No chill in covered turkey fryer?

[O-Ale-Yeah]

At some point I want to try the no-chill method. I see home brewers transfer their wort straight from the kettle to a food grade plastic container to sit overnight before pitching the yeast but what about just leaving it in the kettle with the lid on?

 

[RM-MN]

Several of us have let our wort cool in the pot we boiled it in. The wort is pretty well pasteurized when the boil ends and the lid keeps bacteria from just falling out of the air into it. The only way for bacteria to get in then is by creeping under the edge of the lid and not much gets in that way. I have not heard of anyone getting an infected batch from that.

 

[r4dyce]

I've only done it once before and it wasn't planned, but it turned out fine. Small sample size, but I figure with steam and residual heat from the pot, it's fine. The thing with nochill is adjusting your hops since they will be at higher temps for longer than normal.

 

[RM-MN]

The next thing to ask about is overnight mashing. Yes, it works fine.

 

[Lefou]

Several of us have let our wort cool in the pot we boiled it in. The wort is pretty well pasteurized when the boil ends and the lid keeps bacteria from just falling out of the air into it. The only way for bacteria to get in then is by creeping under the edge of the lid and not much gets in that way. I have not heard of anyone getting an infected batch from that.

I've done this but with a small variation.
After doing my 3-4gal boil, I've diluted with cold or freezing water to 5 gallons to bring the temperature down then covered the top of the kettle with stretched cellophane. Poked several holes for evaporation and simply put the lid on for the night.
No problems.
This will affect your IBU calculations a bit and you'll need to adjust for that. I typically use a single hop for 60 minutes or first wort hops so that makes bittering levels fairly easy to calculate.

 

[Beer666]

I used to no chill in a cheap 30l ss pot. I would tape a bin bag over it and put a few bricks on the lid to keep it down. The next day I would dump the lot into the fermenter. Left outside overnight to cool.

 

[tgolanos]

I've never left any of my no-chills in the kettle overnight. I'm probably just paranoid, but I feel safer letting cool in the kettle to about 50°C throughout the day, then transferring to my fermenter to finish chilling overnight. I don't know, something about a rubber seal makes me feel a lot better.

 

[blubrewbbq]

You should be fine by leaving in the kettle. As another brewer stated you need to adjust you hop schedule. This is critical for hop forward brews. Not so bad for malt forward.

You generally have to adjust your hop schedule by 20 minutes. For example....a typical 60 min hop addition needs to be moved to 40 minutes. 30 min to 10. Anything 20 or less needs to be FWH.

I started no chill because I have a 1 year old and brew days needed to be shorter. Have not looked back

 

[redfox]

I've done several no-chill batches in the HDPE jugs...never had a problem.

Thinking of buying an SS Brewtech fermenter and going from [right after the boil] to the bottle in one vessel...just thinking out loud.

 

[blubrewbbq]

I've done several no-chill batches in the HDPE jugs...never had a problem.

Thinking of buying an SS Brewtech fermenter and going from [right after the boil] to the bottle in one vessel...just thinking out loud.

Do it. I've been doing no chill into anvil stainless fermenters. I do a 40min boil and go straight to the fermenters. Let it sit 24 hours and then pitch yeast. As I said before...you will need to adjust your hop schedule. But its worth it IMO when it comes to saving time.

 

[redfox]

thanks, blubrewbbq!

I live in a small house, and I can see this saving me a LOT of space (carboys, bottling bucket, hdpe "chillers", etc.)

less racking, too!

 

[BigJG]

I'm New Here So I Hope This Is Not Out of Place.
I never liked all the transfer from this to that so I have tried to make life simple. I brew in a 50L pot. After the boil I do use an immersion chiller (Stainless Steel 1/2" x 50') to get down to pitching temp. I recirculate the water starting with Ice Water in the cooler and add in a new 8lbs bag in the cooler when needed. Usually takes about 20 minutes to get down to pitching temp.
My pot has the lid modified so it can hold an airlock and is has a silicone gasket so it can be airtight when the lid is sealed to the pot. The pot is also modified, it has 8 draw clamps that latch the lid down, and I have a drain with a ball valve on the side at the bottom of the pot now too. The drain can also be capped off for 2 reasons, in case it leaks, and to make sure it can't leak.
After the yeast is pitched the lid goes on and gets latched down.
That's it for the full fermentation. After it's through it gets racked through a screen filter into the keg.
This seems to work good for me.

 

[RM-MN]

I'm New Here So I Hope This Is Not Out of Place.

Not out of place at all from my viewpoint. The only drawback that I see is that I sometimes have 3 to 5 batches in the fermenter at once and that would be quite expensive compared to the plastic buckets.

 

[BigJG]

I have 2 Stainless pots 50L size that are identical. Yes they are a little higher in cost but the upside is that they never wear out, they are much easier to clean and sanitize, and they just look clean and professional. I brew bathes that are 10 gallons and fill 2 corny kegs from each pot. YES the 5 gal buckets are much less costly but you have to have a pot to boil in anyway. Plus cleaning 1 pot is easier than cleaning the pot and all related equipment. Anyway I like this setup.

 

[Ninoid]

I No Chill near 30 batches in sealed fermenter, without any hop shedulle correction. Only have problems two times in one fermenter bucket with wild bacteria but, after I use stretch foil for seal lid, no any problems.

Vessel must be completely isolated from outside air and No Chill work great. In some my beers I use gelatin for fining and beers is very clear.