Newbie Question... wort temperature

[JKenshi]

Hi Everyone!

I've been brewing cider and I'm just now getting into beer via extract brewing. The instructions I'm seeing for most extract recipes are the same as all grain instructions in one aspect... after the boil, get your wort temp down to target as quickly as possible, either with an ice bath or wort chiller.

What bothers me though is that if you're dealing with extract, you're going to be adding water to the wort to bring yourself up to proper OG, so won't that water go a long way to chilling your wort to temperature?

I'm just thinking that if you chill the wort, then add water that's a little colder than target, maybe it's a little harder to bring that wort back up to starting temperature than it would be to let it chill a little more after adding the additional water.

Am I missing something, or just over thinking it?

 

[HotRod9mm]

I'm new to brewing also but was told if you are a few degrees below the target pitching temp, that is best. As you raise the temp during the first few hours of fermentation the yeast wakes up and becomes very active.
I'm also told, pitching yeast on the warm side and than letting the wort cool off, the yeast starts slower.

I just did a 5gal batch and was under the target temp when I pitched the yeast. 20hrs later as the wort was up to temp the yeast was going nuts.

Hope this helps

 

[ncbrewer]

Your concern is valid. The idea is to have the temp of the final wort, including top-off water, at the target - just a little below fermentation temp as Hotrod said. (I go for about 2 deg F below my fermentation temp.) I check the top-off water temp and do a weighted average calculation to see what to cool the post-boil wort to.