cooling wort, yeast pitching

Sorry I know this has been answered, but I'm steeping grains right now, and don't have time to find the best answer. When I'm done with my wort, and it needs to cool, in an ice bath, what temp am I looking to get it to, to add it to my fermenter, and what temp to pitch the yeast at. Thanks. Yeast is 1272 liquid wyeast, if that matters.

You want the wort to be in the mid 70s when you pitch your yeast. This includes any top off water required in your recipe.

equal or lower than your fermentation temperature is best, but slightly warmer is fine. if you're doing a partial boil you don't need to get it as cool and then just add it to cool/cold water in your fermenter.

You can also freeze some boiled top-off water in sanitized containers and drop that into the wort to bring it down some more after a good first ice bath (just to make sure you don't splash yourself with hot boiling wort). It would be better to use smaller "ice blocks" than a single big one, because of the higher surface area available for cooling.


I'm doing this next time so I don't have to go buy ice from the store at 5 p.m.