My way of doing a no chill brew

[lindseyyy]

Hi fellow brewers,

I just started BIAB brewing from kits. And i'm very happy with the results so far! When i was half way through my first BIAB brew i realized that the brew i had cold crashing in my cube wasn't ready to keg. Hmm the delema on what to do as i don't own anything to chill it. Then i thought as i am brewing in a 50lt pot which i have a lid for i would just glad wrap the lid on and allow to cool over night in the pot and transfer directly from the pot to the fermenter. Has anyone else tried this approach? The end result was great beer and ive since done this 2 more times with no adverse effect to my beer. just wondering whether im onto something new or its already a common thing to do.

cheers,

Lindsey.

 

[slcmorro]

Plenty of people do this, you're not alone.

 

[professional_drunk]

I've done this many times during my biab days and never had an infection. I've also left it for a few days like this before pitching yeast with no ill effects.

 

[Rocker1986]

Yeah definitely heard of that being done plenty of times with no ill effect. I don't do it myself because my brew days don't usually coincide with putting a new batch into the fermenter.

I do use a similar method with my yeast starters though. I mix the DME and water in an Erlenmeyer flask, stick it on the stove, bring it to the boil, boil for about 10 mins, flame off, then put some al-foil over the top, and turn the stove back on for about 30 seconds or so, then just leave it sit there until it cools to room temperature and pitch the yeast into it. It works well with my split shifts at work - make up and boil it on my break, then by the time I come home again at the end of my shift it's ready for the yeast to be pitched. Has worked well.

 

[Hippy]

Do you transfer via a tap or siphon?
If you have a tap on your pot you will need to strip it down and give it a thorough clean regularly otherwise it may become a source of infection.
A tap is not really an issue if you are transferring hot wort but once it's cooled it's a different story.

 

[Fents]

didnt someone once glad wrap their aluminium pot up for no chill and the whole pot crumpled inwards because of the vacuum effect....there was a photo kicking about a few years back.

 

[Rocker1986]

That sounds incredibly unlikely to happen simply by putting glad wrap over the top of it. The glad wrap would be torn and dragged down before the aluminium crumpled inwards.

 

[lukiferj]

Can't find the picture of the buckled urn but there definitely was one from doing a similar thing. This thread has some good posts from Ross and MHB. http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/77380-no-chill-just-leave-in-the-urn/

Update: Different forum including the pics of the buckled urn http://homebrewandbeer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10869&p=111564#p111564

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Metals are typically strongest in tension, but put them under compression and you get buckling, a weak failure mode. So yea glad wrap and a vacuum is bad news for most thin walled pots home brewers see. The glad wraps grip around the pot rim would be amplified as the vacuum suction occurred.

 

[Rocker1986]

The one in that picture thread there had two layers of gladwrap then the lid, then another layer of gladwrap over it all or something, so yeah... in that case I can see how it'd happen. I'd imagine there'd be a pretty good seal happening there.

I've seen the effect when I used glad wrap on one of my flasks once. It didn't damage it or anything, but as the boiled wort in the flask cooled, the glad wrap got sucked into the neck of the flask. I use foil now as it seems I dunno.. more secure, but yeah, interesting stuff.