Which is more important? Cooling the Wort or Pitching yeast early?

I do not have a wort chiller, I suck I know, so Im trying to cool as fast as possible to get the wort below 80 degrees so I can pitch my yeast. It has now been over an hour and I am still at 100 degrees. Is it more important to wait to get below 80 degrees, or should I pitch the yeast now, seal the bucket and take it down to my basement?

Definitely wait! As long as your sanitation is good you can wait days before pitching but if you pitch too high you will kill the yeast. Some yeasts can handle higher temp than others but you will be fine waiting until your temp is lower.

Get below 80. In fact, get to 70 if you can. IMO, given good cleanliness and a good lid, you can take several hours to get to your pitching temp (afterall, the yeast will have a many-hour lag phase anyway). The single biggest drawback to slow cools are any late addition hops that went in to the boil kettle, otherwise a slow cool if fine as long as you keep the wort covered so stuff doesn't get in.

Thank you! I sanitized the heck out of everything, so Im not worried there. I just hear all the horror stories about cooling as fast as possible because bacteria starts to grow and will ruin your beer...then they try selling you an expensive wort chiller. I am going to buy one eventually...just not yet. Thanks again!

Did you ice bath it? I pitched my first too early and I would definitely wait to at least below 80.

I don't pitch until the following day. I let the wort sit on the counter overnight (covered, sanitized, etc) so that there is never a temp issue.

Definitely get the temp down to at least 70F before you pitch the yeast, preferably lower. If your chilling method sucks, you should check out "No Chill" brewing.

I have a double sink in my kitchen with the divider in the middle lower than the rim of the sink.. I sit the covered Wort in the one side and let the water (~50-60 degree) fill that side slowly and just over flow into the other sink.

Then I:

Stir the wort every few minutes.. and usually its dropped to about 70 within a hour.

I pull the pot out of the water bath

Put the fermentor in the sink and transfer the wort (using a stainless steel colander and dumping as it gets filled, then fill with water to the proper OG.. at that point its close to 65 degrees..

Pitch the yeast

Put the top on and the vent

Then put the fermenter in the garage.

I have to say the little 6.5 Gallon fermenter I have is cool.. I haven't seen the like of it anywhere.. I was told it was from an older Mr. Brew or maybe Mr. Beer kit. It's in my avatar. I can't find any info on it anywhere online, no pictures, nothing. Anyone know where it came from..? It was given to me by a friend.

Anyway, I like it as it fits nicely into my kitchen sink and no where near as cumbersome as a carboy, and yet better than a bucket as I can see through it, etc..

Your fine. Relax. Have a home brew.
Get to 70 degrees or lower.
Once you pitch the yeast, and the yeast start chugging along, the yeast are going to increase the temperature of your wort, about 5 - 8 degrees.
Get a tub, even your bath room tub, carefully place your wort in there and add ice.

65 degrees or lower is when I pitch. temperatures above 75 degrees produce banana beer.

As long as your kettle is covered no worries about it taking longer. Yes, bacteria can be a problem but they first have to get in and if you have your kettle covered by a sanitized lid that is taken care of--everything on the inside was killed by the boiling. Though I haven't done no chill, I have friends who do. They put the boiled wort into a plastic cube container that has been sanitized and they seal it up. They let it sit overnight to cool to ambient temps then they aerate and pitch. Your yeast don't know anything about the temps, the time or the danger of bacteria. If they get in too hot of wort they die. So the question is better phrased, "Do I wait for my wort to cool to where my yeast will survive to make beer, or do I go ahead and kill them now?"

the temperature at which you pitch your yeast is one of the the most important factors in beer flavor. definitely wait to pitch until you get down a couple of degrees below your desired fermenting temperature.

Pitching over 68F or so is one of the worst brewing mistakes you can make.

cheezydemon3 said:

Pitching over 68F or so is one of the worst brewing mistakes you can make.

Click to expand...

Not according to Chris White:

"The lag phase can be carried out at a higher temperature than the rest of fermentation because very little flavor compounds are produced. Ethanol production is also very limited, therefore ester formation is not a concern. Some brewers begin the lag phase for ales at 72-75 F, and complete the fermentation at 68 F."

I can definitely see where cheezydemon3's post is coming from and I typically cool my wort to 60-65F. If pitching a proper sized yeast starter or worse, an oversized yeast starter then things get away from you REALLY fast. I've recently found my carboys in a winterish garage trying to keep fermenting temperatures down while the ambients were 10+ degrees F lower! On the other hand, if starting slow and perfect then it's much easier keeping things in control throughout the fermentation with minor adjustments. At least this has been my experience.

Ice in the sink with the water maybe?

I fill my bathtub with cold water and ice. Cools a 5 gallon batch to 80 degrees F in about 30-40 mins. Works well, but you do have to do a bit more lifting to get through the house.

In the winter time, I use a 20gal rope handled tub 2/3 or 3/4 full of water, outside, filled 24hrs or so ahead of time depending on how cold it's going to be (less if it's going to be real cold). When my boil is over, I kick a hole in the ice and drop the pot right in. It will float just fine with the lid on and I periodically stir the water and the wort (with different paddles).

I have two tubs and will be using both of them tomorrow night for my next brew day (eg. when the wort reaches 140 or 130 transfer to the next tub). Maybe I'll take temp readings with time stamps to see how fast I can get the wort below 100º.