Captain_Bigelow

Recipes 

So from the basic recipes I have it says to boil about 3 gallons of wort, cool it, transfer to fermenter and fill to 5 gallon mark with water.

So my question is can I pour the cold water straight into the hot wort to expedite the cooling? Or is this a big no?

Yooper

Recipes 

You need to cool the wort a bit first. Adding cold water to boiling wort does cool it a bit, but not enough. Then it stays at 100 degrees, and is very difficult to chill! If you cool the wort in an ice bath to about 90-100 degrees, then adding cold water to it can get you right to about 70 degrees.

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ChshreCat

Recipes 

I'll freeze brewing water in tupperware bowls in the freezer and plunk one or two giant ice cubes into the kettle while it's cooling in the sink.

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woollybugger2

Recipes 

Put the covered pot in the sink full of ice/water and then stir it every five or ten minutes with a sterilized spoon. The stirring will speed up the cooling process.

Just remember that everything that touche your wort after boil must be sanitized.

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ChshreCat

Recipes 

If there's room around the pot, stir that water now and then too (with a different spoon) and it'll speed it up more.

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defenestrate

Recipes 

i used to just freeze my last 2 gallons almost solid, hack them open with a knife, and add it to the wort before i went AG , no problem. (i wouldnt recommend that practice)
but like yooper said, that will only get you to 90-100.

i would look into building a immersion chiller-you could just hook the chiller right up to the sink, drop the temp to 90 in probably 10 min then add your 2 gallons and be set. i spent i think 35$(?) on mine.

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ChshreCat

Recipes 

Some of it depends on the temp of your water you can get out of your sink faucet. I checked mine the other day and it's about 50 degrees. I don't even both with ice in the sink, just tap water.

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Minky

Recipes 

Just remember that if you cool the wort in the sink and pour it into the carboy, make sure you completely dry off the outside of your kettle before pouring. You don't want that sink water becoming a source of a mystery infection!!

defenestrate

Recipes 

very true. i feel blessed with <45 degree well water and a nice cool basement year round-it was meant to be

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Tlylebrew

Recipes 

Agreed. My well water comes out at a consistant 52°F. My basement is nearly always between 62° & 64°. I was made to brew.