NUBIE Wort cooling question ?

Yes you should definitely let it drop to those temps prior to pitching. And if you pitch at a higher temp like 78 you should drop that down to about 72 or below after fermentation starts.

There is no problem doing that, I wouldn't really let it freeze. Prior to me building an immersion chiller I put all my gallons of water in the freezer/refrigerator until I was ready to use them.

btw, the immersion chiller was one the best additions I ever made to brewing when I first started and it was actually cheap to build.

That's exactly what I did on my first attempt (a week ago today).... I put 3 gallons in my fermenter bucket and set it asside in a cool place. I then boiled my 2 gallons of remaining water with my extract kit in a 16qt pot. The pot was put into the sink (with running cold water, movement aides in cooling) and ice was tossed into the water/sink after about 5 minutes when the cooling started to slow a little. It took less than 10 minutes to get the wort to 100deg.... mixing with the 3 gallons of water brought it down to the upper 70's.

Of course, then I either didn't aerate the mixture enough (I was relying on just pouring the mixture together), or my yeast was shot. I pitched more yeast 48 hours later and REALLY went to town with a whisk and fermentation took off less than 24 hours later. I also rehydrated the yeast the 2nd time, but not the first.... Lots of things I'll change for my next batch, but that's called learning. :)

Best of luck!

Brian

"JXM2119"...

If you have some snow outside, set the whole thing in it for a while. Pretty sanitary this time of the year, I figure. Ken

i do this all the time . i put the purified/boiled water in the fermenter with the lid on and put it outside to freeze. when it gets a slushy or frozen surface i pour the wort in right from the stove. the colder the better. it instantly goes down to about 80 f.

I don't have a wort cooler either. I'm going to get one before summer. However I cooled off my last 3 batches in about 15 minutes each by setting my brew pot on the first step of my in ground pool and turning on the filter to get circulation. Previously I set the pot in the sink and added ice and water and it took up to an hour to cool off with periodic ice and water additions.