How to cool wort all the way to pitching temps??

When using my wort chiller I can only cool down to about 75-80 degrees. How can I get my wort down to like 60 degrees. I don't feel like purchasing a different chiller right now but I do have a tempereature controled freezer. Once I get my wort down to 75-80 degrees could I just stick it in my freezer until I reach 60 degrees then pitch my yeast or would the time it takes to reach that hurt the wort? I've always heard the faster you can get to pitching temps the better.

I get mine down to 100-110 degrees, then dump it in my fermenter with some cold water in it and it gets down to that 70-75 degress, which is fine for pitching. You dont need to get it down to 60*.

You can either place the vessel in an ice bath along with using the chiller or yes, you can place the vessel in the freezer until the temp gets to where you want it and then pitch the yeast, just be sure the vessel is sealed up so no nasties get in there while it's cooling down.

Good for you on taking care of your yeast!

Go to the hardware store and get a small coil of copper tubing, some hose clamps and tubing. Make a prechiller with this stuff. Set it in a small pot with an ice bath. My buddies and I had the same situation and started using the prechiller. We didn't add ice until we got it down to about 90. Dropping it down those last 20 degrees can be the hardest if your tap water isn't super cold. I know you said you didn't want to get aother chiller, but this would only cost about $15 or so.

Because it is winter here - the water from the faucet is plenty cold to get it to pitch temps in about 30 minutes. All I do is run cold water in the sink for a while and change it every 10 minutes.

A keg tub full of ice water would do the same thing if your water isn't that cold.
Last batch I just poured it in the primary and set it outside covered and let it cool down before I pitched. Worked like a charm.

sweed said:

I get mine down to 100-110 degrees, then dump it in my fermenter with some cold water in it and it gets down to that 70-75 degress, which is fine for pitching. You dont need to get it down to 60*.

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Dont listen to this.


Dont pitch your yeast until its at the temperature you want to start fermenting at. I start the fermentation of pretty much all of the yeasts I use at 60 or even 55 for a few strains(like kolsch yeast).

In the summer when ground water is warm, I do just what you say, chill it to mid 70's and then use my ferm freezer to get it the rest of the way prior to pitching.

Waiting a long time to pitch post brewing can be problematic as it gives non yeast organisms time to get established, but if you use proper cleaning/sanitation protocols you can minimize the risk. Pitching at too high a temperature on the other hand is a guarantee of subpar beer.

I like the chaka avatar.

Ice baths in conjunction with a wort chiller will get you there. That, or you can leave a bunch of loops of hose in a small mini fridge or drop freezer and pass the coil water through it first before it hits your IC. There are a ton of aquarium people that make their own re circulation chillers in such a way.

As long as you're getting within ten degrees of the yeast starter to your pitching temperature, you're not going to unduly stress the yeast.

I imagine the temperature of your ground water is similiar to mine here in Florida, so I understand your situation. A wort chilling system is limited by the temperature of the water being input into the system, meaning you're not going to cool your wort to 60F with 80F tap water.

I do exactly what you've proposed. I cool my wort to 75-80 degrees with my chiller, transfer to a carboy, then place it in my temperature controlled fridge to cool it the rest of the way which usually takes several hours. I often leave it overnight if I'm brewing a lager. I cover the carboy opening with 2-3 layers of paper towels dampened with starsan and secured with a rubber band to prevent any contaminants from contacting the wort. When the wort has reached the lower end of the yeast's temperature range, I pitch my yeast and aerate. Yes, rapidly cooling your wort can be important, but your wort is safe at the 80F temp range to cool slowly the extra 20 degrees, or so.

Other options include the pre-chiller method mentioned earlier, or a really large ice bath. I personnaly avoid those methods simply because I don't feel like purchasing ice for every batch when I already have a temperature controlled fridge. I hope this helps.

Permanent Solution: Move north and buy a house with a deep well! My groundwater comes out at 50F in the winter and 60F in the summer. I Tapped in a faucet in my yard next to the well head so I can get water coming right out of the 380' deep well in August that is still cool!

Easiest solution: Get a second immersion chiller and run your water through it first with the first chiller placed in an ice bath and the second placed in your wort....instantly your cooling water is in the 40's or 50's entering the wort!

Xpertskir said:

Dont listen to this.


