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If it didn't work then the tube got clogged. FWIW I wouldn't have dumped it, cover it with sanitized foil and let it keep fermenting.

Just a tip, but pick up some FermcapS, it's a foam-control additive. Works great for boil-overs and for helping to control fermentation blow-off's.
 
The tube wasn't clogged at all.

I guess I just had not enough headroom. I was under the impression that with a blowoff tube you could get away with minimal amounts, but I guess that's not the case.

And yes, I regret dumping it. I was in a hurry since I had to be at work, and pissed off. Atleast the other 3gal container of the same batch is going strong.
 
iijakii said:
The tube wasn't clogged at all.

I guess I just had not enough headroom. I was under the impression that with a blowoff tube you could get away with minimal amounts, but I guess that's not the case.

And yes, I regret dumping it. I was in a hurry since I had to be at work, and pissed off. Atleast the other 3gal container of the same batch is going strong.
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The blow off tube isn't going to negate the need for headroom, it just gives a place for the foam to go.

It's too late now, but if you ever have another event like this one, just star-san some foil and crinkle it over the opening of the win-pak.

In fact, that's all I do when fermenting beers and expect aggressive fermentation, like hefes.
 
rrmiller said:
Oh my GOD! I have, like, a half dozen of those in the garage and never even thought of their brewing potential!!

:ban::ban::ban::ban::ban:
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In the winter I'll sometimes fill up a sanke, cap it, and drive it in to the backyard where the stream runs through, makes for a real quick chill to pitching temps!
 
For those of you who no chill in corny, is it best practice to add c02 to the keg to seal it or not? I read the thread but I'm still not sure. Thanks.
 
yes, you want to hit it with enough pressure to seal. may not be ultimately required, but i think it's what many do. then you'll need a spunding valve or something to bleed off fermentation pressure.
 
How many folks have done No Chill Lagers with a lot of Pilsner in the grain bill?

I'm trying to decide if I want to no-chill my first lager, and need to figure out if I'll get a ton of DMS or not. I'll do a hard 90 min boil first.
 
ghpeel said:
How many folks have done No Chill Lagers with a lot of Pilsner in the grain bill?

I'm trying to decide if I want to no-chill my first lager, and need to figure out if I'll get a ton of DMS or not. I'll do a hard 90 min boil first.
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My house beer these days is a SMaSH with pilsner and saaz hops. I've never had an issue with DMS and I do a 60 minute boil. I once did a 45 minute boil to try to get DMS since my father-in-law likes Rolling Rock. I failed. It tasted just like all of my others except for the shortened hop schedule. One day if I revisit trying to get DMS, I may try leaving a lid on, but for homebrewing 5-10 gallon batches I consider DMS a non-issue. YMMV depending on your brew volumes and your boil-off rate (1.5 gallons per hour or so in my case).
 
Please post your no chill smash recipe. Thanks!

Here is one I did:
10 lbs Vienna
0.5 oz northern Brewer as FWH
0.75 oz nothern Brewr 40 mins
0.75 oz northern brewer 0 mins.
WLP 029 Kolsch yeast
No chill.
It came out very good after conditioning a bit.
 
Ok. Here's my SMaSH. I categorize it as 2C Classic American Pilsner in BeerSmith:

8lbs Wyermann pilsner (8.5lbs if I use Rahr since I can't get the same efficiency from it)
60 min - 1 oz US Saaz (5.8% AA, which is unusually high for even the US Saaz)
30 min - .5 oz US Saaz (5.8% AA)
5 min - .5 oz US Saaz (5.8% AA)

Mash for at least 60 mins at 150F.

Wyeast 2112 (California Lager) if I'm being lazy.
OR
Saflager S-23 if I want to do the whole proper cold fermentation thing.

I used that chart that's been floating around this thread for a while to adjust hop additions but was displeased with my results and stopped using it. The times listed above are real times. I've done this recipe both ways and the real times turn out better IMHO. Also, that recipe assumes 75% efficiency from Wyermann or 70% from Rahr.

I chill at either room temp or ambient temp outside overnight, whichever is colder.

2112 method - 2qt starter. Primary for 1 week after first signs of fermentation at 65F or lower. Rack to keg and add gelatin. Cold condition in keg for a minimum of 3 days. My first few washes of 2112 flocculated very quickly. My subsequent 2112 washes don't flocculate as quickly so these days I need more like 1-2 weeks to clear up completely even with gelatin. I guess it's time for a new pouch of yeast.

S-23 method - Primary about 1 - 1.5 weeks after first signs of fermentation at 45F-55F. Raise primary to 65F and leave for 3-7 days. Lager for 2 weeks in the keg with gelatin at 38F.

