No chill "chilling" ????

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Wheelspin

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I find that the chilling process after the boil is the most stressful part of my brew day.

In order to simply things, could I just transfer the boiled wort into my fermenting vessel (before adding yeast) then put it into my fermenting fridge at 16 C and wait 2 or 3 hours for it to come down to about 20 C before adding the yeast ?

Are there any flavour or other implications to this ?
 
There is a huge thread on no chill brewing that you should check out. Arguments for and against are discussed all the way through. I have done a no chill brew in the past and had no ill effects. I say, try it and see what happens.
 
Wheelspin said:
I find that the chilling process after the boil is the most stressful part of my brew day.

In order to simply things, could I just transfer the boiled wort into my fermenting vessel (before adding yeast) then put it into my fermenting fridge at 16 C and wait 2 or 3 hours for it to come down to about 20 C before adding the yeast ?

Are there any flavour or other implications to this ?

Do yourself w huge favour and get a chiller. You won't regret it.
 
I have no chilled several batches, it works good. After flame out I drain into a corny keg. The next day I rack to my carboy & pitch.
 
I wouldn't drain anything hot into a bucket or glass container. My simple 3/8" wort chiller took about 45 minutes to get to 70 over the weekend in a keggle. Turn the hose on low and forget about it.
 
I use to add 2 gallons of ice and mix back and forth between my turkey fryer and my fermenting bucket. Cooled it to 80 and pitched yeast.
 
I've done just what you suggested twice; no chill into stainless cornies, drop those into the chest freezer, wait until they get to pitch temp.
It worked but the compressor was working HARD for way longer than it should and got insanely hot.
I imagine doing that more than a few times will destroy your refrigeration unit.

I don't know if it gets cold in South Africa, but if I no chill now, it's only in the winter and I leave the cornies in the garage over night, then put em in the fermentation chamber to get to pitch temp.
 
I get my 7+ gallons of boiling hot wort to pitching temps really quickly with my plate chiller (from Duda Diesel). No stressing at all. If you're stressing, then you need to change what you chill with, or how you go about it. I have my system setup so that I just watch the temperature drop as it chills, until close to my target temp (recirculating back into the boil keggle). I then switch it over to dump into the fermenting vessel (an adapted sanke keg) and let it flow into there, chilling to pitching temp. Easily done, from start to finish, in under 12 minutes when it's warmer out. Looking forward to seeing how it chills this winter. :D

Oh, and I'll be doing this all in the basement now, draining into a newly installed sink. :D So no ice fields will be created outside. :rockin:
 
its probably not a good idea to put boiling wort in a plastic or glass fermentor, plastic melts and glass breaks. plus you would screw up your fridge!
 
I no-chill almost exclusively now and well over 20+ batches and none to ill effect. Basically as soon as I flame out, I place the lid on my boil pot, close it shut with alligator clips and leave it until its cool enough to move to the primary. That usually takes 16-24 hours depending on the ambient temperature. I would say try it, because once you no-chill and may never go back.

Side note: Its winter now and it can get wickedly cold here in Calgary so I have also done a 'no-chillish' outside. Mind you that is NOT in the snow, but in the open on deck table with a -30C wind chill. Cooled down to pitching in less then 4 hours.
 
I've done just what you suggested twice; no chill into stainless cornies, drop those into the chest freezer, wait until they get to pitch temp.
It worked but the compressor was working HARD for way longer than it should and got insanely hot.
I imagine doing that more than a few times will destroy your refrigeration unit.

I don't know if it gets cold in South Africa, but if I no chill now, it's only in the winter and I leave the cornies in the garage over night, then put em in the fermentation chamber to get to pitch temp.
I just place my corny on my basement floor with a fan blowing across the keg. It is at pitching temps w/in 24 hrs. (Usually in 18 hrs.)
 
I've no-chilled several times while leaving the wort in the kettle like others have already stated. I gathered 2 plastic jugs and haven't even tried them yet. Just more equipment to clean, and those won't be as easy to clean as my kettle. The only issue I think I have with the process is my beers are a bit hazy.

