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Author Topic: semi no-chill  (Read 947 times)

Offline Steve Ruch

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semi no-chill
« on: January 30, 2018, 12:41:28 pm »
Due to circumstances that I won't go into I find myself having to move away from the Portland/Vancouver metro area.
I'm not sure just how the water availability will be and I may have to consider doing no-chill. I was wondering if I could compromise and chill to maybe 120-130 with an immersion chiller then let it chill the rest of the way on it's own.
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Offline skyler

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Re: semi no-chill
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2018, 01:13:34 pm »
When I lived in CA, I did this, but I’d chill down to ~85F or so before putting the fermenter in a chest freezer overnight.

If you’re using a temperature-controlled fermentation chamber like a chest freezer, this would work. You’d probably want the keep the freezer no warmer than 50F until you got the wort to pitching temp, then you could raise it to ~58F or whatever you usually do. It’s still not ideal. Maybe buy a different chiller (cf?). Pre-chilling the water can help, too.


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Offline Pope of Dope

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Re: semi no-chill
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2018, 02:55:30 pm »
By whirlpooling I reduce the hose water significantly. The set up was pretty simple, only expense was the pump.
Generally you don't see that kind of behavior in a major appliance.

Offline Robert

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Re: semi no-chill
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2018, 04:25:48 pm »
Don't know what your tap water temp will be, but FWIW:  I use an immersion chiller, which everything I've read suggests is more effective than counterflow.  My Summertime water can be above 75°F and I can still get the wort to ~60°F by running a prechiller.  Just another coil that sits in a tub of ice water and I run the tap water through it on the way to the immersion chiller.
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Offline narcout

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Re: semi no-chill
« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2018, 04:52:12 pm »
I'm not sure just how the water availability will be and I may have to consider doing no-chill. I was wondering if I could compromise and chill to maybe 120-130 with an immersion chiller then let it chill the rest of the way on it's own.

For several years my standard practice was to chill to around 90° and then let the chest freezer bring the wort down to pitching temperature.  I would often brew at night and oxygenate/pitch yeast the following morning.

It isn't compatible with low-oxygen brewing, but otherwise it didn't cause any issues I could ever detect.

These days, I chill to 130° and then recirculate ice water through the chiller using a pump until I get down to pitch temperature.  This has saved a lot of water.
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Offline BrewBama

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Re: semi no-chill
« Reply #5 on: January 30, 2018, 05:00:02 pm »
In the summer, I chill to as much as possible which is about 85*F then chill to pitching temp which usually takes overnight. I’ve not had a problem. I need a pre-chiller setup as mentioned above.


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