no chill

[sean6120]

thinking about making my next batch a no chill batch to save time, I brew all grain 10 gallon batches and ferment in a ssbrewtech conical inside of a fridge to control temp. I can transfer hot wort directly to the fermenter then seal it up and oxygenate and pitch the next day. just looking for any feedback or possible concerns.

 

[3toes]

I think as long as you're sanitation is on point then there's nothing really to worry about. If I had the means, I'd probably do this pretty often.

 

[Hello]

It sounds like a solid plan. My last two batches have been pseudo no chill. I've chilled to 100F and then stuck in the ferm chamber until the next day. I pitch about 18 hours later (give or take) when my wort is 66F.

 

[iijakii]

Yeah, I used to no-chill (the plastic winpack things though) and never had any issues. One thing I saw pretty common was people saying their beers come out much hoppier since it stays hot for so long. I never no-chilled a pils or anything delicate, so can't say I have any personal experience, but you can always bitter at 45 or what not instead of 60. There's hop time calcs for no-chill out there if you search.

Another thing to consider just to be on the cautious side, is to make sure your conical can handle a small vacuum if you are fully sealing it where air can't suck in. I imagine it's fine, but might want to make sure before you get a nice big dent or worse.

 

[dmcman73]

I have the 14 Gal SSBrewtech conical with the temp control system. I was thinking of cooling the wort down to about 130 - 110 degrees and then transfer to the conical and then let the temp controller with the internal Stainless coil bring the rest of it down to pitching temps, that way I won't be wasting so much water.

 

[Psylocide]

Another thing you can do if you so choose, throw the lid on your BK after flameout and let chill in there overnight. Depending on the ambient temp, it'll probably be around mid 80s-high 70s, then you could transfer and let chill the rest of the way or pitch and let chill before the initial ferment kicks off.

 

[MindenMan]

Great stuff here! My last batch I cooled as low as my water would go 75F or so, and put into my fermentation chamber for 12 or so hours and then pitched my 1 quart yeast starter. Somewhere less than 12 hours later fermentation had started; the O.G. was 1.082. I guess I will know if all is well in a few days.

 

[iijakii]

I wouldn't be worried about pitching at 75F and cooling at all.

 

[gbx]

Another thing to consider just to be on the cautious side, is to make sure your conical can handle a small vacuum if you are fully sealing it where air can't suck in. I imagine it's fine, but might want to make sure before you get a nice big dent or worse.

This. We had a water shortage here this summer and I started no chilling by dumping the hot wort into a corny keg. I needed to put about 20psi to keep the lid from sucking in when it cooled. With the conical, it might dent or you might suck a bunch of air through the air lock? Neither is good. If your fridge is anything like mine, there will be mold.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

You have to be REALLY careful about the vacuum that will be created when the beer cools ruining your fermenter. I haven't done no chill yet but i use big mouth bubblers (plastic) and planned on leaving the lid cracked a bit when I put it in my ferm chamber to cool.

Doing what you described is like a 'vacuum 101' lesson we give at work, worker climbs into rail car, cleans it really well with hot water, seals it up when done. Here is the result when it cools, creating a vacuum on the inside of the car!

 

[Paps]

thinking about making my next batch a no chill batch to save time, just looking for any feedback or possible concerns.

I've done the no chill method both before i made my copper immersion chiller and also after said chiller sprung a leak (and i've been too lazy to fix it)

pros -

1 - yes it shortens the brew day
2 - less equipment to sanitize/buy/clean

cons -

1 - potential infection due to not being cooled quikly/remaining in infection danger zone temps before yeast is pitched. Potential longer lag times before the yeast takes over any competing colony of bacteria.
2 - increased IBU`s from the imo natural hopstand the wort is left at (this may not be a con at all depending on the style you are making OR if you use less hops to accomodate for the added IBUs you will get from doing this)

=========================================================

Bottom line.....RDWHAHB.......the beer will be just fine.

 

[Bellybuster]

Just make sure you have an airlock installed, vacuum problem solved.
I have a brand new chillzilla for 4 months now. Haven't used it yet.
No chill is the cats ass. As mentioned above adjust your hops, makes a huge difference with any post boil additions.

