No Chill

Hoptonium

Hoptonium

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In John J. Palmer's book "How to Brew" (4th Ed.) he talks about several different ways to chill the wort before pitching the yeast. One is what he calls No Chill - which is basically where you pour the hot wort into a high-density polyethylene jerry can with a screw top. He tells you to squeeze out all the air, then seal the lid. This implies that the jerry can is pretty flexible.

Anybody have any experience using this method? Did it work? Would you (or do you) continue to use it?

I have a wort chiller (coil type) that I can use, but the nearest tap is upstairs (I brew in the basement) and I don't like lugging 20L of hot wort up the stairs - that's just dangerous, not to mention, heavy.

Cheers!
 
The Aussies by and large swear by this method. As the hops remain in hot wort longer, this method requires reworking your hop schedule and amounts. Those here that are down under will no doubt offer advice. There are likely dozens of YouTube videos on the subject as well.
 
There are Jerry cans, and there are Jerry cans. Palmer refers to those 5-gallon very soft water containers like this, which easily can be purged of air. Inexpensive too.

You don't have to purge the air, but the less Oxygen the better. Filling the container with CO2 (after the hot wort) would do the trick, as would a collapsible jug as Palmer suggests. What will not work is filling a rigid container way up to the tippy top, as there would be no room for fermentation then.

But in a practical sense, you can just put the almost-boiling wort into some (any heat-resistant) container, seal it up, and wait for it to cool enough so you can pitch your yeast. You can take actions to minimize the Oxygen introduced and not worry much more about it.
 
I did it once in a bucket. I altered the hops and the IPA can out ok
 
HDPE Cube (Jerry Can) is what you want.
I find the cube can swell quite a bit with the hot liquid but it also distorts out of shape and implodes a bit as it cools too.
Just fill it cap it tightly lay it on its side so the lid bit gets sanitized by hot wort.
Then leave it alone until next morning.
Tip this into fermentor of choice.
Last batch I tried kettle chilling just left the wort in the sealed up boil kettle overnight.
I'm not tasting any infection so far.
 
I've done it a few times. Much easier on lower hopped beers as you don't have to work out how much to change your recipe to cope with the extra hop extraction while the wort cools down.

This guy has a heap of videos with the method - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoAhRuxJb1K-d4BBSLNX1RQ. Basically any of the videos he tags as advanced, BIAB will show it, though he doesn't often show the yeast pitching. This video shows all the stages -
 
Thanks for the great information you have all passed along. I think this is a great idea and I will pursue it further. In the absence of a nearby water tap, this seems like a great solution. Those clever Aussies!

G'day mates!
 
I have Stainless SS Brewtech brewbuckets and I no chill in them more and more lately because it's cold in Canada and I can just leave it outside for a few hours with the lid on before I pitch the yeast.

So far it's worked pretty well.
 
Not a huge fan of it no, what with the methane coming out of the melting permafrost.

But at -20 from boiling to 18C is about 5 hours.
 
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