Boozey Boy
Member
Could you just put the fermenter straight in the cooler and let it chill that way? Edit ( I have a SS fermenter that i put in a chest freezer)
No-Chill Brewing?
- Thread starter H-ost19
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
rancocas
Active Member
I would not advise it. You risk burning out your compressor.
I also don't remember having that kind of almond flavor, and as for the oxygen in the wort, I don't oxidize the wort before the pitch yeast so that it uses up that excess oxygen, if there is any. I use a plastic fermenter and therefore cool the wort in a stainless steel pot (by evaporation without stirring) below 70'C so that there is no impact on the plastic.
Just finished my first no chill in a corney keg. Put the keg in a bucket of cold water and filled directly after flame out. Left the dip tube in place, don't want to deal with that later.
Lower rubber didn't seam to absorb much heat, placed in the garage now to chill.
Went to add gas to prevent excessive vacuum. Had a beer QD on my spare manifold line, but that was no problem as I was only sealing. Once I removed the QD, the beer post popit got stuck sideways and shot beer to the top of my garage and everywhere else. Didn't loose much as I slapped that QD back on and vented pressure via pressure release valve.
Moral of my story, I now expect this beer to turn out fantastic!
Lower rubber didn't seam to absorb much heat, placed in the garage now to chill.
Went to add gas to prevent excessive vacuum. Had a beer QD on my spare manifold line, but that was no problem as I was only sealing. Once I removed the QD, the beer post popit got stuck sideways and shot beer to the top of my garage and everywhere else. Didn't loose much as I slapped that QD back on and vented pressure via pressure release valve.
Moral of my story, I now expect this beer to turn out fantastic!
CyberFox
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2022
- Messages
- 201
- Reaction score
- 82
It's good to hear that no-chill is alive and well. I've been thinking of leaving the wort in the kettle to chill overnight instead of using a cube and it's good to know that it works for others. Can't get any easier than that and I'm all about keeping the brew day quick and easy. I streamlined my process for my last batch: 45 minute mash with no sparge, 45 minute boil, then throw in flameout hops and let chill overnight. Makes for a short and easy brew day. My latest beer is ready to try tomorrow. I left 6 ounces of hops in the cube overnight to act as a hop stand, so here's hoping that it turns out as intended. Happy Holidays to everyone! 
It’s supposed to drop to single digits here in a few hours. I’m definitely no-chilling today! I’ll set my Chugod thermo for 68F and leave the pot outside the garage door.
Keep us posted! I am interested in hearing how it turns out. This is close to what I am currently doing.It's good to hear that no-chill is alive and well. I've been thinking of leaving the wort in the kettle to chill overnight instead of using a cube and it's good to know that it works for others. Can't get any easier than that and I'm all about keeping the brew day quick and easy. I streamlined my process for my last batch: 45 minute mash with no sparge, 45 minute boil, then throw in flameout hops and let chill overnight. Makes for a short and easy brew day. My latest beer is ready to try tomorrow. I left 6 ounces of hops in the cube overnight to act as a hop stand, so here's hoping that it turns out as intended. Happy Holidays to everyone!
cgriffith
Well-Known Member
Can you expand on this comment please. I was planning on doing this when I finally get around to building my temp controller, but want to understand your point.
He just means that the refrigerator compressor would be running constantly for a long time (hours) to cool the beer from boiling temps to yeast pitching temps. I would, at least, just let it sit outside the refrigerator to cool down to closer to room temperatures before you put the refrigerator to work.
The way I look at "no chill" is that it works fine as long as you make every possible effort to avoid contamination of the sanitized (ie. boiled) beer. The whole point of chilling fast and pitching the yeast quickly is that you are reducing the risk of infection by shortening the vulnerable period of time between boiling and fermentation when alcohol becomes present in the beer to reduce infection risk. No chill carries some risk although you can reduce this with good technique.
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2012
- Messages
- 170
- Reaction score
- 178
My fermenter is a chest freezer. I wouldn't want to risk it, so I let the wort cool to pitching temps before transfer, yeast and storage.
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2012
- Messages
- 170
- Reaction score
- 178
I have a chiller, and used it for a few years. I used the runoff to water plants, but still felt like it was wasting too much water. I switched to using pool water to chill until the pool died, and then switched to full no-chill.
