of dry ice straight into the hot wort?

The short answer is NO!

Most dry ice is produced under much less than sanitary conditions. The dry ice itself is fine but the equipment used to cut it and handle it is usually contaminated with oils, dirt, and lord knows what. You can find "food grade" dry ice some places but that is even more ridiculously expensive than the regular dry ice. This lack of sanitation is due to the fact that dry ice is not intended to come into direct contact with food or drink.

You might be able to get away with it, but I wouldn't risk it.

Wayne

well now i'm curious.. would there be any funky chemical reactions? let's assume you've got totally pure and clean dry ice. i gather it would boil in the hot wort almost immediately, but would it be effective at cooling? would some co2 go into solution (i'd guess not at that temperature)?

[edisonst]

If you dropped a block of dry ice into the pot of hot wort the CO2 would sublimate to a gas rapidly causing hot wort to fly everywhere...like violently boiling with a lot of slpashing. The dry ice at harris teeter was only 99 cents a pound so thats not much more $ for the cooling power than regular water ice. It would probably take about 10 pounds of chips to pack a prechill coil. My lhbs guy called me to come pick up 40# for free that he had on hand....i wasnt able to pick it up but that would have chilled things down quick.

[Mylo]

Use the dry ice in a prechiller, or in a pot of water that you are recirculating.


Mylo

[frawggy]

hmmmmmm

http://www.coleparmer.com/catalog/produ ... ku=0371632

just a thought.. i mean.. we all have Co2 at our disposal right?