Exploring "no chill" brewing

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I've had good luck with the HDPE buckets but my lids are the really tight fitting ones that take a lot of force to put on and you basically have to pry off and they actually come with a gasket in them. The brand is True Brew and they have blue lids if that makes a difference. I've also left a decent amount of head space doing my no chills so I don't think the lids have gotten hot enough to deform at all.

When I first started brewing I had a different kind of bucket and I almost never saw much airlock activity so I know they weren't air tight. As long as air doesn't get in you're fine, and there's no reason it should unless you have a big temperature drop.
 
ghpeel said:
Holy crap you're the MAN hal!!!

I just pulled my first pint of this and its fantastic!!!! No Chill for lagers is the way to go, because you can really get the wort down to proper temps before pitching. Here's my slighty tweaked recipe:

8 lbs Weyermann Pils -> 1.045 OG
1oz Vanguard 5.5% @ 60 min
.5oz Saaz 3.5% @ 30
.5oz Saaz 3.5% @ 5
Transfer to No Chill vessel at flameout
Saflager S-189 - 32qt starter up from a massive slurry
Pitched at 52F, krausen in 8 hours, ferm temps
Primary (52-54F) for 10 days,
Diacytl rest (65F) for 5 days
Secondary (35F) for 14 days, then kegged yesterday.

I can't believe how clean this beer is! Its a real LAGER!! :ban: :tank: :mug:

It definitely doesn't have the malty complexity of some of the German lagers I love, but this is a fantastic beer. No butter, no corn, no off flavors at all from the pint I just chugged. Smelled wonderful, sort of like sweet hay. I guess that's the pilsner malt coming through.
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I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'll be making a 10 gallon batch this weekend myself. Which one is S-189? I'm not familiar with it. I'll be using W-34/70 for this batch.
 
I think it's mostly available as a commercial strain. Only 1-2 online shops sell it in homebrew sizes. I was lucky enough to have a friend bring me a slurry from a commercial brewery that he interns at.

From what I understand, its the US-05 of lager yeasts. Very clean, very minimal flavor contribution, doesn't really accentuate malt, etc.

I'll probably use it a few more times to make sure my process is tight, then I'll switch to the W-34/70 or the WLP830. I really want to make those malt-focused German lager styles.
 
I did a no-chill American brown and I dumped it boiling into my Ale Pail. I only did this because I was pushing out 2 beers that day; I normally pop the lid on and let it cool in the kettle. I had no trouble with the ale pale - that lid is a pain to get on and off. It happily bubbled away after pitching.
 
Ok so can someone describe exactly how to do FWH with this process? DO the hops go in the kettle as your are putting the wort in the boil kettle to start to boil? Or do they go in once the wort starts to boil for 60 mins? Thats the one sticking point to this im not getting. And on The Pols hop schedule, since he boils 90 mins and I only do 60 min boils, should I just start at the 60 min mark on it? Thanks for any help!
 
The fwh is added as the wort drains into the boil kettle. If you add the hops as the wort starts to boil it would be considered a normal 60 min addition (or a 40 min if using the pol's chart). I have had good luck to this point utilizing a 75 min boil, but have not yet pared it down to a 60 min.
 
So basically its put the FWH hops into the kettle empty, start the sparge on top of those hops. I do 60 min boils so the hops would stay in the entire time. Seems like that is the preferred FWH method for No chill am i correct?
 
That's exactly how FWH works. For some reason, hops added as FWH retain their flavor and aroma fairly well, so these replace your late additions, while still imparting bitterness as well.

Now, if you're doing Brew-in-a-Bag (single vessel brewing) in addition to no-chill, just throw the hops into the kettle after you remove your grain bag and let them steep while the bag drains. The hops might not get as much steep time as they do with more traditional practices, but you'll still get decent flavor and aroma out of them.
 
Well here another thought, how the hell do you guys clean the krausen residue from the top of those 6 gallon us plastic vessels?!
 
Dwain said:
Where did I miss the air lock trick? I fairly seriously scanned the thread. Thanks for the tip, that's what I'll do.
As a side note, I worked in a chemical plant for years. A vessel rated to hold 150 psi was about the thickness of schedule 40 pipe. A vessel rated to withstand a vacuum was 3" thick. Thanks for the input. - Dwain
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For the record, I do this in cornies, and they hold up just fine.
 
I tell you, if I have a cornie or a 7.5 bucket, I wouldn't bother with buying a US Plastics jug. Even if you don't have one, you can get a 7.5 for a lot cheaper than a jerry can.
 
The buckets I have can't handle 200F+ liquid temps. I wouldn't dare try that. The Winpacks are handy. Between the handle, tight (but yet easy to get off) lid, I dig em. I try not to ferment in them though, they're a pain to clean.
 
Sometimes I put my hot wort into one of these. http://www.homebrewing.org/65-Gallon-Ale-Pail-primary-fermenting-bucket_p_879.html I've been doing it for a year now and the pail hasn't melted yet.

Shoot, most of the time I just put the lid on the pot I boil my wort in, stick that bad boy in the sink, and let it cool overnight. It's aluminum and cools down pretty quickly. In the morning I aerate with a ladel, dump the yeast there and let it ferment for 3 weeks right there in the same pot.
 
smiths9312 said:
Shoot, most of the time I just put the lid on the pot I boil my wort in, stick that bad boy in the sink, and let it cool overnight. It's aluminum and cools down pretty quickly. In the morning I aerate with a ladel, dump the yeast there and let it ferment for 3 weeks right there in the same pot.
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You are my hero. I cool in the kettle, au-naturel... I just put it on the floor in the basement, or if its 10 gallons, I leave it on the burner outside. I haven't got the nerve to ferment in the kettle yet... but I will someday. Awesome idea for its simplicity.
 