CyberFox
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2022
- Messages
- 201
- Reaction score
- 82
My beer turned out pretty damn good. Throwing the hops in the cube to act as a hop stand worked exactly as I'd hoped. I purposely omitted the dry hop to see what a 6 oz hop stand would do by itself. There's plenty of hop flavor, but very little aroma (as I figured). I'm surprised at how much flavor I'm getting from the grain also. I used 100% Rahr 2-row, so I'm not sure if the extra flavor is from the Rahr or from doing no sparge (maybe both?). I definitely think it needs dry hopping to bring it to the next level, but it's still plenty good without it. I think that, due to the hops being added close to flameout temperature, the bitterness could possibly become a bit much depending on the hop used. I used 0.5 oz of Warrior at the beginning of the boil and 6 oz of Cascade at flameout and the bitterness isn't overwhelming, but it's pretty solid. I can imagine that if I substituted Cascade with Chinook, the bitterness might get out of control. For my next beer, I'm planning to do a 6 oz hop stand at 170 degrees (to limit the bitterness, especially since dry hopping will add a bit extra) and a 6 oz dry hop. My streamlined process (shorter mash and boil, no sparge, and no-chill) is definitely here to stay.
Last edited:
Most of what you read is that the hop schedules should be shifted at least 20 minutes for no-chill.. I think it should be more. Way more. I dumped a batch because I didn't move my hop additions enough and it was way too bitter.. After a couple of weeks in the keg it seemed to soften but realistically it wasn't going to get consumed.
I am about to try an all simcoe recipe that includes a 200 minute hopstand at 185 and a huge dry hop. Should be interesting.
0.3 oz (8 IBU) — Simcoe 12.4% — Boil — 15 min
0.5 oz (8 IBU) — Simcoe 12.4% — Boil — 0 min
1 oz (15 IBU) — Simcoe 12.4% — Aroma — 200 min hopstand @ 185 °F
6 oz — Simcoe 12.4% — Dry Hop — day 5
CyberFox
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2022
- Messages
- 201
- Reaction score
- 82
I've also heard about shifting the hops 20 minutes to adjust for bitterness with no-chill. I think the cooler hop stand should definitely keep the bitterness at bay. Now my main dilemma is figuring out how to transfer more efficiently while doing a big dry hop. Currently, I do a closed transfer by injecting just enough CO2 into my carboy to transfer the beer through a racking cane into the keg through the liquid post. Dodging a big, loose dry hop with the racking cane can be a pain. One option is using a bag, but that supposedly results in less extraction. If I were to use a spigot instead of a racking cane, I could still run into problems with a stuck transfer. It's a hard problem to solve.
I just did a no boil beer with only a 15 minutes hopstand for bittering. I used about 1.5g/l high alpha hops andit easily reached the desired 30 ibus within 15 minutes. It actually tastes like I even overshot a bit and reached something in between 35 and 40 Ibus. After seeing this, I think that the no chill additions must be pretty powerfull. Given the extended time, they are probably more like 45 - 60 Minutes boil additions. I found that the suggested utilisationfactors in this article here are pretty close for hopstands and can be probably used for no chill as well:
https://help.grainfather.com/hc/en-us/articles/360014527537-Calculation-IBU
Quote:
Our approach using the Tinseth/Rager/Garetz/Daniel equations for predicting IBUs for post-boil hops is as follows:
T = Temperature in Kelvin
As you can see, at 90C, there is still about 50% utilisation. Let's say, during the first hour it chills from 100C to 85 C, that would mean theres probably already 60-80% utilisation, compared to a boil. Then add the extra hours afterwards between 85C and 60C and the difference between a 60 minute boil and a no chill batch becomes neglectable.
https://help.grainfather.com/hc/en-us/articles/360014527537-Calculation-IBU
Quote:
Our approach using the Tinseth/Rager/Garetz/Daniel equations for predicting IBUs for post-boil hops is as follows:
T = Temperature in Kelvin
| Temperature | Utilisation Factor (U) |
| 90°C (194 F) | 49% |
| 80°C (176 F) | 23% |
| 70°C (158 F) | 10% |
| 60°C (140 F) | 4.3% |
| 50°C (122 F) | 1.75% |
As you can see, at 90C, there is still about 50% utilisation. Let's say, during the first hour it chills from 100C to 85 C, that would mean theres probably already 60-80% utilisation, compared to a boil. Then add the extra hours afterwards between 85C and 60C and the difference between a 60 minute boil and a no chill batch becomes neglectable.
Similar threads
- Poll
