1st Brew Quick Question

Getting ready to start my first brew of a Coopers kit. I searched the threads and got varying answers so any advice would be helpful.

I've seen ranges of 1 gallon of water to start up to 5 gallons, does it really matter if you are topping off with water.

I am making a Coopers ale and I was planning on mixing all of the ingredients into 1-2 gallons of water and then following the 30 min boil I was going to top off with chilled purified water to get the wort temp down.

Do I chill the wort in the ice bath before topping off with water or top of the hot wort and then chill more if necessary.

Not stressed but does all of these variation really matter as long as I end up with 5 gallons at 75 degree before pitching the yeast?

How big is your brew pot? I've done full boils and partial boils and both have turned out fine. In my partial boils I boiled 3 gallons and topped off with 2. Some people will tell you that you should boil as much as you can.

Do the biggest boil you can. Cool with ice until you decide to get a wort chiller.

I was going to use one of the large stainless pots that are used for deep frying turkeys,

I boil 1 3/4 gallons for my extracts because that is all my pot will handle. The beers are not award winning, but very drinkable. Although when I can afford to go to full boil I will, as part of getting set up for AG.

I noticed you're planning on pitching around 75*F, most of the advice I've seen on here recommends pitching at your planned fermentation temp, or a little lower and letting the yeast activity bring up the wort temp from there.

Maybe one of the more experienced members will comment.

Happy brewing!

Just remember that the more you boil, the longer it will take to cool. Topping off does help cool the wort. I've been doing full boils and I'm really noticing the difference in cooling times, even with an immersion chiller.

I had to chuckle at D0ug's comment on pitching temps. You are ABSOLUTELY right. I had an incident today that "forced" me to pitch at about 85 degrees. And by incident I mean SWMBO being pissed that I was taking up room in the kitchen to cool my wort because I had a broken clamp on the chiller and was getting hose water in the pot.

My advice:

Ideally you want your pot to fit in your sink or a tub you have around your house. As soon as your boil is done set it in a ice/water bath and get it chilling for 10 or 15 minutes (stirring constantly with a nice sanitized spoon helps heat transfer a lot). Then add your water... adding the top off after you have started the cooling process keeps you from having to keep the water level in your bath as high up the side of the pot, so you waste less water if you want to drain the sink and refill it with cold water a few times.

Metal transfers heat a lot better than plastic whether you are cooling with air or water, so get the temp as low as you can before you put it into your bucket, the insulating properties of plastic will make the final temp drop (should your top off not get it low enough) take FOREVER!

I am no physics expert, but this works phenomenally for me for quick temp reduction.

i usually use 1 1/2-2 gallons of water for my boil. once my boil is done, i set my brew pot in the sink and surround it with ice or at least cold water (as cold as i can get it) before transfering into the fermenter.
just like bennyd said, the more you boil, the longer it takes for it to cool as well as it takes a little longer to get up to boiling point. this is probably why i personally don't do full boils but rather partial boils instead.

Thanks Lotbfan, i'm almost finished with my boil and I got back online to find out wether to cool in my cookpot or transfer to plastic and cool. You just made my life alot easier.

Always cool in the brew pot. I know you said plastic....but you should also know that under NO circumstances should you ever pour hot wort into a glass carboy. The carboy will crack and shatter.

Do not boil the Coopers beer kit. You only need to add 2 liters of boiling water to your fermenter and stir in the extract until dissolved. Boiling the hopped beer kit will only serve to caramelize the malt extract and will boil off the hops that already added to the kit. You don't need a big brew pot. If you want to add flavor/aroma hops to the kit you can boil those in the 2 liters of water for 5-10 minutes.

I boiled about 3 gallons added 2 gallons of ice gold water to top off and sat the cookpot in a container of crushed ice. I stirred and added more crushed ice as needed and I had the wort cooled in about 15-20 minutes. I think the crushed ice was what helped the most, its great having neighbors with huge ice machines at their house.

OK Tomheff is exactly right DO NOT boil these kits. Heat up some water on your stove - add any extra sugar or malt you want to add to the fermenter into the hot water. Dump it in the fementor then open your coppers kit up and add it in. Add cold water til you get up to the 23 liter mark.

These are often reffered to as 'No Boil' kits. They are boiled and hopped before you get them. Instructions should come with the can they are generlly ok - instead of adding all sugar you can add some malt and sugar - and ferment around 68 if possible.

Cheers