Wort Temp after CFC Cooling

Hey All-

I'm going to be brewing my first AG batch on Saturday (National Homebrewing Day!). I've spent the last several days completing a few trials runs using just water to make sure my equipment is working. So far so good. I tested out my gravity fed CFC and was able to cool about 5.5gal of boiling water to about 60 deg F in about 15 minutes (I live in Michigan and the water is very cold underground!). Will wort at this temp be too cool to pitch my yeast into on Saturday or will I not need to worry about it? I will be fermenting in my basement which is about 65 deg F.

Thanks!

Dtrain

No, 65 is an ideal ale pitching temp.

Ideally you want to end up with the wort at pitching temperature. If you're going to pitch at 60F, it sounds just right. If you are going to pitch a bit warmer, you could always restrict the water flow a bit, which would reduce the cooling. With my system (also a gravity fed CFC), I manage to get it within 2 - 3 degrees of pitching temperature (usually 68F) using an old, beat up kinked hose to feed the CFC. If I replace the hose with one with no kinks, I can get it considerably colder (at least in winter).

-a.

I hear ya on the cold water temps. I live in the U.P. and my tap water is around 40 deg F. Works really well for my CFC. I actually built my own CFC because I don't need 50ft like most of the ones for sale, and it was waaaaaaaay cheaper to build myself. Mine is a whopping 15ft long, and I can cool boiling wort to lager pitching temps even in the summer.

Thanks for the info everyone!

Dtrain