So I brewed my first batch today.

I brewed a Wheat beer, a Weihenstephaner clone, everything went as expected except for the cooling process, I have to change something there. I didnt think it would take as long as it did in the bath tub ice bath. Next time I will use the kitchen sink, less volume= cooler temps, should of thought of this a few hours ago. The OG is 1.053 for this brew and mine was 1.057 or so, close? Anyhow I thank you guys/gals for all the help even though most of it was done by searching and not posting. Looking forward to the final outcome, hopefully tasty.

I would imagine the bath tub would've taken a while.

I make an ice bath in the sink but adding cold water, ice, and salt. I stir it up until it's nice and cold and add the brew kettle to the bath. I stir the water around the pot to get it going and do that every once in a while.

Usually I have wort that is cooler than my tap water within 30 minutes.

howdy orpheus , just tryin to jump in a minute!! Whats the best temp to achieve? and is as fast as you can a good target?? I've heard a bunch of opinions

I have a question about cooling as well. Sticking the brew pot into an ice bath with the lid on, whats the best way to tell what the temp is? Take the lid off and stick in a thermometer every once in awhile? Wouldn't this risk comtamination?

Steg,

Yes you want to get the temp down as quickly as possible. The faster the better as the longer your wort sits out, the longer it risks possible infection. Generally speaking, you just want to get it down below 80 degrees. Between 70 and 75 would be ideal (for ales at least.)

Plum,

Obviously a thermometer would be the best way to tell temp. Star San is wonderful for sanitizing your thermometer right before you stick it in the wort.

Personally, I don't bother taking temp readings at this point. I just cool my wort in the pot until it's ice cold to the touch and then I add it to the primary.