Exploring "no chill" brewing

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I have completed two no-chill brew sessions now, and while the results are TBD, I'm very much sold on the process. I have a 14 month old, so the more I can break up the brew day the better--it's really hard for me to block off several hours at a time for more conventional brewing methods. I use no-sparge BIAB for the same reason. I also don't brew very hoppy beers since my wife doesn't like them, so I am finding it easy to adjust my hop schedule to accommodate the no-chill process. I used an immersion chiller for my first 8 brews, and I can always go back to it if I decide I want to make a hop bomb, but it was a pain in the ass for many reasons (mostly because I don't have the connections and had to use a sump pump, but also because of the ridiculous amount of water I was using).

I have been using this container from Amazon since I didn't want to pay the US Plastics shipping: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064O8OYK/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I don't have anything to compare it to, but it seems fine so far. My only complaint is that it's a little difficult to tighten the lid enough to get a good seal, and it's sometimes hard to unscrew it as well.

My first no-chill batch was a very simple saison--100% pils malt with 3724/3711 and Styrian Goldings/Hallertau. I didn't end up having time to do a 90 minute boil, so I shortened it to 60 mins and cranked up my burner to get a VERY vigorous boil (and ended up melting the gaskets in my ball valve, but that's another story...). I didn't detect any DMS in the sample I took while bottling, but time will tell. Did FWH and another addition in the cube. Pitched my yeast about 24 hours after the wort went into the cube.

I brewed my second no-chill batch last Thursday--a dampfbier. It was about 70% pils malt, and I was able to do a 90 minute boil, but the boil wasn't as vigorous since I had to brew inside due to rain (I actually had less boil-off than the previous 60 min boil batch). This recipe just had one 60 min bittering addition, which I moved to 40. We were leaving town for the weekend the following morning and the cube was still pretty warm, so I decided to keep it in the cube for a few days, and finally pitched my yeast last night. It made me a little nervous to leave it in there for longer, but the cube seemed to maintain a very good seal/vacuum.

The saison still needs to bottle condition for another week or two, but assuming the results are good this will definitely be my primary method from now on.
 
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I have been using this container from Amazon since I didn't want to pay the US Plastics shipping: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064O8OYK/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I don't have anything to compare it to, but it seems fine so far. My only complaint is that it's a little difficult to tighten the lid enough to get a good seal, and it's sometimes hard to unscrew it as well.

I hereby renounce my endorsement of this no-chill container! I brewed a Vienna Lager a couple of nights ago and was planning to transfer to my fermenter tonight. I was carrying it out to my garage fridge to get the temp down closer to lager temps before pitching, when it suddenly developed a hole along one of the creases and started leaking. I frantically sanitized my fermenter so I could transfer it right away and ended up pitching 2 packets of dry yeast right from the fridge into 76 degree wort. An inauspicious start for my first lager.

Back to square one on finding a no chill container. I'm tempted to try no chilling in my Speidel--I know all the parts are HDPE, and that would eliminate the need to transfer, but they claim it has a temp limit of 140. I'd be concerned about it handling the vacuum, but I was thinking a foam stopper in place of the rubber bung would work.
 
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hey all, i have done no-chill to buckets originally, but this time I'm feeling lazy and want to pitch directly on to my previous yeast cakes from a batch i just transferred to Keg.
I have 10 gallons sitting outside in my keggle, with lid. It's 35 degrees, flameout was at 10:15am. it's going down to 24 degrees overnight.
Any idea how long it will take to get down to 70 degrees out there? I was planning on checking it around 10pm. I'm worried if i wait until morning it will be way too cold for pitching directly onto my yeast cakes (or frozen?)...but then i guess i could just heat it up to 68 or 70 right on the keggle right, or would that possibly cause problems?
 
hey all, i have done no-chill to buckets originally, but this time I'm feeling lazy and want to pitch directly on to my previous yeast cakes from a batch i just transferred to Keg.
I have 10 gallons sitting outside in my keggle, with lid. It's 35 degrees, flameout was at 10:15am. it's going down to 24 degrees overnight.
Any idea how long it will take to get down to 70 degrees out there? I was planning on checking it around 10pm. I'm worried if i wait until morning it will be way too cold for pitching directly onto my yeast cakes (or frozen?)...but then i guess i could just heat it up to 68 or 70 right on the keggle right, or would that possibly cause problems?

I wish there was an easy way to calculate that, but I think there are so many variables (container material, exact temp, wind speed, etc.) that it would be impossible.

I did a no chill batch last weekend (in the afternoon), transferred it to my fermenting keg, then set it outside in the subzero F weather to cool. I kept checking it and it felt warm to the touch for longer than i would have expected, but once it got below a certain point it seemed to cool down VERY quickly. I pulled it back inside after 4-5 hours and it seemed way too cool to pitch my yeast, so I left it inside for the evening and pitched in the morning.

I don't have a good reason for why, but I would be hesitant to reheat it to pitching temp in the morning.
 
wow, yours was quick. Of course I have 10 gallons going on here too. And its a bit warmer. I would guess it will be at least 9 hours, only one way to find out.