Dont pitch your yeast until its at the temperature you want to start fermenting at. I start the fermentation of pretty much all of the yeasts I use at 60 or even 55 for a few strains(like kolsch yeast).

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So, I'm a bit confused about this. What you're saying makes perfect sense to me because it seems like the yeast would slow down if you pitched at 75 and then kept lowering the temp to ferment at, say, 65, and certainly at 60 or lower. But White Labs recommends (for all of their yeasts I believe) that you warm the yeast to room temp (specifically 70 to 75) and then pitch into wort at the same temp (70 and 75) to to avoid shocking the yeast by pitching it in wort colder than their current ambient temp. That makes sense too.

I ice bath mine. But also use a plastic 2 liter pop bottle filled with frozen water as a cooling paddle. Stirring the wort with it. While sitting in the ice bath. Gets it down to 65 degrees in 10 minutes or less.

+1 to using a prechiller if your tap water in your area isn't cold enough to do the job. Fortunately that's not a problem I have. You can also use an ice bath in combination to using your chiller.

Right now in Northeast Texas, the hose water is cold enough at 60*F that I can chill to 66*F in 18 minutes just flowing that through my 1/2" coil chiller.

Once it warms up, use the tap water to get as low as you can. The rest of the way requires using chilled water. I picked up a submersible pump at Northern Tool for $39. Put it in a big bucket and connect it to the chiller. Flow water into the bucket with a hose at the same rate it's being pumped out. Add ice to the bucket to chill the water going into the wort chiller. That will get you the last 20-25 degrees you need.

BigFloyd said:

Right now in Northeast Texas, the hose water is cold enough at 60*F that I can chill to 66*F in 18 minutes just flowing that through my 1/2" coil chiller.

Once it warms up, use the tap water to get as low as you can. The rest of the way requires using chilled water. I picked up a submersible pump at Northern Tool for $39. Put it in a big bucket and connect it to the chiller. Flow water into the bucket with a hose at the same rate it's being pumped out. Add ice to the bucket to chill the water going into the wort chiller. That will get you the last 20-25 degrees you need.

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You just reminded me why I really want to pick up a small submersible pump! IN the summer it's still easy to get the wort down to 80F with tap water but those last 15-20 degrees can take as long as the first 130!

bretn said:

So, I'm a bit confused about this. What you're saying makes perfect sense to me because it seems like the yeast would slow down if you pitched at 75 and then kept lowering the temp to ferment at, say, 65, and certainly at 60 or lower. But White Labs recommends (for all of their yeasts I believe) that you warm the yeast to room temp (specifically 70 to 75) and then pitch into wort at the same temp (70 and 75) to to avoid shocking the yeast by pitching it in wort colder than their current ambient temp. That makes sense too.

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I am always decanting a cold starter prior to pitching so, that situation really isn't relevant for my process.

Also, what they are saying is don't shock the yeast by cooling them down once they get some food to eat. Which is exactly what you would be doing by pitching at 70-75 and cooling down to ferm temps.


IF, and I dont advocate it at all, you were going to pitch directly from a vial, I would be far more concerned with the temperature of the wort than the temp of the yeast.

bretn said:

So, I'm a bit confused about this. What you're saying makes perfect sense to me because it seems like the yeast would slow down if you pitched at 75 and then kept lowering the temp to ferment at, say, 65, and certainly at 60 or lower. But White Labs recommends (for all of their yeasts I believe) that you warm the yeast to room temp (specifically 70 to 75) and then pitch into wort at the same temp (70 and 75) to to avoid shocking the yeast by pitching it in wort colder than their current ambient temp. That makes sense too.

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What's weird is their packages do say that. But read the book "yeast" by Chris White and he'll say that is not a good practice!

What pitching too warm does is compensate for underpitching, and that's why the package says that. Generally, there aren't enough yeast cells in that package for most beers so to speed up the start of fermentation the yeast package tells you to do that.

It's not the best way to get the best tasting beer and healthiest yeast, though!

Ryan11 said:

Once I get my wort down to 75-80 degrees could I just stick it in my freezer until I reach 60 degrees then pitch my yeast or would the time it takes to reach that hurt the wort? I've always heard the faster you can get to pitching temps the better.

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Yes, that is much better than pitching warm. What you've heard is basically accurate. Cheers!

