Questions on no-chill in a keg

[oceanic_brew]

I have been experimenting with no-chill brewing, which for those who do not know is a method of not quickly chilling your wort after boil. I've done about 30 batches this way and all have been successful. The last 8-10 batches have been utilizing a corny keg as the no-chill vessel.


My process is as follows:

Boil wort- whirlpool - transfer to cleaned and sanitized keg through a ball valve on kettle with liquid still at 200f

I can't see how I have the any chance for contamination since I know that the contents of the keg including the headspace is staying at nearly 190 for 15-20 minutes.

The way I see it, when we pasteurize fruit for a secondary addition it's usually above 170 for 10-15 minutes but with wort we have a much higher sugar content and not the added benefit of alcohol in solution.

Any thoughts on potential issues?

 

[Kerrbrewer]

Havent tried it myself, but ive heard this is how the Aussies do it, just not in a corny. They use a plastic airtight carton that collapses as it cools. As long as you avoid air getting in (suckback) as the wort cools IMHO it should be fine.

 

[Baja_Brewer]

The PicoBrew Zymatic & Pico use this same principle since they use the keg as the boil vessel, its up to the brewer if they want to chill.

I believe some people are concerned about additional bittering in high IBU beers. I haven't done this enough to develop a feeling one way or another about the effects on bitterness.

 

[oceanic_brew]

I've been subtracting 20 mins from my hop additions and my IPA's come out great. I don't think I could nail some clones or other people's recipes because there's clearly gonna be a difference with keeping the wort hot for so long.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

I no chill kinda,Chill to 100 F or so.Which goes fast with the chiller.Then put in fermenter set to pitch temp and pitch the next day.I just did my first hop at 180F for 30 minutes and it seems to make the beer a bit juicier.Will be taking this method further on the next batch