Use Cold Water To Get Temp Down?

I generally do a 3.5 gallon boil for a 5 gallon batch due to the size of my boiling pot. I know the goal is to get temp down to pitching temp as quickly as possible after the boil. Is there any reason not to add my cold top-off water as a means to accomplish that? I've been using an ice bath & waiting until wort is to temp (under 80 deg)before adding the 1.5 gallons of top off. Is adding chilled water before the ice bath a good way to speed up the process? Then aerate & pitch as usual?

Yes, cold water. Not ice.

Ice works great as long as it is sanitary.

I saw a video somewhere that said you generally only want to add water to cool down your wort to pitching temps when it gets down to about 110 degree F or so. Not sure if this is true. I too put my pot in an ice bath until it cools to about 80 degrees, but next time I'd like to try this method as it seems like it will knock off some serious time.

Yeah, there is no way in hell you are going to get it to 110 by adding top off water to 210 wort.

BendBrewer said:

Yeah, there is no way in hell you are going to get it to 110 by adding top off water to 210 wort.

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Not sure if I'm understanding you correctly, but what I said, or at least tried to say, is I saw on a video it's best to wait until your wort cools down to 110 (whatever your cooling process is) and then add tap water. For some reason, and I don't remember why, it's not preferred to pour cold water into the hot wort.

The worry from certain camps is that pouring cold water into your hot wort will result in hot side aeration. Others say that's a myth. Either way, it's certainly a good idea to chill your top off water and let it do some of the cooling for you. That being said, I have found that it only knocks off about 5-10 minutes of ice bath time.

kyle6286 said:

Not sure if I'm understanding you correctly, but what I said, or at least tried to say, is I saw on a video it's best to wait until your wort cools down to 110 (whatever your cooling process is) and then add tap water. For some reason, and I don't remember why, it's not preferred to pour cold water into the hot wort.

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Ah....I thought you were warning against getting the temp below 110 by adding the top water. Never going to happen.

My bad.

Good info friends. Thanks. Getting ready to brew right now.

Some ppl boil top off water to sanitize it and then freeze it in sanitized containers. It just makes a nice ice block that drops temps FAST.

Nothing says you can't do both...