Yooper said:

What's weird is their packages do say that. But read the book "yeast" by Chris White and he'll say that is not a good practice!

What pitching too warm does is compensate for underpitching, and that's why the package says that. Generally, there aren't enough yeast cells in that package for most beers so to speed up the start of fermentation the yeast package tells you to do that.

It's not the best way to get the best tasting beer and healthiest yeast, though!

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Proof there's no need to read instructions! Been wanting to read Yeast for a while.

I had the same question about putting it in the fridge after getting it down as far as possible with an immersion chiller. Only a couple of responses answered this question though. So I don't think that it would be much of a problem as long as it's a sanitized vessel that the wort goes into. Then leave it overnight and pitch the yeast at the same temp. Any thoughts against this?

trevorc13 said:

I had the same question about putting it in the fridge after getting it down as far as possible with an immersion chiller. Only a couple of responses answered this question though. So I don't think that it would be much of a problem as long as it's a sanitized vessel that the wort goes into. Then leave it overnight and pitch the yeast at the same temp. Any thoughts against this?

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I have had mixed results pitching the next day. I did this once or twice out of necessity, since I forgot to make a starter. It worked great and the beer came out good. Then I got cocky and started always making my starters on brew day, and pitching the next day. It worked okay, I got maybe 5 batches of good beer, but I had one or two infections too (first ones ever), and I'm guessing this is why.

with my most recent brew, I bought a plastic bucket at menards for 4 bucks (blue, with rope handles), and put about three inches of ice cold water in the bottom. i also had three bags of ice handy.

When the boil terminated, I immediately put the brewpot into the tub, and added ice all the way around it....being careful not to drop anything in the wort.

I went thru all three bags of ice, as I kept feeding it as it melted......ended up with alot of water in the tub (icemelt), but it cooled the wort down to 70 deg in about 30 minutes. it worked well for me, and was cheap

BigFloyd said:

Right now in Northeast Texas, the hose water is cold enough at 60*F that I can chill to 66*F in 18 minutes just flowing that through my 1/2" coil chiller.

Once it warms up, use the tap water to get as low as you can. The rest of the way requires using chilled water. I picked up a submersible pump at Northern Tool for $39. Put it in a big bucket and connect it to the chiller. Flow water into the bucket with a hose at the same rate it's being pumped out. Add ice to the bucket to chill the water going into the wort chiller. That will get you the last 20-25 degrees you need.

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I do something similar to this
I run tap water thru the chiller till I reach about 130. ( 5-6 min.)
Then I switch the water source and use a fountain pump to recirculate ice water from my ice chest. These days I need 3-10# bags of ice.
I get down to 62 (from 130) in about 15 min.

trevorc13 said:

I had the same question about putting it in the fridge after getting it down as far as possible with an immersion chiller. Only a couple of responses answered this question though. So I don't think that it would be much of a problem as long as it's a sanitized vessel that the wort goes into. Then leave it overnight and pitch the yeast at the same temp. Any thoughts against this?

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I have used the fridge cool down method with a immersion chiller fist. Worked great. Maybe a little too great. The next morning after a late brewnight, I went to pitch the yeast, the wort temp read 38 deg! Not the 68 deg I was looking for. Oh well it worked out fine after letting it sit a bit.

I use les ice chilling the BK in a cold water bath a couple minutes,drain & fill the sink with ice around the kettle to the top of the sink. Ad ice if needed till it gets down to 75F or a lil less. Top off in fermenter with gallon jugs of local spring water that've been in the fridge a day or two to recipe volume. I can get it down to 64-65F this way in 20-30 minutes total. About tenlbs of ice.

I plan on making a second chiller before my next batch with 10 feet of copper tubing. I'll run my hose to that, which I'll have sitting in an ice bath, and that will connect to my chiller in the BK. less that $15 for the extra coil, and I figure it'll wont use much ice. Let's hope it works

I get my beer as low as i can, usually around 67-70 and then just pitch the yeast and throw it in my ferm chamber.

It will get to 60F in maybe 1-2 hours, which is fast enough the yeast arent really doing anything.

KepowOb said:

I plan on making a second chiller before my next batch with 10 feet of copper tubing. I'll run my hose to that, which I'll have sitting in an ice bath, and that will connect to my chiller in the BK. less that $15 for the extra coil, and I figure it'll wont use much ice. Let's hope it works

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Check this thread out first.

