No Chill BIAB

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Raider

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Hey Everyone,
I’m planning first 5 gallon BIAB and I’m curious about the no-chill method... is the reason we chill it is to bring it to yeast pitching temp fast or within the brew day? I’m curious because it would probably benifit me to wait till it cools down natural over 24 hours. Is there any harm in doing this? I was just planning on securing the lid and putting it in a cool place till it reaches pitching temp.
I know there is probably a thread on this already and I have seen a bunch of them but still feel like I’m missing somthing so figured I would ask a few direct questions since I’m planning a brew in the next day or 2 and don’t wanna mess it up!
 
Two reasons that conventional wisdom says to chill fast: to mitigate bacteria infections in your brew and to stimulate cold break for clarity.

I enjoy no or slow chill. I've done what you suggested and the beer tastes great. I prefer to let mine cool in the primary though, just for convenience the next day, there's less to sanitize.

Try what you are suggesting and see what you think. Don't let the naysayers scare you away from the method.
 
True, but there are timing adjustments that can counter that, especially if the brewer does late addition extract and whirlpools, which will at least help the wort cool close to 170. In the case of BIAB, the action of whirlpooling alone will have to suffice.

My advice, add finishing hops at flameout. Stir to create a whirlpool for a few minutes and let it continue to cool for 10 minutes. If you want flavor hops, add with 10 minutes left in the boil. This all assumes you get your beer down to 170 or below in about 20 minutes before you put the lid on and call it a night. Which then sometimes begs the question of why no chill at all when a tupperware size block of ice tossed into the wort itself can, with cold tap water, get the beer down to pitching temp relatively fast. In the case of full boil BIAB, look up no chill hop schedules, whirlpool and lid on.
 
Depending on what you use for primary fermentation, and what fits in your sink, you can transfer to fermenter at <140(f) and then put a cool wet towel on the fermenter overnight (I can't remember what that's called .. towel in cold water wicking up and over fermenter).
 
I kinda no chill. With a shitty immersion chiller I get to 40C pretty quickly and then drag the bucket outside until it gets to pitching temp. I normally get to pitch before hitting the sack. I've never had an issue.
 
I've done it, been ok. Think I got a infection one time letting it cool in a non airtight kettle tho.
 
I do a BIAB [No | Slow Chill] FIAK process. This means at flame out, I seal up my kettle to become my fermenter. I now use a HEPA air filter in rubber stopper on kettle lid that will eventually hold the airlock until the temp is pitchable. Usually, I cool in kitchen sink which takes about 4 hours, but on a few occasions I have just let it sit out to cool till next day. In Florida heat though wort was still too hot to pitch the next day so I still ended up cooling off in kitchen sink. As far as I can tell this process has not hindered the taste or clarity of my brew.
 
Sure.

How:
I have two univessels I use. One is a modified 6gal SS pot. I drilled a hole in lid to hold a rubber stopper. That stopper can hold either an airlock or that attached HEPA filter. I also have a Chapman 7gal. That has a much bigger (#10) stopper, but works the same way.

Why:
At flame out, the wort is at around 210 degrees F. As the wort cools, with the sealed lid, a vacuum is formed. So I use the inline HEPA filter in same port that will eventually hold the airlock to allow filtered air in while cooling; yet keeping airborne critters out.
 

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This is great! I spent a couple of hours yesterday trying to cool my wort in an ice bath - I was short on ice so it took a long time. Will definitely try this filter and pitch the next day.

Question - I've never really cold crashed before because of the vacuum that would suck in the air lock and possibly contaminate. Can this filter also be used when cold crashing and not contaminate?
 
Physically it would work but... I have never cold crashing due to refridge space, but always wondered how to deal with vacuum issue. More specifically, I would think it would be a bad idea to have air introduced into fermentation chamber after fermentation due to oxygenation. Sure the filter would filter the air, but what about the oxygen. During bottling, I replace airlock again with this filter in order to eliminate the vacuum during bottling, which exposes the beer to oxygen, but that is only for the time it takes to bottle.
 
You want to do some chilling in order to lock in the late hop "profiles" or any other ingredients added at the very end.

I use an IC but can only get the wort down to around 110-120 (south Texas) without using way too much water. I cover the kettle and let is sit a couple hours or overnight.

Never had any problems before letting a warm kettle sit overnight. But this last time I think an infection took hold. And that kettle was covered.

Nothing is guaranteed...
 
...I use an IC but can only get the wort down to around 110-120 (south Texas) without using way too much water....

Check into setting up a recirculating system for your IC.

What I do is use a water transfer pump to first recirculate from a 5gal bucket of tap water. The water gets hot enough to be saved as my wash water for cleanup. Then I move the hoses over to a cooler that has another 5gal of water, plus a 20lb bag of ice ($2 at a local discount grocery). With the ice water I can always count on quickly getting down to pitching temp. I use the water in the cooler as rinse water for clean up, so overall it's a very efficient system.

IMG_20180720_072709_760.jpg
 
I use the No Chill method on over 70 batches.
I leave the hot woth for twenty minutes in the hopstand so that the temperature drops below 80'C and pour it into a plastic fermenter which I seal well. Within 24 hours the temperature drops and I put the yeast and airlock.
I count the hopstand period and No Chill as ten minutes of boil and that turned out to be pretty accurate.
 