Vienna also turns out well as a base malt in this recipe, but I jack the mash temp up to 153F or it's a little too roasty for my tastes.
 
nutty_gnome said:
10 lbs Vienna
0.5 oz northern Brewer as FWH
0.75 oz nothern Brewr 40 mins
0.75 oz northern brewer 0 mins.
WLP 029 Kolsch yeast
No chill. It came out very good after conditioning a bit.
Click to expand...

Vienna + Northern Brewer is a great Smash!!! I've done it once before and it was one of my tastier brews.

hal2814 said:
Ok. Here's my SMaSH. I categorize it as 2C Classic American Pilsner in BeerSmith....
Click to expand...

You've convinced me. This will be my next brew. Do you really only need to lager for 2 weeks with S-23? That's fantastic if so. I'll definitely use dry yeast on this as its my first lager and my history with starters is checkered with failures for some stupid reason.
 
hal2814 said:
I used that chart that's been floating around this thread for a while to adjust hop additions but was displeased with my results and stopped using it.
Click to expand...

I dont know what the original recipe hopping schedule is (or if this is it), but are you doing an adjustment for the timing?
 
ghpeel said:
You've convinced me. This will be my next brew. Do you really only need to lager for 2 weeks with S-23? That's fantastic if so. I'll definitely use dry yeast on this as its my first lager and my history with starters is checkered with failures for some stupid reason.
Click to expand...

It won't win any awards but it's a decent beer at that point. I think the gelatin helps but I'm not exactly a pro at using lager yeasts so maybe I'm wrong about that.

daugenet said:
I dont know what the original recipe hopping schedule is (or if this is it), but are you doing an adjustment for the timing?
Click to expand...

No time adjustment. The times listed above are my original times. I dabbled with time adjustments and it didn't work out for me so I went back to the above (original) times. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that.
 
Can you tell me when & how you use the gelatin? Do you add it at the end of the primary and rack it off the gelatin into the keg? I assume you don't serve the beer from the keg with the gelatin in it.
 
ghpeel said:
Can you tell me when & how you use the gelatin? Do you add it at the end of the primary and rack it off the gelatin into the keg? I assume you don't serve the beer from the keg with the gelatin in it.
Click to expand...

Using it in the keg is best actually, before gelatine my first pint out of the keg was a pretty cloudy yeast filled beer that I dumped, when I use gelatine my first pint is yeast/beer jello. You lose a pint of beer either way.
 
ghpeel said:
Can you tell me when & how you use the gelatin? Do you add it at the end of the primary and rack it off the gelatin into the keg? I assume you don't serve the beer from the keg with the gelatin in it.
Click to expand...

You assume wrong :) I do my lagering in a corny keg. As soon as I cold crash my primary (a step I forgot to mention above), I rack the beer into the keg and add my gelatin. There's a sticky somewhere here on how to prepare the gelatin. After lagering, I usually don't bother to re-rack unless there's a good chance I'm going to have to take the keg with me somewhere. I just serve from my secondary and deal with the first pint of sludge.
 
Alright! I brewed this today! Not sure my efficiency yet, but my pre-boil gravity was 1.050 with around 5 gal, so I think it will be perfect. I'm planning on dilluting it to 5.3 gal, shooting for 1.047 or so OG.

Check this out though, I got some commercial lager yeast this week: Fermentis S-189. The starter is krausened now, so I figure I'll chill, decant, and pitch tomorrow sometime.

Also, my LHBS's Saaz wasn't near 5.5AA, so I'm using and ounce of Vanguard at 5.4AA instead of the 60 min Saaz. I up'ed the 30 min Saaz addition to .75oz as well.

Very excited about this as its my first lager!
 
My gravity was 1.045 after I diluted the beer down to 5.3 gal. Close enough.

I pitched the starter last night at 11pm and had a bubbling airlock and a light krausen this morning at 7am. My yeast (S-189) was collected from an active fermentation, and I let it settle out in the fridge before stepping it up again with 32oz of wort from the brewday.

And best of all, the wort I decanted from the starter lasted like a lager!!! This impressed me greatly for some reason.

QUESTION THOUGH:

Since this was a No Chill, all the cold break went into the fermenter. I don't mind if my first lager is sub-optimal, but going forward, does anybody remove the cold break when doing No Chill lagers?. If so, how?
 
Are you fermenting in your no-chill cube?

I have a stainless steel mesh strainer my GF originally got me for something cooking related, but it works great for pouring the wort through when I'm transferring from cube-primary.

But I'm also skeptical on if break material effects flavor at all.
 
I rack the cool wort from the no-chill container using an auto siphon. I find that most of the hopds and gunk stays at the bottom of the no-chill container and I don't worry about the little that does get sucked up. But I do ales. Congrats on going for a lager!
 
