No chill brewing

[Brian_S]

In an effort to reduce my water usage I've begun to experiment with no chill brewing.  At flame out I put a tight fitting lid on the kettle and walk away for 24 hours letting physics do the work and poof 20ish degree wort.

I've done one batch and its worked perfectly fine.  I decided to try it on a light blonde so I would be sure to pick up on off flavours and such.

Anyone else trying this method?

While shortening the brew day (ok now its 2 brew days) I found I've reduced my water usage by ~75L (I'm doing 60L batches) and the only water that does not become beer in the end is what ever was absorbed by grain and perhaps 15 to 20L used in cleaning.

B

[mikegraham]

I have used it a few times before to play with I had food grade containers with lids that sealed tight never had an issue. Only advice is move the hops to the right as they will keep bittering for a few hours after the boil.

[feldmann]

I do this fairly frequently. If I run out of anything to build a starter I'll use extra runnings from the mash to build my starter, which means I can't pitch for a little while after brewing.

Before I built my immersion chiller I used to just rack it into a plastic bucket and throw it in my spare room until it reached pitching temp and I never had any problems. Don't put hot wort in a cold glass carboy though, i learned that the hard way...