2nd Attempt COMPLETED: Satisfied!!

Completed our 2nd attempt at brewing today. I'm feeling confident that this batch will turn out good. After our first attempt a few weeks ago and all of your feedback and input here I am feeling positive with the IPA we brewed earlier today.

I do have two questions:

1-After cooling the wort down using ice and a wort chiller we took temperature readings with 2 types of thermometer. One that came with the turkey fryer and one that came with the homebrew kit. Both had different readings. We were trying to get the temperature down between 65-70F. The turkey fryer thermometer read around 75-80F. As the the other one was reading around 58-62. Could not get an accurate reading with the homebrew kit thermometer as it was submersed in the wort and when I pulled it out to read it, it showed around 60F. But it would quickly start rising up. So I'm guessing it was right around 60F. Maybe a bit to low. But after adding the wort to the ferm bucket to make 5 gallons total I took another temp reading in the ferm bucket before aerating it. Again it showed somewhere between 58-60 as I could not get an accurate reading because as I pulled it out to check it would increase fast. So a good guess was right around 60F. Is that too low to pitch my yeast? I used WLP001 Cal Ale Yeast from White Labs. The sticky thermometer on the bucket was showing 62 about an hour after the wort being in the bucket.

Question 2-After aerating wort in the bucket I took my hydrometer reading and it was right around 1.067. The OG on the kit says it should be at 1.069. Is this okay? We then pitched the yeast and aerated a bit more. There was a thick layer of foam on top when we checked inside. Put the lid back on and the airlock.

Like I said earlier I feel good about this batch. But the temp and hydrometer readings were a bit off. Should I be worried? Is there a more accurate way of checking the wort temperature as its cooling down?

1- Get a glass of crushed ice and add water to it and spin it around the glass for a bit to cool it down. Stick your thermometers in there and calibrate them based off that reading, they should be around 32. If you aren't able to calibrate with a screw or something, take note of the difference and use it when you take temps of wort later on. You can pitch the yeast that low it'll just take time to warm up and get active. But it will happen.

2- The OG at 1.067 is fine, we don't always hit our targets.

For your first question, the yeast should be fine at 60 degrees. I would try to calibrate your thermometers in some ice water and see which one is closest to 32 degrees. For the second question, being off on your OG by .003 is nothing to be worried about. In fact, for your second brew, it's something to be quite happy about! Good luck with your brew and welcome to the obsession!
tom

Great job! Now you need another bucket to test your newly calibrated thermometer. Cheers

Calibrate in a ice bath.. and maybe boiling water.

Ice bath really should be mostly ice. When I calibrate, I may go overboard.. but I put the ice cubes thru a blender until the mixture is mostly ice. It may take the addition of more ice to get to this point. Ice draws heat from the water and if you want to hit 32* it may take it. Put both thermometers in the slush and keep away from the sides and bottom cuz they are also releasing heat to the ice.. no matter how little. Leave them in there for about 5 minutes to stabilize. The turkey fryer thermometer should have a small hex nut on the bottom of the dial for adjusting. Glass.. hmmm. Pretty hard to adjust them.