I wish there was an easy way to calculate that, but I think there are so many variables (container material, exact temp, wind speed, etc.) that it would be impossible.

I did a no chill batch last weekend (in the afternoon), transferred it to my fermenting keg, then set it outside in the subzero F weather to cool. I kept checking it and it felt warm to the touch for longer than i would have expected, but once it got below a certain point it seemed to cool down VERY quickly. I pulled it back inside after 4-5 hours and it seemed way too cool to pitch my yeast, so I left it inside for the evening and pitched in the morning.

I don't have a good reason for why, but I would be hesitant to reheat it to pitching temp in the morning.
 
Couple things I've found to speed up no chill in the kettle...
1. Leave the lid off until you reach 170
2. I use a small window fan to vent the basement brewery. I put the fan next to the kettle on low, this seems to help.

I no chill to around a 100 degrees, then add a few sanitized 1.75 liter frozen sanitized soda bottles to the kettle to get to picking temps.
 
So for IPAs and other late hopped beers, why not use the cube in a different way? Boil regular old water, put it into the cube and allow the vacuum to develop. Put it in the freezer on brew day, brew up the recipe as normal and use the semi-frozen sanitized water to cool the wort. You wouldn't need a full 5 gallon cube for water either, a 1.5-2.5 gal cube would work very well.

There are a few things that kill some advantages of No-chill, but it doesn't remove all the advantages. The main thing is you would have to have space in your fermenter in the next 24 hours (yes, I've let mine sit overnight to get to proper pitching temps after doing a less sanitized variation on this method.) and in your freezer. You also have to account for the top-up water in the recipe.

The advantages are being able to retain an "original" recipe, without the difficultly in cleaning a CFC or plate chiller. You also save time, because, at least in my experience with Texas ground water, the frozen couple of gallons achieves near-pitching temperatures very quickly. This method also favors water restricted areas, because the overall amount of water used should be nearly the same as a no-chill method.

I always no-chill and ferment in the same container so my method usually consists of cube hopping or dry hopping. For my last beer I wanted to be closer to the original recipe for late additions.

When my wort was almost at pitching temps I boiled some water and added the hops there to create a tea following the 10/5min schedule (which I chilled in an ice bath). When I pitched the yeast I also added the tea and gave it a good shake.

It's fermenting right now so I'll see how it went in a couple of weeks.

Tl;Dr; Why not make a hop tea seperately for late addition hops?
 
The brew came out really nice. I'd experienced a certain harshness when cube hopping but this one was a lot smoother. I hadn't used Columbus before so I can't be 100% sure if it really had that much effect.

I'll be brewing a wheat beer with Mandarina Bavaria this week. I've made it before but wasn't able to bring out the hop flavour. Supposedly 5min/0min additions do just that
 
The brew came out really nice. I'd experienced a certain harshness when cube hopping but this one was a lot smoother. I hadn't used Columbus before so I can't be 100% sure if it really had that much effect.

I'll be brewing a wheat beer with Mandarina Bavaria this week. I've made it before but wasn't able to bring out the hop flavour. Supposedly 5min/0min additions do just that

How much water did you use to make your hop tea, and how big was your batch? Did you use the same amount of hops that you would have added in the kettle?
 
I've done several batches no chill (even using the container above that has been "disavowed" and have produced gold medal milds, bitters, stouts and yep, mostly non-hoppy stuff. I use the rule of thumb of "push it forward 15 mins" on the hop schedule. 60 = 45, anything after 15 goes in the HPDE container and has the wort pitched on top of it. Dry hopping still does what dry hopping do, so I'd be pretty sure we could nail a ESB, Pale Ale or hoppier Saison, but I've yet to attempt a Serious Hop Infusion Technique (****) with this and don't think I will. Good news, old Amazon found some way to answer your prayers on a better container. 5 gallon, full size valve (Great for aerating and transferring wort to a carboy) and High Temp, Food Grade plastic. Thank you Aussies, and all you other experimenters.

Used with an eBIAB this puts my whole brew day INDOORS in FL, cuts the actual brew time to maybe three hours if I prepped grains and water the night before. Perfect after work, knock out a quick one, no muss less fuss way to brew. And it's NOT shoddy or rushed, just cuts out time and equipment that you don't need for a good version of a style.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CDQCZJM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
I wish there was an easy way to calculate that, but I think there are so many variables (container material, exact temp, wind speed, etc.) that it would be impossible.

I did a no chill batch last weekend (in the afternoon), transferred it to my fermenting keg, then set it outside in the subzero F weather to cool. I kept checking it and it felt warm to the touch for longer than i would have expected, but once it got below a certain point it seemed to cool down VERY quickly. I pulled it back inside after 4-5 hours and it seemed way too cool to pitch my yeast, so I left it inside for the evening and pitched in the morning.

I don't have a good reason for why, but I would be hesitant to reheat it to pitching temp in the morning.

Did you notice a chill haze in the beer when you did it this way? Did you fine with gelatin or anything?
 
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