Lager Brewing without a wort chiller

[apache]

I recently bought a chest freezer to use as a lagering setup, but the recipes I've seen want the wort to be 58 degrees before adding lagering yeast. I don't have a wort chiller, and don't want to add ice or anything like that to the wort to chill it, though I saw in another thread that it is common for people to do that. It takes a good 30 to 60 minutes now to chill a 3 to 4 gallon boil in an ice bath in the sink to 80 degrees, so getting it down to 56 might take a very long time.

Would topping that off with distilled water chilled in the fridge to 40 degrees or so work well?

 

[wildwest450]

Or chill as usual, and put it in the freezer to get it the rest of the way down. If your serious enough to buy a lagering freezer, it's time to get a wort chiller.


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[COLObrewer]

Or chill as usual, and put it in the freezer to get it the rest of the way down. If your serious enough to buy a lagering freezer, it's time to get a wort chiller.


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Exactly, even with a chiller it may be hard to get it to 58F at times.