Beginner- question about wort temperature

Hi guys, first time poster and brewer (just put the airlock on my first brew about three hours ago).

I have a question about wort temperature. I decided to make my first batch easy and went with a Munton/Fison hopped beer kit and a one lb. bag of amber dme. I boiled the wort per the instructions. Afterwards I submerged my brew pot in a sink of ice water to cool it down. I then poured it into my bucket and topped it off at 5 gallons with cold water. I checked the temp and it was at 85º so I waited....and waited....and waited....and waited. Two hours later the wort was still high, at 82º. Finally, three hours later it dipped below 80º at 78º. I finally pitched my yeast at 75º; a full four and a half hours later. Is this normal?

My question is, is there a quicker way to cool the wort without buying a wort chiller? Next time, how would slowly adding the wort to a bucket of ice work out? Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Did you have a thermometer in the wort when you chilled it in the sink? I cool my batches in the bathtub while watching the thermometer. You shouldn't be waiting so long to pitch the yeast, it puts your wort in a position where bacteria can get to it.

If you have a plastic fermenter, which i think you mentioned; you can pour your wort onto a bed of ice (sanitized water). That would bring you down faster, as well as just holding it longer in the ice bath.

I just use lots and lots of ice for my ice bath, typically takes me 3 5lb bags and 30 minutes.

Jon Morris said:

I then poured it into my bucket and topped it off at 5 gallons with cold water. I checked the temp and it was at 85º so I waited....and waited....and waited....and waited. Two hours later the wort was still high, at 82º. Finally, three hours later it dipped below 80º at 78º. I finally pitched my yeast at 75º; a full four and a half hours later. Is this normal?

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Once you took the wort out of the ice bath and poured it in your fermenter, there was little temperature differential between your wort and the air around the bucket. So, yes, it is normal for the wort to cool so slowly in those conditions. The key is to keep your wort in the ice bath to get the wort temperature to where you want it.

Agreed, just keep it in your ice bath until it gets to where you want it, and make sure that the water that you are using to top off with is not warmer than your wort.

Do your cooling in your kettle. Plastic (although only mediocre) is an insulator and will make your wort retain its heat longer. The metal kettle will exchange heat quicker. Also, when you are cooling your kettle in ice water, stir the water every few minutes in order to make sure there is cold water in contact with the metal at all times. If you don't a heat gradient is established and you won't get efficient cooling.

Yes, there is...I do 1.5 gal boils and top off with PUR filtered tap water that I put in 1 gal jugs in the freezer 4-5 hours prior to brewing.

The temp drops into the 60s in the time it takes to pour the water into the primary...minutes.

homebrewer_99 said:

Yes, there is...I do 1.5 gal boils and top off with PUR filtered tap water that I put in 1 gal jugs in the freezer 4-5 hours prior to brewing.

The temp drops into the 60s in the time it takes to pour the water into the primary...minutes.

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Thank you for posting this. That is one of the questions I had. I wondered how fast that would work, and if there were any other unforeseen problems that might be involved.:rockin:

I just checked my primary and it's bubbling quite nicely (about 1-2 bubbles per second). I have another question though, is it normal to smell a faint smell of "alcohol" emmitting from the fermenter? I am covering the bucket with the box it came in and when I removed it I got a very faint whiff of an alcoholly smell (drinking not rubbing). It smelled great but is that normal?

ethanol evaporates very easily, plus we can smell it in very small concentrations. It is likely to be evaporating a little from the fermenter and then accumulating inside the box. I wouldn't worry about it. It is not enough to change the ABV, but it does tell you that it is fermenting.