Also google "prechiller vs recirc"

VonAle said:

Check this thread out first.

Also google "prechiller vs recirc"

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Interesting link, but I have to take his theoretical situation with a grain of salt. His situation involved a volume of water at 35, I plan on using an ice bath, so the warming of my cold source won't be nearly as dramatic of his situation. Also, with a pre-chiller, I can use it from the very beginning, not when the wort has hit 80 or so.

With that said, common sense and math often don't agree, and math is often right. I'll do some more research before I commit, as you suggest, because more knowledge is never a bad thing... but for the time being, for the low cost and simplicity reasons, I'm still leaning pre-chiller.

I pitch at 80 and straight to ferm chamber. Cools down fast enough never had an issue. Thought about leaving yeast out until cooled in chamber but never had a reason too after multiple batches this way.

I recirculate ice water through my CFC using gravity feed from my BK to my fermenter. I usually get it to 64-65 w/o a problem.
If its high I jus sit my fermenter in the bucket w/ the ice water while I finish my clean up. By then it's ready to pitch & oxygenate.

Good for you on taking care of your yeast!

jpr0930 said:

I pitch at 80 and straight to ferm chamber. Cools down fast enough never had an issue. Thought about leaving yeast out until cooled in chamber but never had a reason too after multiple batches this way.

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I've been doing this for years with no ill effects to date.

KepowOb said:

Interesting link, but I have to take his theoretical situation with a grain of salt. His situation involved a volume of water at 35, I plan on using an ice bath, so the warming of my cold source won't be nearly as dramatic of his situation. Also, with a pre-chiller, I can use it from the very beginning, not when the wort has hit 80 or so.

With that said, common sense and math often don't agree, and math is often right. I'll do some more research before I commit, as you suggest, because more knowledge is never a bad thing... but for the time being, for the low cost and simplicity reasons, I'm still leaning pre-chiller.

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I brewed this past weekend and chilled from boiling to 60 in 15 min, with my recirculation setup.

After flame off, I set my boil pot in my swimming pool, (I built a trivet to set it on).
I recirculated pool water (90 deg). with my submersible pump, thru the IC.
After 5 min. temp = 130.
Then I moved the pump out of the pool water and into my ice chest of ice and water.
After about 3-4 min, I was at 90 deg. Pulled the pot out of the pool water
After about 6-7 more min, I was chilled to 60 deg. (15 min total)
Used 3-10# bags of ice. I had some ice left over and probably could have been OK with 2 bags.

I think the swimming pool is a huge benefit for my process. Without that, the times might be a bit longer.

VonAle said:

I brewed this past weekend and chilled from boiling to 60 in 15 min, with my recirculation setup.

After flame off, I set my boil pot in my swimming pool, (I built a trivet to set it on).
I recirculated pool water (90 deg). with my submersible pump, thru the IC.
After 5 min. temp = 130.
Then I moved the pump out of the pool water and into my ice chest of ice and water.
After about 3-4 min, I was at 90 deg. Pulled the pot out of the pool water
After about 6-7 more min, I was chilled to 60 deg. (15 min total)
Used 3-10# bags of ice. I had some ice left over and probably could have been OK with 2 bags.

I think the swimming pool is a huge benefit for my process. Without that, the times might be a bit longer.

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I've been thinking about using the pool and setting the bk on the first step! In the winter this will be awesome at 50f. Right now the pool is 80-90f so my 70f sink water I used until I get to 100. Then I put ice in the sink and stir til I get below 70. Usually takes me about 25 minutes.

I've been contemplating the same question in the OP recently. In the summer in NE my tap water is about 65*. I can usually cool below 70* pretty easy with my immersion chiller, maybe get down to 67-68* with some time. It's the last few degrees that are tough. I really do want to pitch at, or 2* below, my intended fermentation temp.

I had an idea today that I want to use for the first time tomorrow. After cooling with my IC down to upper 60's, the plan is to transfer from my boil kettle into my carboy through an ice bath. I got the gear to run through the process for proof of concept today. I did a trial run with tap water that clocked in at 65*. Going through 20 ft of 1/2 ID vinyl tubing submerged in a saline ice bath, at a slow pace, I was able to get the final carboy temp at 58*.