No Chill In Stock Pot

[RdeVjun]

I'm coming in a bit late on this discussion, however I'd have to support chilling in the stockpot in the laundry tub/ bath as opposed to no- chilling it. There would be a few reasons why one would want to no- chill in the pot, just one being lifting a stockpot full of hot wort not being for the feint- hearted, so some may wish to do that. However, dropping the pot into a tub of water gets the chilling underway pretty smartly and it is a method I've used for about 40- odd batches now. I now favour it, provided I have yeast ready to pitch the very next day, and if not, it goes into a cube to no- chill. Why? Because I'm looking for simple and rapid processes, no- chill is simple and quick but leaving everything in the one pot until pitching even more- so. Flavour- wise, I can't really notice any significant difference, I haven't tested this rigorously but that's my feeling.

A few changes of cooling water will speed the process up as well, plus there's also the benefit of all that 'free' hot water to clean up with afterwards; if you have a fairly small laundry tub you get the first batch after just half an hour.

I've not had any infections to speak of, so I don't think it is a great concern provided the lid is left on until pitching, plus I don't put anything on the stockpot apart from the lid.

My 2c, hope it helps! :icon_cheers:

 

[Nick JD]

I guess it is just a matter of weighing up the possible risks versus the potential benefits.

A cooling pot can only ever suck in the difference between its hot volume and its cold volume ie. a few ccs at most.

1 hour of air contact and possible stirring via the chiller ... dodgy! But since hazard says it works I'm prepared to believe him. You don't hear me yelling about the possible risks of immersion chillers to people who know it works fine.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

A cooling pot can only ever suck in the difference between its hot volume and its cold volume ie. a few ccs at most.

1 hour of air contact and possible stirring via the chiller ... dodgy! But since hazard says it works I'm prepared to believe him. You don't hear me yelling about the possible risks of immersion chillers to people who know it works fine.

Actually, in a standardish sized brew... Its going to be on the order of a litre. So if you consider 1000 to be "only a few" you are correct. But anyway, that's just the liquid, a lot more cc's in the cooling gas volume of the headspace. The danger is in the period when the headspace is cooling from about 45-50 to ambient. At that temp any bugs that do get sucked in may well survive, then they have an extended period of time to get a foothold.

You don't need to yell at immersion (or other types of) chillers about the dangers involved..... Thing is, they are aware of them already. It's one of the things that the experience of others teaches them..... You need to be damn careful of your sanitation when you are chilling, and you need to pitch ASAP because you will have exposed your wort to bacteria and you need to get yeast into it to outcompete the little bastards.

This is one of the reasons I prefer no-chill in a cube over rapid wort cooling - I think it actually reduces the risk of an infection.

 

[bullfrog]

Why don't you stick the pot into the laundry sink and cool it down with water from the old tap.

I've a relatively new house, though, so no old taps to speak of!

I find that if I'm rapid-cooling, it's easiest for me to just throw the pot into the larger side of my kitchen sink, chill it in there with maybe two or three water changes, and then just throw it into my fridge for a little while. Means that the missus doesn't get annoyed at me occupying half of the kitchen with my "damn beer stuff" for any longer than necessary, but also that the pot is cool enough for the particularly old fridge in question to not have a heart-attack because I've just put a pot with around 15L of boiling wort into it.