ice wells

Noun

ice well (plural ice wells)

1. (archaic) A well (hole in the ground) in which ice was stored in the era of the ice trade and iceboxes (18th to mid-20th centuries); often with some degree of construction over it, similar to that used with icehouses, root cellars, and springhouses.
   • As I had succeeded a year before in the preservation of hopped wort by means of ice, I thought I would now endeavor to cure this unsound beer by means of the same agency. A few casks, each containing seventy liters, were filled with this beer and placed in an ice well. After four or five months...1895 January, Ed Schaar, “Cold brewery cellars. The advantages of good cellars and the disadvantages of poor ones—the influence of low temperatures on the fermentation of beer. [Republished...