Order of brewing steps important?

[balunist]

I'm very new at this but I'm hooked and planning ahead for my brew equipment purchases. The few times I have brewed it was with extract which began with a partial, 2.5 gal, boil to steep grains. The steps described in kit is to cool the wort first, transfer to fermenter, then add the remaining water to bring it to 5 gals.

My questions is would it matter if I added the water first before cooling and transfer? To me this would seem to have two advantages. First adding the cooler water would help drop the temp quickly. Second with the deeper pool of wort I could submerge the large 50' x 1/2" immersion coils I'm looking at.

One other ? on the immersion coils. Stainless steel or copper? Stainless steel would be easier to keep clean but I think copper has better heat transfer.

Thanks in advance for opinions and advise!

 

[smagee]

1) You should be fine to add water first and then cool, so long as it's still in the kettle. I used to do things that way with my extract batches.

2) Both will work fine; you'll have adherents to both sides. Your assessment is correct--copper transfers slightly better. Most people end up choosing based on random preference or, more often, price. Whichever you find cheapest would be what I'd go with.