Help! Need to chill wort!

I just got my wort into the plastic fermenter and the temp is down to about 90 after filling it up to 5 gallons with cold filtered water. Any easy tips for chilling this quickly so I can pitch my yeast? I put the airlock and sealed the lid so it won't get contaminated. Hopefully I haven't screwed up yet. I've been a Nazi about sanitation so I really pray things are going to be alright.

Wow, I'm a little frazzled since I didn't want to screw anything up. Thanks in advance for the help!

as long as you have your sanitized lid and airlock on, it should be okay till it cools, which could take up to an hour or more put some ice packs ontop of the lid and see if that helps, or rubber band them to the side.

I should also note that I've already got the yeast in warm water; is it going to matter if it's in there for a few hours while the wort chills?

My buddies came over a little bit ago and put the frozen bratwurst into my sink to help me cool down the fermenter. xD

Well its not good but it wont kill the yeast. Next time you should aim to pitch at the temp you want to ferment at. So unless your making a Belgium or a warmer fermenting beer i would try to wait.

Here is some good info http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php

Yeah, I guess I got a little ahead of myself. When I had a few minutes left in the boil I got the yeast ready thinking that adding 3 gallons of cold tap water would bring it down the temperature I needed. Clearly, I was wrong.

Since I've had the yeast in the water for what will probably amount to an hour or two will I need to let the beer ferment longer before bottling?

Also what temp DID you pitch the yeast at exactly?

I haven't pitched the yeast yet. I put it in a small tupperware container with about 70 degree water and sealed the lid.

Still attempting to cool my wort. :/

If you have some sort of large storage container or a cooler that will fit your fermenter, fill it with water and ice and put your fermenter in there. I had a similar thought process as you did the other day on my first brew and this is what I did to remedy my problem so that I could pitch.

O i see your rehydrating.


Put the bucket in the sink and make an ice water bath.

I got an immersion chiller to cool my wort quicker. I haven't looked back.

Good luck everything will work out just fine.

fill a sink with icewater (or even cold water) and put the fermenter in there. Drain it once it gets warm and keep repeating until the temp is down. If you have 2 sinks side by side just keep alternating between the 2.

I had one of my buddies grab a bigass bag of ice so I've got the sink filled with ice and fermenter in there.

So the yeast is going to be fine in the little tupperware container then? I'm glad I didn't screw THAT up(hopefully).

The yeast should be fine.

I assume you got an extract kit, and the dry yeast came with it.

Yup, you got it. Sorry, I guess I should've mentioned that at the start. lol

Its really hard to screw this stuff up man haha. RDWHAHB everything will work out.

I keep telling myself that; I just need to believe! It's down to about 80 degrees now; almost there.

Thanks everyone.

When I first started brewing I bought a "Rope Tub" from Walmart for, like 6 bucks. When it came time to cool the wort I would just fill it half way up with water and ice and float my boil kettle in it 'till my wort got cool enough to pitch. Then I transfered into my fermenter and pitched.

This thing is about the best purchase I've made for my brewery. When it's not chilling wort it's storing damn near every thing else I need for my boil.

Next time I'm definitely chilling the wort in the pot before I put it in the fermenter with the rest of the filtered water. I didn't realize it'd take this long to bring the temp down; it's at about 81 now and I finished my boil over 2 hours ago.

+1 on chilling in the pot. Heat transfers much better through metal than plastic as you've discovered. I was able to get about a 4 gal boil down to 75 in an ice bath in roughly 35 minutes this weekend.

I made a wort chiller in about 15 minutes with a few parts from the hardware store. I made all 5 gallons in a 30 qt. kettle and chilled it in about 15 minutes. Highly recommended and easy to make.

The wort is down to 78; is it going to make a difference in waiting anther couple of hours to pitch the yeast at 70 like the directions state or can I do it now and not significantly change the outcome of my beer?

EDIT: Pitched the yeast at around 74. The specific gravity on the kit said it should be 1.06-1.07 but I only measured 1.05; is it normal to be off by that much(maybe that's not much; I don't know haha)?

What I've planed for my next brew (should be tomorrow) is to use one or two gallon chunks of ice. I've sanitized, filled and frozen two milk jugs. I'll cut away the jug and add the ice, one at a time, to the wort after boil, when the temp is low enough, I'll fill the the rest of the way with water, then pitch the yeast.

This will be my first 5 gallon brew. I'm still using extracts, so two gallon boils, I'm sure I won't need more than two chunks, most likely one will do.

I'll let y'all know how it goes.

If you can, even though you've now pitched it - try to get it to 65 or less. The yeast activity will raise the temp in the fermenter by 4 degrees or more. Good for you being temperature conscious. (I failed miserably at this at first) As you get better at it, the brews will get better.

now, get it cool and practice patience, grasshopper...

It's sitting in a cool, dark corner of my basement right now at 70; the basement is mid 60s so I'm hoping the temp continues to come down a bit more. It's only been about 12 hours since I pitched the yeast so no crazy activity on the airlock but I'm going to be watching it like a hawk since I'm still paranoid I messed it up haha