I'm fermenting in a carboy, not the cube. I poured from the cube into a sanitized bucket that was lined with a sanitized 5gal paint strainer bag. I pulled out the bag, which drags out any particles or hop bits, but it didn't seem fine enough to catch the cold break. There's a ton of break material in the carboy settling down to the bottom now. The liquid above the break does look quite clear though, compared to my warmer-fermented ales.
 
ghpeel said:
I'm fermenting in a carboy, not the cube. I poured from the cube into a sanitized bucket that was lined with a sanitized 5gal paint strainer bag. I pulled out the bag, which drags out any particles or hop bits, but it didn't seem fine enough to catch the cold break. There's a ton of break material in the carboy settling down to the bottom now. The liquid above the break does look quite clear though, compared to my warmer-fermented ales.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I do (strain with a bag in a bucket) and I have no issues with off flavor or clarity. I do use gelatin though so that might have something to do with it.
 
The lager is almost done fermenting I think. Gravity was at 1.018 last night, still bubbling but the krausen is starting to fall. Sample tasted great! Well, for 5 day old beer anyway. I tried to see if I could pick up any DMS but I have no idea what I'm tasting for.
 
I've read most of this thread and even contributed, but I have a question and didn't quickly see the answer. Has anyone used a 15 gal. Sanke to no chill in? My plan is to go from the boil kettle directly to the Sanke and cork it. Wait several days, pitch it and let it ferment out. I have been doing a "bastardized" version and draining the boil kettle through a high volume chiller to pull the wort down to about 120F and fermenting in 2 pony kegs. I do not want to split this batch and want to see if I can eliminate the high volume chiller step. I know the purpose of the cube is partially to withstand the vacuum created by the wort cooling. Will the Sanke withstand this? I'll continue to read through, but thanks for the help. - Dwain
 
I'm no expert but I'd say your sanke will definitely be able to withstand the pressure since they are built to hold a lot of pressure. That being said you will have a fairly strong vacuum, and if you are corking it I would think it would be REALLY hard to pull the cork out, if it doesn't suck through in the first place.

What I have done for all of my no chills is actually just use a 3 piece airlock in reverse. I fill the airlock with vodka, and have a vodka soaked cotton ball in between the riser and bubble cap and just let it bubble in reverse. 7 batches so far and they've all turned out great.
 
Dwain said:
I've read most of this thread and even contributed, but I have a question and didn't quickly see the answer. Has anyone used a 15 gal. Sanke to no chill in? My plan is to go from the boil kettle directly to the Sanke and cork it. Wait several days, pitch it and let it ferment out. I have been doing a "bastardized" version and draining the boil kettle through a high volume chiller to pull the wort down to about 120F and fermenting in 2 pony kegs. I do not want to split this batch and want to see if I can eliminate the high volume chiller step. I know the purpose of the cube is partially to withstand the vacuum created by the wort cooling. Will the Sanke withstand this? I'll continue to read through, but thanks for the help. - Dwain
Click to expand...

I haven't done this yet, but I've done a lot of reading and am putting together my minimal system now (3.5 gallon batches, BIAB, no chill, no sparge, on the stovetop with a 8 gallon brew pot and fermenting in 5 gallon kegs ($3 5gallon food grade buckets until I get kegs set-up)).

My plan is to use an S airlock full of somethin' sanitary as soon as I transfer hot wort to the keg/bucket-- they work just fine in both directions.

Also, depending on ambient temperature, I doubt you'd have to wait several days to get to reasonable pitching temp, unless you're doing no-chill to spread out your brew process.
 
Oops- forgot to add that I'll probably put a little wad of HEPA filter material in the S-lock outlet to deal with the potentially un-sanitary air that will definitely get sucked into a hard-sided fermenter as the wort cools...
 
A Sanke Keg is designed to withstand outward pressure, not a vacuum. Just like a Mason Jar is designed to withstand a vacuum and not outward pressure. I wouldn't carb beer in a Mason Jar, nor would I cork/cap a Sanke Keg and create a vacuum. Use the sanitized cotton ball and airlock, just my $.02.
 
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
 
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
Click to expand...

No worries, I'd just hate to see you lose your beer and your keg! ;)
 
hal2814 said:
Ok. Here's my SMaSH. I categorize it as 2C Classic American Pilsner in BeerSmith.
Click to expand...

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.
 
That Lager sounds inviting!!! Maybe I'll make it my second 'no-chill' brew.

As for the first, a word of warning about no-chill in plastic HDPE buckets--

while I was pretty sure I had a good seal on the lid initially, the big temperature swing from post-boil transfer to pitching seems to have resulted in essentially open fermentation-- I can spin the lid round and round, and while I've definitely passed high krausen, the airlock never burbled even once...

No off smells or appearance, so hopefully it's ok as long as I can bottle ASAP (or keg, if my Craigslist luck pulls through this evening).

I think a bead o'silicon caulk around the recess in the bucket lid will be in order for future no-chill fermentation in plastic, sans threaded top.

Any other tips for DIY gaskets?
 
I wouldn't worry about that at all mate, many users enjoy open fermentation.

Chance of infection is much more likely to be from bad sanitation practices.
 

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