Wort temperature when pitching????

[Bilbo24]

I’ve ordered a beer kit called Captain’s Ration Export Stout. It is an extract kit. Instructions call for cooling the wort to 72 degrees then pitching two packs of S-04 dry yeast into the wort. It’s an estimated 1.072 OG and 7.1 ABV beer.
I’m going to chill the wort with a wort chiller but that will only get it down so far. The instructions call for adding the remaining 2 gallons of cold water into the cooled wort to get the volume to the correct level AND to further cool the wort.
My question is: Is it ok to add REALLY cold water to get it down to that 72 degrees? Will that affect anything? THANKS TO ALL!!! Cheers!

 

[thiagoedwardo]

I did it sometimes already, i just boil the water first, then i freeze it, and to chill faster i drop the ice on the wort. Had no problems at all.

 

[SanPancho]

The instructions call for adding the remaining 2 gallons of cold water into the cooled wort to get the volume to the correct level AND to further cool the wort.
My question is: Is it ok to add REALLY cold water to get it down to that 72 degrees? Will that affect anything? THANKS TO ALL!!! Cheers!

it’s fine. There are calculators online that will tell you what temp cold water you want to be able to wind up at 72. Although that obviously depends how low you can chill your wort.
if you know your cold water from fridge will be around 40f you can use the calculators to figure out how low you need to chil wort to wind up at 72. But the reality is as long as you’re somewhere around room temperature you should be fine. Yeast take a while to get going, especially dry yeast. gives you a little rime to finish the cooling process in cooler/fridge/etc.

 

[Jag75]

Yes start off with 3 gallons for your brew . Then top off with cold water to help get to pitching temp . If you don't have temp control try and get it down to 70f . As fermentation gets going that beer temp will rise .

 

[Bilbo24]

This is only the second time I’ve made beer so go easy here!!! The first time, the recipe called for ALL of the water to be added to the boil. This recipe calls for only half of the water to be added for the boil and the other half to be added to cool the wort. The first time I used Crystal Geyser bottled water for the whole boil. I didn’t worry about its sanitation because it was going to be boiled. This time, I’m planning on using the same type of bottled water from sealed containers so do I have to boil it first to make sure it’s sanitized or is it ok from the sealed bottles?? What makes me ask this question is that I’ve used this water straight from the sealed bottles to make both ciders and meads that did great.

 

[Jag75]

This is only the second time I’ve made beer so go easy here!!! The first time, the recipe called for ALL of the water to be added to the boil. This recipe calls for only half of the water to be added for the boil and the other half to be added to cool the wort. The first time I used Crystal Geyser bottled water for the whole boil. I didn’t worry about its sanitation because it was going to be boiled. This time, I’m planning on using the same type of bottled water from sealed containers so do I have to boil it first to make sure it’s sanitized or is it ok from the sealed bottles?? What makes me ask this question is that I’ve used this water straight from the sealed bottles to make both ciders and meads that did great.

When brewing extract kits its best to use bottled water . No need to boil top off water . I've always started off with 3 gallons when brewing extracts, then top off.

 

[odie]

cold bottled water would be the easy way to go.

I pitch on the warm side. yeast need to wake up and by the time they get going it's cooled down to target temperature.

 

[hotbeer]

Whatever you decide to do, you need to make sure you have the same amount of wort going into the FV as the recipe is made to give. Otherwise your SG will be incorrect. Unless you check it with a hydrometer and make the necessary corrections.

So if you don't add the water to cool as the recipe suggests, then it needs to be added somewhere prior to pitching, whether that is in the boil, cooling or in the FV.

 

[Bilbo24]

Whatever you decide to do, you need to make sure you have the same amount of wort going into the FV as the recipe is made to give. Otherwise your SG will be incorrect. Unless you check it with a hydrometer and make the necessary corrections.

So if you don't add the water to cool as the recipe suggests, then it needs to be added somewhere prior to pitching, whether that is in the boil, cooling or in the FV.

