No-Chill Brewing?

[H-ost19]

Is this still being represented on this site? I loved switching to No-chill back in the day and will more than likely start doing it again now that I'm coming back to the hobby. Just curious if any of you are into it or is it still mainly just the Aussies?

 

[Jonakr]

Is this still being represented on this site? I loved switching to No-chill back in the day and will more than likely start doing it again now that I'm coming back to the hobby. Just curious if any of you are into it or is it still mainly just the Aussies?

I'm in the states, in the desert. I've been doing no-chill for at least the last two years. My version is just to put a lid on my brew kettle and leave it alone until the next morning. I transfer to a bucket, move it to my cooler, add yeast and put on an airlock.

 

[jtratcliff]

I was pretty much exclusively no-chill for years until just a few batches ago when I got an electric AiO that came w/ an immersion chiller (Klarstein Maischfest)...

I would put the kettle in the sink for a couple sink-fulls of water... until it was cool enough to carry outside w/out fear of scalding myself. Then
overnight-chill in the kettle w/ lid clamped on. Transfer to bucket the next day (12-18 hrs depending on outside temps.) then into swamp cooler with frozen water bottles until pitching temp.

Worked quite well.

Never did do the full Aussie no-chill in the cube... Only overnight in the kettle for me.

 

[Somesaymybeerisdrinkable]

I have been doing 2nd runnings batches by sparging my Anvil Foundry grain basket into my old 16 qt pot. I do no chill on this second batch by leaving the kettle on the stove overnight with the lid on.

I use the immersion chiller on the main batch, first using the garden hose then recirculating ice water with an aquarium pump.

My thinking is the second batch is free beer. I use harvested yeast, older leftover hops, and specialty grains. No chill is a great method to make this second brew with very little effort.

 

[Steveruch]

I've used no-chill on everything from pilsner to black IPA with good results.
I take my kettle off the heat, seal around the lid with plastic wrap, and put it in the cellar until the next day.

 

[ncbrewer]

I don't do no-chill, but I chill the wort in a sink of ice and water. It takes roughly an hour to chill. I bottle condition. The beer is very clear in the bottles when still warm but almost always has chill haze. I would think no-chill beer would be the same. So a question for the no-chill brewers: Do you have an issue with chill haze? I know I can leave a bottle in the fridge for a week, and the chill haze will clear. I'm guessing the no-chill brewers do something similar - either leave bottles in the fridge for a while, or cool the keg and leave it long enough to settle clear.

 

[RevA]

I often no chill during winter or when my schedule is hectic.

 

[cgriffith]

I do BIABFIAKNC. That is brew in a bag, ferment in kettle (chapman univessel), and no-chill. So at end of boil I clamp lid and a put in kitchen sink to cool enough to move to out of way location. During cool off, I have a air filter attached on lid so i can draw sterile(hopefully) air. Cooling in kitchen sink involves several cycles of filling sink with cool water and let it sit for about 15-20 mins to exchange heat. I do that for about 4 cycles. In morning, some time before noon, the temp is to where I want it. Also, by this time, my yeast starter is going. I pull wort from boil (after 15 min), let it cool on ice, then pitch yeast so it is started before end of boil. I just bought a 3.5 cu. ft. chest freezer which will serve as my new ferm. chamber so can't wait to eliminate the ice packs.

 

[SanPancho]

Is this still being represented on this site? I loved switching to No-chill back in the day and will more than likely start doing it again now that I'm coming back to the hobby. Just curious if any of you are into it or is it still mainly just the Aussies?

I’d second what @cgriffith just said, although I’d still use a fermenter and rack off clean wort.

all you need to do is drill a hole in your kettle lid, get a drilled rubber stopper to fit the hole, and a sterile air filter to pop into hole in the stopper. Then clamp down or plastic-wrap your kettle lid tight, and any air sucked back during cooling will be clean/sterile. Cheap and easy.

tho to be honest the Few times I had to no chill for whatever reason, I just put the lid on and left it, with no issues.

 

[H-ost19]

I don't do no-chill, but I chill the wort in a sink of ice and water. It takes roughly an hour to chill. I bottle condition. The beer is very clear in the bottles when still warm but almost always has chill haze. I would think no-chill beer would be the same. So a question for the no-chill brewers: Do you have an issue with chill haze? I know I can leave a bottle in the fridge for a week, and the chill haze will clear. I'm guessing the no-chill brewers do something similar - either leave bottles in the fridge for a while, or cool the keg and leave it long enough to settle clear.