Cubes are popular for no chill. Put your beer in a cube that hold nothing but beer, and let it cool overnight. If I never had an immersion Chiller, that looks like the tidiest way to me. Not sure if they make cubes larger than 20L or 5 Gallon, which might be a limintg factor for some. Here is a thread: No Chill Brewing

I think I'd be paranoid not cooling my batch down, especially since my ground water is like planet Pluto cold here in Eastern Canada. I can get my boiling wort down to 70 degrees F in under 10 minutes. Its in the fermentor and pitched in 20 mins max. Love my immersion Chiller. Best $100 I spent.
 
I switched to No Chill pretty early on in my brewing career and have never looked back. At Flameout I throw in half of my flavor hops and once the temp hits 140ish I throw in the rest. I rack it into my fermentation vessel the next day along with my yeast and let the yeast do their thing.
 
I got an Exchillerator counterflow chiller and a wort pump when I went from extract to BIAB & full volume boils. Here in CA, the groundwater is cool enough most of the year to get the job done, but in the summertime, I still end up a few degrees above pitching temp, so I let it sit in the carboy overnight (6-8 hrs), then aerate & pitch. I deal with the airlock suck-back by stuffing a cotton ball in the top end of an s-shaped airlock (a HEPA filter is, obviously, an even better idea). Have not had any problems. (Yet?) :oops:

BUT If it takes a few hours for the carboy to cool down just a few degrees, how long would it take to go from boiling to pitching temp? 24 hours? 36? more? I dunno, sounds risky, even with good sanitation.

Do you get a cold break with no-chill? Does it matter?
 
BUT If it takes a few hours for the carboy to cool down just a few degrees, how long would it take to go from boiling to pitching temp? 24 hours? 36? more? I dunno, sounds risky, even with good sanitation.

Do you get a cold break with no-chill? Does it matter?

I cool mine down enough that I'm comfortable with pouring them into my plastic fermenter (at least below 170 F with cold water awaiting, but preferably below 140 F). Ice blocks from tupperware are the greatest helper, which I either put in the kettle or in the fermenter when I can't get the wort to cool anymore. I usually brew in the evening and am done with everything by 8 or 9. I pitch the next morning around 7 AM and the wort is between 70-74 F.

My beers aren't clear, so I assume no cold break is happening, but they're not a cloudy mess either, so I'm fine. When I have the room for kegging, I'll add gelatin.
 
I cool mine down enough that I'm comfortable with pouring them into my plastic fermenter (at least below 170 F with cold water awaiting, but preferably below 140 F). Ice blocks from tupperware are the greatest helper, which I either put in the kettle or in the fermenter when I can't get the wort to cool anymore.



Oh I see - you are using ice blocks, and cold water as part of your volume?. For sure that will work. When I was brewing extract I used to boil four gallons down to three and add two gallons of ice (previously boiled, cooled, and frozen in two 1 gal. pitchers). Worked great. So you are ending up with <5 gal. at the end of the boil and topping (bottoming?) up with more cold water?
 
Oh I see - you are using ice blocks, and cold water as part of your volume?. For sure that will work. When I was brewing extract I used to boil four gallons down to three and add two gallons of ice (previously boiled, cooled, and frozen in two 1 gal. pitchers). Worked great. So you are ending up with <5 gal. at the end of the boil and topping (bottoming?) up with more cold water?
Right. I typically do a partial boil of 2.5 gallons. Of course, if I do a half batch, it's full boil and I'm definitely waiting until morning to pitch in that case.
 
I went from extract (2 batches) to all grain no-chill and have never had a second thought about changing. I adjust the time for hop additions, tap off 1-2 quarts to make a natural wort starter and avoid the additional cost of DME and the time cost/effort cost of making it on the stove. I transfer the wort to a temp. safe food grade container that sanitizes itself by adding the 200+ degree wort. I have never had an infection. While it cools overnight, I'm patching yeast into the natural starter, and have it on the stir plate even before I finish cleanup. Brew day is down to about 4 hours. The next evening (or possibly the next morning depending on when I brewed, AM or PM) I transfer to a fermenter and pitch the starter, another 20-30 minutes. Personally, it works better for me to have the shortened first day. You can also just store the wort (postpone making your yeast starter for a day, a week, etc.) if
you want to. I like the flexibility it gives me.
 
I went from extract (2 batches) to all grain no-chill and have never had a second thought about changing. I adjust the time for hop additions, tap off 1-2 quarts to make a natural wort starter and avoid the additional cost of DME and the time cost/effort cost of making it on the stove. I transfer the wort to a temp. safe food grade container that sanitizes itself by adding the 200+ degree wort. I have never had an infection. While it cools overnight, I'm patching yeast into the natural starter, and have it on the stir plate even before I finish cleanup. Brew day is down to about 4 hours. The next evening (or possibly the next morning depending on when I brewed, AM or PM) I transfer to a fermenter and pitch the starter, another 20-30 minutes. Personally, it works better for me to have the shortened first day. You can also just store the wort (postpone making your yeast starter for a day, a week, etc.) if
you want to. I like the flexibility it gives me.

I work in an almost identical way. However, I would not recommend keeping the wort for more than 48 hours due to possible botulism.
 
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