Is a wort chiller necessary?

[conpewter]

What do you all think of the No-Chill method that some Aussies are employing now?

HyperFox - The No-Chiller Method / Using A Cube

I have not tried it, and flies against a lot of common practices, but seems to work for lots of folks.

 

[calabus]

im an hvac guy so i had the necessary stuff to make myself one and i love it! i'll post some pics when i can. made it out of 3/8 copper and vinyl tubing and fits perfectly in my 5 gal. pot. what i do is fill up my sink with cold water, then put about 4 or 5, 20 oz. frozen water bottles in it. i do this about 10 minutes before time to cool, then move my pot to the sink and start the process. works great for me and pulls it down in no time.

 

[Zenman]

think of the No-Chill method

Makes perfect sense that this would work as you are putting into an airtight sanitary environment. It is the same prinicipal as getting those kits that have premade wort, or even frozen food. If you really wanted you could vacume seal it instead of turning it upside down (which i image is to kill any airborn baddies left in there with hot wort steam) and store for a good while longer I am sure. I think the cool quick and pitch is just to reduce infection chances from airborn baddies...

 

[impatient]

I bought 25 feet of 1/2 inch copper tubing and some hose clamps. I had some 5/8 tubing and a garden hose repair kit laying around.

So, I threw this together. I plan to try it out tommorow.

 

[dontman]

What do you all think of the No-Chill method that some Aussies are employing now?

HyperFox - The No-Chiller Method / Using A Cube

I have not tried it, and flies against a lot of common practices, but seems to work for lots of folks.

I think it is a terrible practice that will bite you in the butt the first time you taste a beer with cooked corn or cabbage taste to it. Until you experience it you can't imagine how bad this is. But once you do you will not forget it.

This practice would actually encourage and enhance the production of DMS.

EDIT: Also Forget about aroma hops with this method. They would have absolutely ZERO chance of contributing anything useful to your beer.

Honestly, I would rather put my uncovered kettle in an icebath in the middle of the shower room at my local YMCA than to utilize this ill-conceived idea.

Contrary to what salepeople for the cube would want you to believe, I don't believe it works for lots of folks.

 

[szac]

I'm going to try the no-chiller method. The Aussies seem to be in to this huge. I like the idea of being able to pitch stored wort on a just-been-racked yeast cake. Seems like you could get into a pretty productive cycle and shorten the brew day down a bit.

Couple the no chiller method with full volume AG brew-in-a-bag for added controversy and a considerably shortened, cheaper, less equipped brew day which might like this:

EQUIPMENT/INGREDIENTS:

• beer in the primary that's ready to be kegged.
• a previously stored 'cube' of wort
• a keggle, a big ass grain bag and a burner
• grain, hops, full volume of water

BREWING:

• conduct brew in a bag technique as usual
• while that's mashing and boiling rack your beer from primary to secondary, keg, or bottling bucket
• Pitch stored wort on to that yeast cake (style, recipe, taste permitting)
• wash and sanitize the now empty cube
• transfer your near boiling wort to empty cube

Now all you have to do is wait a week or so and repeat the process!

Here's the 3 year old 60+ page thread on the topic that has a lot of results, questions, answers.

Users Of The "no Chiller Method" - AussieHomeBrewer.com

Disclaimer: I'm a new AGer with 5 batches under my belt and just hit my targets for the first time last batch. So yes, I'm knee deep in the discovery phase of my brewery and tend to over-simplify ****.

 

[user 30639]

Homemade! If you currently have an IC, you just need a suitably sized pond pump to recirculate the water. See below:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/recirculating-ice-water-chiller-38235/

I might look into that, that even looks like something a non-handy person such as myself could do.

My first two batches I've done ice baths in the sink, but I've been looking at getting a chiller, especially for brewing in the summer.

 

[remilard]

What do you all think of the No-Chill method that some Aussies are employing now?

HyperFox - The No-Chiller Method / Using A Cube

I have not tried it, and flies against a lot of common practices, but seems to work for lots of folks.

Probably works fine with an ale malt and ale fermentation since there isn't got to be detectable DMS in these beers no matter how you cool them (see Fix, Principles of Brewing Science). Personally I would prefer to get the cold break but I am not sure how important that is if you don't need the beer to be stable (you are going to drink it fast).

I wouldn't try it with a lager.

 

[Nikobrew]

The first AG batch I did was in a 7.5 gallon aluminum turkey fryer pot. I was used to doing the icebath method since I had up until now been doing 2.5 or so gallon extract boils then adding ice and water to it. With the full boil AG though the icebath was taking FOREVER.. being drunk and tired, I just put it in the beer fridge, lid on top, thermometer that came with the flier in the hole at the top. The next morning I put it in a primary, pitched yeast.. best beer I had ever made.. I did this about two more times until I got my keggle setup. Now Ive only done one batch via keggle (will my second tomorrow woohoo) so I made a 50ft immersion chiller since it wouldve taken THAT forever, and I dont have a fridge big enough for 11ish gallons

SHOULD I have left the pot in the fridge?.. all I know is it worked fine and I had no problems..anyone Ive told this to said i just got lucky..whatever it is. Much easier and faster though with a chiller, the one you made looks great!