Slow chill technique

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Kingfish

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
253
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Location
Atlanta
Equipment available:
60qt brew pot
2 - 7.5 bucket fermentor
2 - 7.5 bucket with spigots
Full sized empty fridge
Chest freezer
Temperature controller
A stable 70f basement

Before getting the propane burner and 60qt pot I would brew on the stove and cool in the sink. An immersion or CFC chiller by itself is not an option as our water is very warm and no way to get it down to pitching temps (~62f) in a reasonable amount of time. I don't have the resources right now for a chiller and a pre-chiller.

I am brewing a 1.058 Brown Ale. It will ferment at 64f in temp controlled chest freezer using commercial harvested Wyeast 1968.

Immediately after the boil is complete I will dump the wort (trub and all) into a sanitized bucket and put on the lid with the hole plugged with a rubber stopper. I will put this into the fridge for 2-4 hours. I will then transfer it to the pre-chilled chest freezer set at 62f. The next morning I will transfer the work to another sanitized bucket leaving behind the vast majority of the trub but will allow some to come over. Then aerate using a whisk on a drill then pitch a large quantity of my harvested yeast that has had a final 1 liter starter. Pop on a blow off tube and close the freezer. Here is the thread on the harvesting of the yeast. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/harvesting-sweetwater-ipa-344556/

Notes:
I will have sprayed down the inside of the chest freezer with StarSan.
I will not be using any pils malts (using MO or GP) and will have a vigorous 60 minute boil so I have ZERO concerns about DMS.


Thoughts? Questions? Comments?
 
If you are not chilling the wort to below 140 quickly you could end up with more DMS than you care to....

http://www.winning-homebrew.com/dms.html

I was trying to brew on the cheap and let a few get down to 140 naturally before I read this article... my beers were drinkable but wer not going to win any awards..
 
If you are not chilling the wort to below 140 quickly you could end up with more DMS than you care to....

http://www.winning-homebrew.com/dms.html

I was trying to brew on the cheap and let a few get down to 140 naturally before I read this article... my beers were drinkable but wer not going to win any awards..
Did you notice that I am using MO (Marris Otter) or GP (Golden Promise)?
British ales are usually lowest in Dimethyl Sulfide at 10-20 ppb

Please research "no chill" brewing and see what actual results people are getting.
 
If you are not chilling the wort to below 140 quickly you could end up with more DMS than you care to....

http://www.winning-homebrew.com/dms.html

I was trying to brew on the cheap and let a few get down to 140 naturally before I read this article... my beers were drinkable but wer not going to win any awards..

I have no chilled pilsner beers straight into kegs with no DMS ever. If you boil it for 90 minutes the precursors are pretty much gone, they don't come back.
 
Depending on how much airspace you have in the "stoppered" cooling vessel the top might implode as the trapped air contracts.

omo

bosco
 
Did you notice that I am using MO (Marris Otter) or GP (Golden Promise)?


Please research "no chill" brewing and see what actual results people are getting.

No I did not take note of the malts,,, it did not occur to me....

AND

I knew which malts were "likely" to cause a lot DMS but did not know that some were "unlikely" to.

I will have to look that up.

Thanks,

DPB
 
djt17 said:
I also use a keg as a no-chill vessel; never had a problem.

You mean a corny? I'll have to give that a try...

I'm completely no chill. Chilling is a waste of my time, and water! Unless you're talking about the kind of chilling which involves my porch and a glass of beer... that IS worth my time.
 
Sounds like no chill. I don't think you'll see any change over a standard no chill, but additioanl steps with the different coolers. Probabl not worth the work. Just go straight to the 62 degree chamber and leave over night. :mug:
 
My concern with going straight to the chest freezer was that I don't think it is good for it to run for so long. I am worried about it overheating.
 
"My concern with going straight to the chest freezer was that I don't think it is good for it to run for so long. I am worried about it overheating."

The condensor is sized to reject the heat removed from the space when it is loaded with a certain weight of product. Product respiration and enthalpy are part of it. However, running a chest freezer at 50 or 60 deg. F. is harder on the compressor than running at 0 deg F.. NOOBs that toss in an electronic operator, set with a one or two degree dead band beat the compressor up pretty good. It's stop and go that rips up a compressor. The compressors are suction gas cooled and when the compressor doesn't run long enough, the suction superheat never gets to the point where the compressor motor is adequately cooled....I would worry more about the time it takes for the wort to hit pitching temps and using plastic buckets, than the freezer. Never believe that a 90 minute boil ends DMS and it won't come back. Chilling the wort isn't a waste of time. A waste of time, is waiting for the wort to cool. Chill the wort to pitching temps within 20 minutes and you'll make a much finer beer. Wort needs a quick cold break. Otherwise, oddball flavors come out and the "Ugly Baby Syndrome" that someone mentioned, comes into play.
 
VladOfTrub said:
Chill the wort to pitching temps within 20 minutes and you'll make a much finer beer. Wort needs a quick cold break. Otherwise, oddball flavors come out and the "Ugly Baby Syndrome" that someone mentioned, comes into play.
I have seen no hard evidence of this. Do you have a study that backs up this claim?
 
Kingfish said:
I have seen no hard evidence of this. Do you have a study that backs up this claim?
+1, I have no-chilled 6 batches so far. They have all been very good beers with no off flavors.
 
VladOfTrub said:
I would worry more about the time it takes for the wort to hit pitching temps and using plastic buckets, than the freezer.
Worry about using plastic buckets? Do tell.
 
Brewed a brown ale Sunday evening. Everything went very well. I turned off the flame and poured the wort into a freshly sanitized bucket and popped on the stoppered lid. I did have to vent it a couple times right after dumping into the bucket as the steam threatened to blow the lid off. I actually did not have a stopper and forgot to pick on up so I used a wire nut. It fit in the hole just fine and sealed up around the grommet in the bucket. I put it in my spare fridge where it sat until it got down to about 140° and put it in the chest freezer set to 64° (had been pre-chilled to 40°). I did vent the lid a couple times after it started to cool. Not sure if I had to but did not want to deform the bucket.

Sunday morning the temp reading was 64°. The lid was sucked in but had not too bad. I aerated with a wire whisk on a cordless drill. I pitched a very large quantity of my commercially harvested Wyeast 1968 yeast. Had bubbling in the blowoff jug after about 6 hours.

I had planned to pour the wort into another fermentor to leave behind the trub but just plain forgot about it.
 
+1, I have no-chilled 6 batches so far. They have all been very good beers with no off flavors.

+2 (over 100 gallons no-chilled). I wish folks would try things for themselves instead of parroting advice or quoting "studies".
 

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