Is there a rule of thumb for how much boiling water to add to cold water and extract to get it it to pitching temp.
Thanks for the reply Andy I have a fish aquarium and when doing water changes I have the same problem getting the temp about right to save waiting ages for it to drop, so when I last had a new shower toilet ect fitted, I asked the plumber about it and he suggested a temp controlled tap, it`s usually fitted to houses for the disabled and old folks home for safety, you preset the temp. but I still have to add 8 litres of cold water to 25 litres of hot to get it to 75c. I`m up in Elgin and there is only about 3 - 4C of diff between summer and winter water temp.It's summer-ish here in the UK at the moment, and my tap water is 16 to 17 degrees Celsius.
Depending on the beer kit, instructions usually recommend 3 or 4 liters of boiling water to dissolve the malt (plus sugar or malt extract addition for some kits), topped up to 20 or 23 liters with cold water.
I have found that after topping my fermenter up at the current summertime temperatures it sits around 26 to 27 degrees, too warm to pitch standard yeast. I will then wait 24 hours for the temperature to drop, or if I'm impatient I'll put the fermenter in a cold bath for a couple of hours (the beauty of not being on a water meter!)
As I do not use a fermentation fridge, I wait until the fermenter is below my pitching temperature (usually 19 degrees). If using the cold bath method I'll shake the fermenter every hour to stir the wort.
Once it has dropped to the desired temperature I'll open the lid, give it a good stir at the bottom with a sanitized spoon, close the lid and give it a good shake to introduce oxygen, then pitch the yeast.
I am new to homebrew and am yet to do a winter brew, but looking forward to my tap water being cold enough so that I can pitch the yeast straight away!
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