possible to chill AG without wort chiller?

doing first AG(5 gallon) and wont have access to a wort chiller. what is going to be the best technique for chillin? ive heard ice bath with salt sprinkled, while stirring the wort slowly? does this seem accurate? ive never had problems cooling extract 3 gallon batches in my sink with just ice and some flowing cold water. someone help me out so i dont screw up my first AG full boil...

i havent used a wort chiller in any of my 5 or 6 all grain batches. I use the ice bath technique and it is usually cooled within 30 minutes stirred occasionally

You can do the no chill method which a lot of brewers do. I have done it with no ill effects!

JOHN51277 said:

You can do the no chill method which a lot of brewers do. I have done it with no ill effects!

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+1

poor planning and I've done it a couple times with no adverse affects.

Monghetti said:

i havent used a wort chiller in any of my 5 or 6 all grain batches. I use the ice bath technique and it is usually cooled within 30 minutes stirred occasionally

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do you stir the whole time or wait till the wort gets down to a certain temp?

Do not stir. You font want to aerate hot wort ever!

It might be a pain, but you can split your wort in 2 right after the boil and cool it in 2 separate places...and then combine once it is down to 70 degrees.

I stir it very gently. No aeration

I sometimes go with no chill option let it sit to cool off with lid on it.

Fill up some #1 soda bottles with ice or salt water and toss in the freezer. Sanitize the outside and throw them into your kettle. Keep in mind that ice will cool better than salt water.
Free and reusable.

If my calc's are correct, you would need about 5 or 6 two-liters of ice to cool your wort to pitching temp. Add a sink bath of cold water, and you should have no problem

Do it all the time. Sink full of cold water, change it a few times, dont stir the wort, keep it covered and Blam, thirty minutes later, go ahead and pitch

What is the "no chill method"? Does this literally mean you just let your wort sit until it's ~75 degrees?

MakeshiftBrew said:

What is the "no chill method"? Does this literally mean you just let your wort sit until it's ~75 degrees?

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Pretty much. Or you can let it sit for several months after that.

You basically go through the brew day as normal, then when the boil is over you pour the wort, still near boiling temps, into a container that will be sterilized by those hot temps. You're essentially "canning" the wort.

Now you wait a very, very long time. Or a short time. Or something in between. Or whatever the hell....

Then when you have time, fermentor space, or whatever the hell it is that you were waiting for, you just continue the process as normal.

Then you get good beer when it's all done.

Anyway, that's my understanding of the no-chill process. Don't completely understand why it would ever be useful, but I do understand the process and can't think of any reason why it wouldn't work.......

JOHN51277 said:

Do not stir. You font want to aerate hot wort ever!

Click to expand...

Why wouldn't you stir to get the temp down AND to aerate? Wouldn't you need to aerate to get some oxygen into your wort in lieu of an oxygen delivery system (air stone/ O2 pump)? Your yeast need that O2 initially to replicate initially...

Is this not what you meant?

acuenca said:

Why wouldn't you stir to get the temp down AND to aerate? Wouldn't you need to aerate to get some oxygen into your wort in lieu of an oxygen delivery system (air stone/ O2 pump)? Your yeast need that O2 initially to replicate initially...

Is this not what you meant?

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Some poeple think that aerating the wort while it's above some random temperature will completely **** up your beer.

I might be one of those people. I also might not.

I will be the one to say that this is a "holy war" topic and I don't want my opinion on it to be publicly known, ever, for fear that a car bomb will take out my children just because I start aerating my wort at the wrong temp.

No, I take that back. I don't make beer and I don't know what the word "wort" even means. Leave my children alone you terrorists!!!!!

@subliminalurge: Haha, that's a really interesting idea, It's hard to imagine not immediately pitching the yeast into a brew I spent all day (or most of the day) making, I don't have the patience for that.

@acuenca: Yes. haha.

P.s. I know this isn't youtube or twitter, but it seemed more efficient to use the @ symbol rather than quoting everyone.

subliminalurge said:

Some poeple think that aerating the wort while it's above some random temperature will completely **** up your beer.