I'm sure this has been discussed somewhere earlier in this thread but I don't feel like going back and reading it all.

I brewed a batch of beer yesterday that had 1 oz centennial for bittering (60 minutes) and 1 oz for 5 minutes. I decided to just add the final oz to the bucket before sealing the lid and letting it cool. I'm thinking this will add more bitterness, flavor, and aroma than if I had only added it during the last 5 minutes of the boil.

I think it would be an interesting experiment to make this my only hop addition for a batch and see how the bitterness and flavor profile turn out. I have a big hop shipment coming in Monday so maybe I'll do this with 4 oz of a medium/high alpha acid hop. Has anyone else done something similar?
 
JumboBlimpJumbo said:
I brewed a batch of beer yesterday that had 1 oz centennial for bittering (60 minutes) and 1 oz for 5 minutes. I decided to just add the final oz to the bucket before sealing the lid and letting it cool. I'm thinking this will add more bitterness, flavor, and aroma than if I had only added it during the last 5 minutes of the boil.
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you may get a little more bittering, but less flavor/aroma.
 
How would it be less? I was thinking that it will still be hot enough to get all the aromatics into solution but they won't have a chance to evaporate off and there will be a longer contact time so they would increase.
 
A lot depends on your process. I would say for sure you would get more hop aroma and flavor. What is not so certain is whether you would get extra bitterness.

For example, I dump the wort..hops sludge and all into a bucket to cool. In my case, I would expect to get slightly less bitterness than if I added at 5 min.
 
Yeah I guess it's worth mentioning that I always use hop bags and remove them before I put the wort in my bucket.

I think I will try this with my only addition being 4 oz of Summit 14.0% after flameout. I probably won't get around to it for a week or two though.
 
smiths9312 said:
Shoot, most of the time I just put the lid on the pot I boil my wort in, stick that bad boy in the sink, and let it cool overnight. It's aluminum and cools down pretty quickly. In the morning I aerate with a ladel, dump the yeast there and let it ferment for 3 weeks right there in the same pot.
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Cool, but when/how do you handle all the hop gunk and whatnot? Do you strain before pitching or filter when you rack to keg or what?

lovin' the "no chill" lifestyle :rockin:
 
grove said:
Cool, but when/how do you handle all the hop gunk and whatnot? Do you strain before pitching or filter when you rack to keg or what?
QUOTE]

When I rack to the bottling bucket, I leave the sludge at the bottom. There's only two ounces or so of hops muck to worry about for most of my beers, unless I'm brewing an IPA. If I'm brewing an IPA, I'm going to chill my wort, so it isn't an issue.
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I always pull the hop bag out shortly after flame out. The reason I do this is because I use a converted keg for a kettle and it has a dip tube which the hop bags always seem to clog up when I am transferring the wort to my bucket to cool. I also use the same bucket to cool the wort and ferment in and I've been brewing pretty frequently lately so I would run out of hop bags if I left them in.
 
What about the cold break? Not cooling quickly should not produce any break material, but I guess it's not an issue since I put all the break material into my primary and have no ill effects. Thoughts?
 
Thanks for posting the update to the original post. It would be awesome if you could post a link to the page where you finally pitch your yeast, if you have photos, more detail, etc. Great experiment, glad everything worked well!
 
So I brewed up a little experiment today. I did an extract batch with a 15 minute boil and the only hop addition is straight to the bucket with no boiling.


7 lbs light liquid malt extract
1 lb light dry malt extract
1 lb Crystal 20 L steeped in 1 gallon of water at 160 degrees for 30 minutes
4 oz Summit 14.0% added to bucket with hot wort - no boiling
US-05 yeast

I'm thinking since they are high alpha acid hops and I used 4 oz that it should be fairly bitter, and have a ton of flavor and aroma. This was really quick and easy, got it done while I was heating water for and mashing an all grain porter. I'll post the results in a couple weeks.
 
Beersmith suggests 65 IBUs for a OG of 1.064 for that experiment based on the way I calculate my no-chills. I calculated the 4 ounces of hops as a 15 min addition to generate the IBUs. It will be interesting to hear more about your experimental beer.
 
The last two brews I did were no chill, left in the boil kettles outside overnight. The temps got down to the 20's that night, so the next morning I racked to the fermentors, took inside and let warm to pitching temperature.
I used Wyeast London ESB yeast, it was very active the next morning ( I'm not worried about how FAST it works, just that it IS active )
I left in primary about 8 days, racked to secondary for another 8 then bottled....I've got to say that this has got to be some of the CLEAREST beer I've ever made, and from the 4 day old in the bottle tasting I did, it's got a wonderful flavor, albeit green beer right now.
As long as the temps are cool outside, I believe that I will continue to use this method.
If you want to follow my BIAB, NC video, feel free to check it out...there's about 6 short videos, starting with this one.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/user/bmeyer44?feature=mhum#p/u/6/RB0e7s2bD_s[/ame]
 
I know this was mentioned earlier, but =====

I CAN use my current fermentation buckets for the boiling wort to chill correct? Or, do I HAVE to buy another vessel (USP pail) in order to cool in?

I currently use these:

Also, if you can put it in these buckets, do you just plug the airlock hole (larger style in mine) with a solid bung or is there another method?

7018c.jpg


6973.jpg
 
You can use your current buckets, put an airlock in and soak a cotton ball with vodka and stuff it in the top. Unless you've got one of those sterile air filters, that would be a better option.
 

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