Yes, I will have same amount of water in the FV as the recipe states!! I was planning to add water to cool as the recipe suggests just didn’t know if it could be REAL cold. All good! Thanks!

 

[Bilbo24]

cold bottled water would be the easy way to go.

I pitch on the warm side. yeast need to wake up and by the time they get going it's cooled down to target temperature.

I’m going to use a wort chiller so I can get temp down pretty good before adding cold water. Would you pitch in wort when temp gets below what degree and then add cold water?? Say 90 degrees? 80??

 

[odie]

it's probably in the 70s/80s when I usually pitch. IC wort chiller will only take it so far.

For a lager I'll have to let the kettle sit longer or overnight.

south texas is hard to chill.

 

[Bilbo24]

Mississippi is hard to chill too! Thank you!!!!

 

[odie]

I probably should wait a bit longer on the ales too but so far, pitching yeast even in the low/mid 80s has not killed my yeast.

yeast has a range it likes to be in to work best but I don't know the danger level for pitching.

There is always a time lag from pitch to activity. And temps will continue to fall during that time until you reach equilibrium.

soon someone with more experience on this subject will chime in. opinions everywhere.

 

[odie]

well google is my friend...

I shall wait longer next time.

 

[mac_1103]

I was planning to add water to cool as the recipe suggests just didn’t know if it could be REAL cold.

On my last extract (actually partial mash I guess) brew I added sterile ice. Worked great. In the highly unlikely event that you get your wort too cold it will just mean that fermentation will start off a bit more slowly.

 

[Jag75]

There's one thing you must consider . As I stated in my previous post . If you don't have temp control , I'd advise against pitching on the higher side of the temp recommendations.

 

[Rish]

If you get 3 gallons of wort down to 90*f and add 2 gallons of 40*f water you'll be about 70*f. (90x3)+(40x2)/5. This is what I do and it works fine for me.

 

[hotbeer]

If your water supply temperature is not cold enough to get your wort down to pitch temps with a chiller, then you can get a small aquarium pump and put it in a buck of water that you fill from your tap water. Pump that water through your chiller.

When the temperature of the wort gets to the point where the rate of heat transfer is low, then you can dump a bag of ice into the bucket and pump chilled water through the IC or what ever type chiller you have.

Depending on how much heat your chiller can transfer, at some point you can just recirculate the outflow water through the bucket of ice water if you were to live somewhere that wasting water is an issue.

 

[TomSellers]

I've topped up the last couple of all grain batches with unboiled RO water and not had any contamination issues so far.

 

[Rick Crane]

I just brewed Captain's Ration which I purchased from Midwest Supplies, I see Nothern Brewer has the kit too, it's an all grain kit. The beer has been in the primary for 16 days now. Fermentation seems to have stopped.

My recipe did not call for adding water after the boil. I had 17 lbs of grain and did the calculation for water.

Using S-04 dry yeast the gravity now is 1.020 (16 days) and OG is 1.064 I have been fermenting at 66 degrees. I chose 66 degreees because the temps using a controller and a freezer would drop as low as 65 and go back to 69 durring fermentation. I have been mesuring and logging the temp.

I will leave in the primary another week and look at the gravity again. I want to ferment/condition in the primary a total of 8 weeks, and then bollte. That's it! no questions here. I am glad I found some posts by others using this recipe.
How did your beer turn out?

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Bacteria have been found in bottled water. Something to think about. Adding cold water won't hurt anything if the water is free of bugs.

I started using a swimming pool to cool wort about 23 years ago. Still works great.

 

[Tony B]

After having a hard time cooling my first batch, I went a little overboard cooling the second. I started by putting the kettle into the sink with cold water until it got down to about 150. Then I added a bag of ice to the water and got it down to about 80. Then added cold water to my FV right before dumping the kettle into it. Got it down to 61 even though I was shooting for high 60’s. I went ahead and pitched at 61. Airlock was bubbling sporadically after about 16 hours and since about the 24 hour mark, has been gurgling along steadily.