Bradinator, have you done any IPAs this way? Any change in your process to do so? I moved my 45 minute bittering hops to 25 minutes and late hops were used for dryhopping. Turned out nice (Zymurgy Two-Hearted Ale clone) despite the haze.
 
I do my IPA's the same way I do any other beers and let them sit overnight in the kettle. I feel the same way about moving my wort to much and the extra cleaning for the chill-cubes so I don't bother. As for hop schedules, I do some with the altered times and some without but to be completely honest I really don't see any difference. I even did a IIPA which I no-chilled and found that it had all the hop flavour I would have expected from it.
 
Thanks for the feedback. Having moved my bittering hops later in the boil and having some amount of utilization during the no-slow-chill process, I certainly get the appropriate bitterness in my opinion, even on a beer that I achieved 8 more points in gravity. What is interesting is that I get a good amount of hop flavor. Now whether that is from the adjusted 10 minute hops, and extended chill time, or from the dry hops, I'm puzzled. It has me wondering how much I get from very late hopping (10-0 minutes) when I cool with my immersion chiller.
 
I've done several no chill batches as well. I transfer the boiling wort to a keg for 1-7 days depending on how busy I am. I have not noticed any differences when comparing to the same beers I've made with the standard chilling methods.
 
cbehr said:
I've done several no chill batches as well. I transfer the boiling wort to a keg for 1-7 days depending on how busy I am. I have not noticed any differences when comparing to the same beers I've made with the standard chilling methods.

1 to 7 DAYS?
 
1 to 7 DAYS?

Yep, I've let the wort sit for up to a week on a couple occasions. I got busy doing whatever and didn't get my starter going on time. The keg was sealed and purged with c02 so no danger of infection. I've read people keeping wort for months before pitching the yeast. Proper sanitation is key of course!!!
 
1 to 7 DAYS?

Australian no-chillers have been known to package their wort into those water cubes and store them for weeks/months. Apparently they also sell pre-packaged wort in this format.

Seriously people, read the linked thread about no-chill brewing...ALL of this stuff has been hashed and rehashed there. This is a well established way of brewing for alot of people.
 
I guess I don't get how chilling is stressful. that's probably the least stressful part of my brew day.

Flame out, put the lid on, carry the brew pot in to the basement, put sanitized chiller in the pot and turn on the water.

I use this time to clean up, sanitize equipment and get my yeast ready to go. I'll give the brew pot a nudge here and there to move the liquid around.

This is also a great time to do any transferring of previous batches to keg or secondary.

Then I'll make a sandwich and pour a fresh cold beer.

by this time It's usually down to below 90 degrees. Once in the carboy and topped off, its at pitching temp. I pitch my yeast, shake, drop on the air lock and walk to the bar for a beer and a burger.
 
I find it stressful as well, and as you know here in MN - its damn cold. I brew in the garage and don't really know what to do with the draining water from the chiller...ice rink in the front yard?? Getting the water back into the house is what I did last week - it was a nightmare - every 5 mins running in with a 5G bucket. Even in the summer - stirring the wort to get efficient temperature reductions is a pain, and the chiller never fits properly into the keggle with the dip tube and thermo in the way. Was thinking of no-chill for winter use, and perhaps a plate chiller for other times. seems way easier.

For those stating that you could not pour boiling wort into glass or plastic - this is true - to a point. The vessels that I see people use for no-chill are designed to take temps that high. CLearly a better bottle would just melt and you could have a dangerous break with a glass carboy. Use the proper vessel and your good I imagine.
 
Ide be afraid of cracking a carboy... I just use the plate chiller, takes it down to 70 in one pass.
 
I find it stressful as well, and as you know here in MN - its damn cold.

As cold as it is in MN, I would put a lid on the kettle and roll w/ it, and let it chill, It won't take that long, and your wort won't get infected...transfer to a sanitized fermenter in the morning and pitch lots of yeast. It doesn't have to be that difficult! Try it and you will be pleasantly surprised!

OMG hauling all your chilling water back in the house, that is free fitness club, what a pain in the a$$.

If I lived in MN and had a basement...I would get a simple electric element and add it to a pot, or use a heatstick and brew in the basement.
 
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