Top-off water temperature

I've read about HSA, and also read about letting the water get outside the OG. I brewed five batches of extract brew, and they've all turned out great. I'm starting to really tweak out my brewing process now, which leads me to the following:

I brew a partial-boil of about 3-3.5 gals. I can cool this in an ice-water bath rather quickly to about 100F, in about 15-20 minutes. My top-off water is purified bottled, and I usually have it in the refrigerator until I start brewing, when I take it out and let it to start to approach room temperature.

Is it okay to add 100F wort to 40-60F top-off water in the primary fermentor? Should I wait until the wort reaches 80F, then transfer? Should the top-off water be warmer? Does it matter what the temperature of the top-off water is? I never pitch until the water is under 80F.

Love to read some expert opinions.

It doesn't really matter! HSA is not really considered an issue modern day and has pretty much been moved into the "myths of conventional brewing wisdom" category.

When I brewed extract, I would freeze or partially freeze two gallons of top up water, cut the top off the jug and add to the wort.

Then one time we tried topping up with cold water straight from the tap and it ended up being our best batch yet (don't worry we checked and there are no chlorines in our water at school).

unionrdr said:

I've been chilling my wort down to 67-70F,

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But I want to move my wort at 100F, right after the cold-break. Then mix with cold water... Should I lower it to 80F? Or does the final mix matter?

What does "outside OG mean" (BTW, all the Brewer's Best kits talk about this "Be careful not to add a volume of water that will cause the wort to fall outside of the OG range specifi ed in the BREW STATS").

I've also read that the best way to top-off is to add two gallons of cold water to the fermentor, shake vigorously, then pour in the cool-down wort, check temp and then pitch.

When doing partial boils, I used the ice bath to bring it down to 80F, then topped off with refrigerated water. This allowed the wort to get down into the 60s or 70F at the warmest. This way I didn't have to rely so much on the swamp cooler to lower the temp into the 60s where I wanted it. My last batch, I switched to a full boil, and used an immersion wort chiller that I built from 3/8 copper tubing. It worked great. It was also easier to obtain an accurate OG because there was no issue of whether the topoff water was thoroughly mixed in. From what I understand, the full boil allows for better hop utilization, and reduces the issue of extract carmelization,(and extract "twang"). It will be interesting to see how this batch turns out.

Each kit you buy will come with a "Target Original Gravity (OG)" range specified. It just means that if you want to produce beer like the kit intends, you should make sure you are not adding too little or too large a volume top off that it causes your specific gravity to be off.

In all honesty, you can just pour 2 gals of almost frozen water into the fermenter. Pour your wort directly from the pot to the fermenter. Then top off to to your target volume with another gallon or so of almost frozen water. Usually, when I do brew extract, I put 3 gals of room temp water in to the freezer when I start brewing.

Last brew I sanitized a plastic bag the night before brewday, added a gallon of pre-boiled water, and froze it. I then added it to the pot as I put it in the ice bath. Worked great! I plan on doing this more often now.

djfake said:

But I want to move my wort at 100F, right after the cold-break. Then mix with cold water... Should I lower it to 80F? Or does the final mix matter?

What does "outside OG mean" (BTW, all the Brewer's Best kits talk about this "Be careful not to add a volume of water that will cause the wort to fall outside of the OG range specifi ed in the BREW STATS").

I've also read that the best way to top-off is to add two gallons of cold water to the fermentor, shake vigorously, then pour in the cool-down wort, check temp and then pitch.

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By "outside of the OG" they mean a reading higher or lower than the range specified. If you followed the kit instructions and topped off properly, you should be in the range. If you're off by a couple of points, don't worry, no big deal. Also, take a sample for your gravity reading, and don't put the hydrometer into the batch. They are fragile, and if it breaks, your wort is shot. Discard or drink the sample after testing, don't put it back into the batch.

Germelli1 said:

Each kit you buy will come with a "Target Original Gravity (OG)" range specified. It just means that if you want to produce beer like the kit intends, you should make sure you are not adding too little or too large a volume top off that it causes your specific gravity to be off.

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I understand, volume of water, e.g. don't make it 6 gals.

Okay, next batch I'll pull the wort down to 80-90F in the ice bath, then mix with 40-50F top off.

And check the OG with a sample.

djfake said:

I understand, volume of water, e.g. don't make it 6 gals.

Okay, next batch I'll pull the wort down to 80-90F in the ice bath, then mix with 40-50F top off.

And check the OG with a sample.

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Exactly

I was hoping you understood that because it came out in a very confusing manner haha.

Remember if you are doing a full 60 min boil that you may be boiling off a good bit of water. It may not be significant, but then again it could also be up to a gallon. I mention this because on our first batch we use 5 gallons of bottled water from the grocery store, and wound up with a higher OG than it called for...between boil off and grain absorbtion from steeping, we lost almost a gallon!

We said oh well, more alcohol in our 4 gallons of beer and let it go haha

Germelli1 said:

Exactly

I was hoping you understood that because it came out in a very confusing manner haha.

Remember if you are doing a full 60 min boil that you may be boiling off a good bit of water. It may not be significant, but then again it could also be up to a gallon. I mention this because on our first batch we use 5 gallons of bottled water from the grocery store, and wound up with a higher OG than it called for...between boil off and grain absorbtion from steeping, we lost almost a gallon!

We said oh well, more alcohol in our 4 gallons of beer and let it go haha

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The same thing happened to me on my first batch. I thought it was cool that the IPA had more alchohol than the kit predicted, but I've since realized that you need session beers as well. It's easy to get wasted on big beers.

PIGMAN said:

The same thing happened to me on my first batch. I thought it was cool that the IPA had more alchohol than the kit predicted, but I've since realized that you need session beers as well. It's easy to get wasted on big beers.

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Ours was a golden IPA kit as well! For that reason we just let her rip

I usually try to boil 3.5 gals, and then top off with less than 2 gal. However, I realize two things:

1. I would love to have a little more than 5 gals in the fermenter since I end up losing some to trub/gunk when transferring from primary to secondary, and from secondary to bottling. I'm getting better, as last batch yielded 48x 12oz plus 1x 22oz.

2. I normally don't cover the brew pot during the 60 boil, but that would probably save some water from boiling off. I'm also going to steep specialty grains in separate pot with a lower amount of water, 1 gal per 1lb, and then add to my main pot. This should save time and energy, but probably some water to boil-off as well.

Session beers are a good thing.

NEVER COVER THE BREW POT.

This is what happened on my third batch in my friends apartment. I was in the kichen and he was in his room looking up a part of the recipe we forgot to print.

As I am putting lid on pot: "Hey steve, why do they say not to cover the brew pot?"

Before steve can reply beer foams like crazy boiling over and gets sticky brown chared sugar all over everything.

Steve from his bedroom "You are cleaning that up"