 

[gbx]

Just make sure you have an airlock installed, vacuum problem solved.
I have a brand new chillzilla for 4 months now. Haven't used it yet.
No chill is the cats ass. As mentioned above adjust your hops, makes a huge difference with any post boil additions.

The fear I'd have with using an airlock is when it cools it will suck in unclean air into the fermenter filled with fresh wort.

 

[Bellybuster]

You're gonna aerate anyway

 

[Psylocide]

The fear I'd have with using an airlock is when it cools it will suck in unclean air into the fermenter filled with fresh wort.

Empty it, soak a papertowel in starsan, put over top of airlock. If it's wet the whole time, I wouldn't worry.

Or, do what I do and use sanitized aluminum foil. Not air tight, but never had an infection.

 

[gbx]

You're gonna aerate anyway

Its not about oxygen, its about the mold spores and wild bacteria in the air that could get established in the wort before you pitch the brewers yeast a day or 2 later.

But maybe filling a 2 way bubbler style airlock with starsan would be enough to filter the air.

 

[Paps]

Its not about oxygen, its about the mold spores and wild bacteria in the air that could get established in the wort before you pitch the brewers yeast a day or 2 later.

I can't speak for anyone but myself here but when i `no-chill` it's usually less than 12 hours later that i'm pitching the yeast.

IE- brew that night....go to bed
wake up next day and pitch before going to work
or after i get home from work at the latest.

Least that's what i do.
-cheers

 

[Bellybuster]

Its not about oxygen, its about the mold spores and wild bacteria in the air that could get established in the wort before you pitch the brewers yeast a day or 2 later.

But maybe filling a 2 way bubbler style airlock with starsan would be enough to filter the air.

This has not proven to be an issue with those that no chill. As I said the tiny bit of air introduced by the airlock is minuscule compared to the huge amount introduced during aeration.
Contrary to many wishes, most home brewers do not aerate with pure O2. I say most as a guess, pretty sure it's probably accurate

 

[gbx]

This has not proven to be an issue with those that no chill. As I said the tiny bit of air introduced by the airlock is minuscule compared to the huge amount introduced during aeration.
Contrary to many wishes, most home brewers do not aerate with pure O2. I say most as a guess, pretty sure it's probably accurate

Yeah, i get that but when I aerate I'm usually adding a massive pitch of active yeast within seconds, quickly devouring sugars, creating alcohol and lowering the pH which prevents most airborne yeasts, mold and bacteria from getting established. That said, I'm definitely not a no chill hater. I'm on board and have done my last 4 batches no chillin' (after 90+ the conventional rapid chill way) but I've tried my best to avoid exposing fresh wort to the filthy air until I've pitched the yeast. I live in the land of black mold, maybe things are better where you are. Maybe I'm just overly paranoid, too.

 

[slym2none]

Nothing wrong with being super-attentive to your sanitation!

 

[RmikeVT]

You probably aren't trying to buy more equipment, but using these are considered a "best practice" among no chill brewers:
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?sku=75032

You put the boiling hot wort into them, squeeze as much of the air out as you can, put the lid on which has a rubber seal, shake about to sanitize all the surfaces of the thing and wait 24 hours for your wort to cool down. I've done a few batches like this, pretty convenient and they turned out fine. You will have to make some hop schedule adjustments when going no chill. Basically, bump all the additions 15 minutes and add your flame out hops to the winpak when you fill it with the wort. There are some Youtube videos out there too.

You could even try chilling your wort down to 180 and then adding flameout addition to winpak as this would slow down the isomerization of the hops and give you a nice long hop stand. Things get pasteurized at 180-160 so no big deal if you ask me.

I might get back into no chilling and experiment with some IPA's, I need to buy some new winpaks though and have really been trying not to buy more equipment as I have everything I NEED and them some.

 

[FizzerNoob]

The Winpaks work great. I think we began using those back in 2009. When you fill them with boiling hot wort, your nearly sanitized Winpak gets sanitized with boiling wort. We would draw off a small amount of the wort at the point we filled the Winpak to create what we dubbed a RWS (real wort starter). Giving the yeast something to chew on until we reached pitching temps. Actually, the same wort they would be chewing on after pitch. It worked extremely well, no infections. The Winpaks can be sealed after filling, and handle the vacuum from cooling.

 

[Bellybuster]

my longest no chill so far has been 4 days with an airlock.... no issues