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Hey guys.
Wondering if anyone can help..
Im having a few problems getting my wort down to a good temp to pitch at.
So far ive been adding ice to the wort but as the hot weather is deminishing my ice supplies I have found myself with not enough ice to get the temp right down.
A few questions.
How long is too long to have a wort in a ferenter before the yeast is pitch?
What temp is to hot for a yeast to survive pitching?
Any other good suggestions for cooling my wort other than to be more prepared and have sufficent ice on hand.
Cheers Rob

When I did kits and extracts I used to cool my pot/wort by standing it in a cold water bath in the kitchen sink, and changing the water a couple of times to get the temperature down. I also used to add ice blocks to my wort, but they were frozen in a sealed sanitised container.

If you are not doing a full volume boil, that should be enough to get it down to a reasonable level once you add water into your fermenter. You could always chill a 20 litre container of water in the fridge for a couple of days prior to brewing, and use that for your top up water. That will certainly get it down further than adding ambient temperature tap water.

If you are doing a full volume boil, you will need to go down the chilling path the same as AG brewers. I use an immersion chiller, others use a counterflow chiller or a plate chiller. Yet others do a "no chill". My immersion chiller gets me down to about 24 to 25ºC before I decide not to use further water. I drain my kettle to my fermenter without splashing or aerating, seal it with gladwrap, and whack it into my brew fridge. By the next morning it is down to 18ºC, perfect for ales. I aerate before pitching if using liquid yeast. For dry yeast I don't bother aerating, I just pitch it dry.

The prevailing wisdom appears to be to pitch your yeast as soon as practicable, but I've never had a problem doing it my way.

I think yeast will be happy up to about 30ºC, but you might not enjoy the beer that sort of temperature produces, and I wouldn't personally do it. I prefer to pitch at my fermenting temperature.

spot on warra thanks alot I will try making up a few blocks in sanatised containers and will try chilling 20l in my brew fridge a day before. Thanks again.

Adding ice can be catastrophic! More bacteria live in your fridge and freezer than any other surface in your house!

Chris wrote:Adding ice can be catastrophic! More bacteria live in your fridge and freezer than any other surface in your house!

Yeah, I agree, and that's why I used sanitised sealed containers. I was only describing what worked for me. I guess it's up to Pom to work out for himself what he wishes to do.

I might have a go at chilling 20l of water down the day before and adding that, but i suppose thats been in the fridge as well?

Just leave the water in your fermenter with gladwrap over it. That'll keep most of the buggers out.

I cool the fermenter with the required amount of water in the fridge the day before ( # 3 on the thermostat gets it down to 4c ), I make the K&K mix
it with the water bang on 18c to pitch the wort.

The wort is at it's most vulnrable to infection when cooling.

Cheers
Ron

Thanks guys.
I think im going to have to rethink the way I do things, nothing seems to have gone wronge so far but I have put ice in the last 4 or maybe even five of my brews. I have a brew fridge big enough to fit two fermenters so I think my next brew I will chill the water in an already steralised fermenter the day before. It seems like a much safer way of doing things. I hope the two beers i have fermenting at the moment come out alright.

Pom wrote: I hope the two beers i have fermenting at the moment come out alright.

They should be fine, Just relax.

Because of the fridge I use, the warmest it goes ( with out switching off) is 12c, this is a bit cool for fermenting with Ale yeasts.
so I freeze water in a couple of plastic Milk containers sit one on the lid of the fermenter and rotate to keep the fermenter @ or about 18c.

I do plan to get a fridgemate in the near future so I can set and forget.

Cheers
Ron

I've added ice to about a dozen brews and had no problem. I use ice cubes and add them straight after the boil. It drops the overall temperature to around 80 degrees, which is still high enough to kill of any nasties in the ice. This is after 10-15L boils. If you were doing K&K brews it might not be such a good idea.