To your question, I had zero problems with cloudy beer while no-chilling. I used "cubes" and found that a minimum overnight chill allowed much of the sediment to settle out. While still brewing, I usually waited 1 day due to schedule and a few times waited a week or more to allow space in my pipeline to open up. That was one of my favorite parts of the method, brewing more when you had time and just transferring/pitching when you had space.

When I moved the first time, I still had 2 cubes full. I sent all my equipment to my bro's house at the time with the intent of letting him pitch them when he had time. We pitched one a month or so later but when he moved, we realized we had a 3 year old cube with wort still in it. We ended up pitching at about year 4 when he got settled in and had a beautiful beer. It got us excited and we brewed another beer which we, again, waited a while to pitch. Never failed me.

To sum up, I like no chill for 4 main reasons; less time on brew day, less equipment to clean, you can go on a brew binge when your schedule allows and build up a pipeline ready to be pitched when life gets in the way of brewing, you use MUUUUCH less water. I love there are still nochillers here, I feel like when I got into it there would be a lot contention around it even though dry climates had been doing it for a long time.

 

[lumbergh]

When I use kveik yeast, I do minimal chill. Put the kettle in the sink with just tap water while I clean up and get the fermenter prepped. By the time that's all done the wort is just about pitching temp. It does help that I brew around 2 gallons.

 

[rancocas]

I don't do no-chill, but I chill the wort in a sink of ice and water. It takes roughly an hour to chill. I bottle condition. The beer is very clear in the bottles when still warm but almost always has chill haze. I would think no-chill beer would be the same. So a question for the no-chill brewers: Do you have an issue with chill haze? I know I can leave a bottle in the fridge for a week, and the chill haze will clear. I'm guessing the no-chill brewers do something similar - either leave bottles in the fridge for a while, or cool the keg and leave it long enough to settle clear.

I have brewed over 60 no chill batches to date. Never had a problem with chill haze. I use the standard Whirfloc and gelatin approach

 

[rancocas]

I have brewed over 60 no chill batches to date. Never had a problem with chill haze. I use the standard Whirfloc and gelatin approach

 

[Gilbert Spinning Horse]

I do no chill when I make a raw, or no boil beer. I'm not going to put my immersion chiller in the beer without it sitting in the boiling wort for a few minutes.

This weekend I made an overnight mash, no boil, no chill APA. Very little work and time to do.

 

[MackDan]

I've been doing No-Chill for probably 10 years. I have switched from a 5-6 gallon plastic jug to using a 5 gallon corny keg, because the plastic jug has absorbed lots of hop aroma and become stained from the darker beers. but I got 9 years from a $10 jug.
For the last 1.5 years I've been brewing at a buddies house and we split the 10 gallon batches, so I need to carry 5 gallons home, and carry home the split starter.
We pull from the hot boil kettle into 2-5 gallon corny kegs, AND into 2 -2liter Erlenmeyer flasks (about 1.6L of wort in each). The Erlenmeyer flasks get sanitized airlocks and then get placed into 5 gallon buckets with some cold sanitizer water or rinse water, while we clean up the brew kettle and pump/hoses and the rest of the gear that has been drying. We'll change out the water for colder water so that we cool those 2 starters down fast. The single yeast packet/vial gets split, and then I put my hot 5 gal corny into my car (standing in the front passenger seat floor, with the seat forward to jam it in place), and the now cool yeast loaded starter in a clean dry 5 gallon bucket, held in place with my Ph meter and brew salts and any hops I brought over. 15-30 min drive home and the corny keg get put up on my washing machine for the night,.
The next evening the starter is going strong, and the 5 gal keg is cool, so then I transfer to a carboy and in goes the complete starter, with a couple big swirls and dump it in.

 

[JaggersBrewingCo]

I No Chill nearly every brew.... I didn't the last two, I had a hop stand that I needed to do on one so I went a head and chilled it the rest of the way. The very last brew it was late on a Sunday, I didn't want to have to run home for lunch to pitch yeast due to work being very busy lately.