I might be one of those people. I also might not.

I will be the one to say that this is a "holy war" topic and I don't want my opinion on it to be publicly known, ever, for fear that a car bomb will take out my children just because I start aerating my wort at the wrong temp.

No, I take that back. I don't make beer and I don't know what the word "wort" even means. Leave my children alone you terrorists!!!!!

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Nice... Gotcha. Ok... but now I feel bad that I let my opinion be known... Should I take it back?

I'll have to do some more research... I didn't know it was so contentious...

subliminalurge said:

Pretty much. Or you can let it sit for several months after that.

You basically go through the brew day as normal, then when the boil is over you pour the wort, still near boiling temps, into a container that will be sterilized by those hot temps. You're essentially "canning" the wort.

Now you wait a very, very long time. Or a short time. Or something in between. Or whatever the hell....

Then when you have time, fermentor space, or whatever the hell it is that you were waiting for, you just continue the process as normal.

Then you get good beer when it's all done.

Anyway, that's my understanding of the no-chill process. Don't completely understand why it would ever be useful, but I do understand the process and can't think of any reason why it wouldn't work.......

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Wouldn't that "no chill method" keep all the cold haze proteins? I thought the idea of cooling down the wort quickly was to get the 'cold break' and make the proteins that cause chill haze to settle out of the beer.

^^^ yup... That would be an issue but it gets better with time in the fridge...Probably not as clear as when you get that nice cold break but it does somewhat clear up. Alternatively you could use Irish moss/whirlfloc/gelatin etc to also help with that...I use whirlfloc in nearly all (not my wheat/hefes)...

acuenca said:

Nice... Gotcha. Ok... but now I feel bad that I let my opinion be known... Should I take it back?

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Only if you love your children. Totally up to you. Ball's in your court, bud....

I'm just sayin'... This seems like a friendly place. You can brew with extract or all grain. You can batch sparge or fly. You can do 5 gallon batches, 10 gallon, 20, or even 60. You can brew with a tricked out keggle, or a $17 stock pot you got on clearance at Wal-Mart. Hell, you can use plastic buckets and nobody will look down on you.

Hell, you can even make a brew with 2 gallons of apple juice and a pound of sugar, then ferment it in left over milk cartons. And don't boil any of it. Nobody cares.

We're all buds here, and we all get along.

Until you start talking about "hot side aeration". That's when the "drive by's" start happening....

subliminalurge said:

Only if you love your children. Totally up to you. Ball's in your court, bud....

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True...thanks for the lookout <slinking back into the shadows>...

This is the first I've heard of the no-stir thing. Interesting. I figure I'm far enough away to admit that I've been giving my wort some nice hearty stirs to help get the temps down.

Not saying that's the right procedure, but I always give a nice hefty swirl. I pretty much do it each time I change the water.

My method, employed to save a bit of ice, is to just put the kettle in a cold water bath (swirl it) and then wait until the water is feeling hot/warm and switch up. After a few of these you'll notice the water stays cool for much longer, and it's at this time that I put in the ice. Usually, if done right, I can just keep adding ice bit by bit (usually 3 trays of cubes and 2-3 small margarine-style containers) and get the most out of all of it, as the water temp never creeps back up too high. The swirl is a big part of the technique for me. I have a double sink so I keep one for the ice bath, and the other as my sanitizing sink. I keep a spoon in there and once I've stirred, just toss it back in the solution to sanitize up until next stir. I feel like you can accomplish a pretty good swirl without too much aeration, but then again I've always assumed that wort aeration was a good thing.

Is the no-stir camp worried about infection?

I think it has more to do with oxidation.... google "hot side aeration" and pick your camp! either way, remember to RDWHAHB

I used the ice bath method for quite a with before getting and IC with absolutely no ill effects. I used cold water first and then drained, not to burn through too much ice, then cold water and ice. In the winter, cold water and snow works fantastic! oh, wait you're in CA..... nevermind... on that snow thing.