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I have seen mostly two suggestions to cool wort. Ice bath and the coil method. My friend and I were thinking about just using ice. Ie pull the ice from the fridge that uses the same water source as used during the boil. Put it in the pale and run the wort into the ice. What are the drawbacks, I'm sure there are some because I can't find anybody recommending this method. For sure it will cool down pretty quickly which is desired.

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This is how I do all of my brews. I usually boil about 11/12L for a 20/21L batch, put a filter over the primary bucket, pour the wort in from a bit of a height to help aerate, add ice until I get the right temperature then top up with water. The "right temperature" might be a couple of degrees above / below target, depending on whether the top up water is warm or cold.

I haven't had any contamination problems yet, but it is something to keep in mind. Either make your own ice through freezing boiled water (you'll need a few kgs) or buy it bagged from somewhere you trust that takes cleanliness seriously (distilled, minimal handling, etc). Some places do sell different grades (e.g. triple frozen for making cocktails) so you might be able to find something especially good.

The temperature gets down within a few minutes so it's certainly an effective method. Plus you save potentially hundreds of litres of water per brew. This is the reason I do it: I haven't found a more efficient wort cooling system than this. As baka noted though, it will not work if you are doing a full boil and will become harder as you get closer to a full boil.

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  • We did the second batch today using the same method. I bought 3 gallons of distilled water and froze it. When we start boiling I take it out of the freezer, by the time it's needed it will have melted enough on the outside so I can just cut up the plastic container and put the ice in the pot. This chills the wort down in a few minutes. After two batches we know pretty much what the level needs to be in the pot before putting the ice in to end up with 5 gallons at about 72F.
    – orn
    Oct 29, 2012 at 17:04
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I always thought of this as being a HUGE no no. But I guess not...below is from John Palmer.

People often wonder about adding ice directly to the cooling wort. This idea works well if you remember a couple key points.

  • Never use commercial ice. It can harbor dormant bacteria that could spoil your beer.
  • Always boil the water before freezing it in an airtight container (like Tupperware). It must be airtight because most freezers also harbor dormant bacteria.
  • If the ice will not directly contact the wort, (i.e. you are using a frozen plastic soda bottle or other container in the wort) make sure you sanitize the outside of the bottle first before you put it in the wort.
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  • This is good advice, I think. I haven't had any problems with my brews so far but that could just be good luck.
    – Mark McDonald
    Aug 12, 2012 at 0:12
  • I do use ice directly in the cooling wort. I do not boil water before frozing it, I do use water bought at the supermarket (Evian French water). Never met a problem with bacterias !
    – kheraud
    Sep 19, 2013 at 12:23
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The only problem I can think of might be contamination or (depending on the age of your ice...) picking up off flavors from the ice. Remember that it will also dilute your wort by some (probably calculable) amount. If you're doing a concentrated boil anyway, then it would be easy enough to dump the hot wort onto your extra 2-3 gallons of ice. I imagine that it would get you to pitching temperature more rapidly than other methods, as well.

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