Best way for beginner to cool wort?

What is the best way for a beginner to cool wort? I was thinking about just dunking it in an ice bath. Is there a better way without using specialized equipment?

If your pot will fit in the kitchen sink, fill it (leave enough space for water movement) with cold water, let the hot pot set in it for 15-20 minutes (move the water from time to time). Drain, refill, repeat. Once the wort is under ~120F, add ice to the water to get it to 65-70F before pitching your yeast.

Look at the pages linked to at the bottom of this page now for additional info... Of course, searching would have probably answered this for you. It seems to be asked a lot by noobs...

Yah, what gold said. I typically also put something sanitary & heavy on top of my kettle lid (like an inverted pyrex mixing bowl). Keeping the lid tight helps to hold in those nice hop aromas (which actually get sucked back into the wort as it cools).

For a beginner, I would suggest doing a partial boil and then topping it off with cold water. This will significantly drop the temperature of the wort.

Do what they suggested above, but with only 2.5 gallons it will cool faster. Transfer to the carboy, top off and it should drop to your pitching temp. Saves time and effort. Plus, less water to boil, so that doesn't take as long during the brew day!

I just barely scanned the other posts, but I brewed my first batch a few weeks ago, and there were two things I did that worked great and were very easy.

1) I just left my kettle in the sink with water surrounding it and kept adding ice to it until I got the temperature down. A small bag from the grocery store should be plenty. Remember to leave the lid on.

2) I did a concentrated boil, so that all the extract and hops were boiled in about 3 to 3.5 gallons of water. The rest of the water was chilled in a fridge. When my wort was getting near 70 degrees, I dumped the cold water into the fermentor and then dumped in the wort after that. Mixed it for about 5 minutes to aerate and even out the temps and I was good to go. I forget at what temperature I mixed them at, but I think it was around 90F. Someone else might be able to chime in with a better number. You might want to do a quick search on adjusting your boil additions for a concentrated boil, but that is definately not necessary.

I'm by no means an expert, but I have read a lot and that was what worked for me. Also, I'm typing this from my phone, I apologize if something makes no sense at all, I'm sure someone will correct me.

I was watching a video on youtube the other day, this guy had made a pretty inexpensive way to cool his wort. He put his kettle in a round plastic trashcan, like the ones used for leaves and stuff, cut a whole in the side near the top for his water hose and then a hole on the side near the bottom for it to drain. Then he just turned on the water hose.

I put my BK in a galvanized tub with ice water... cools 5.25 gallons of wort to ~70 in about 20 minutes. I do use about 20 lbs of ice to do it. Sanitize the lid of your BK and make sure it fits tight...