Fermenting Directly in the No-chill Cube
by manticle on 02-19-2012 at 01:40 am

Fermenting Directly In The No-Chill Cube.

NB: This article is written for the benefit of those who use or are interested in the no-chill method. The arguments against no-chill are irrelevant here.

Additionally, the method described here is intended for use with no-chill as originally described here: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?autocom=ineo&showarticle=56 with the exception as outlined below.

The plastic fermenters in general use are made from High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), a food safe, recyclable plastic which is heat rated to above 100°C. If you are using the no-chill method correctly, you also should be running your hot wort into a sealable container made from identical material.

Generally (as described in the linked article) brewers will wait for the wort to cool, then pour into a clean fermenter. I have, for some time, been avoiding this step and simply adding my yeast or yeast starter directly to the cube and fermenting in that.

HOW?

No-chill as normal into a cube with a tap. I break my taps apart after every brew and clean and sanitise them and the thread. This should be standard practice for all brewing. When my wort is cool, I undo the lid on the cube. You will hear air get sucked in and the liquid line will drop. Take a hydrometer sample for OG (obviously not relevant to those who use refractometers). Re-tighten the lid, shake the cube for a couple of minutes. If you find this difficult, head to the gym or get someone to help you. Alternatively you can rock the cube side to side to agitate the wort – shaking will do a better job.

Undo the lid again and pour in your yeast or yeast starter. Foam may want to leak if you have aerated well – this backs off fairly quickly so pour in stages if you need to. Keep starsan spray handy and replace the lid in between doses of yeast (if necessary – often you can just pour straight in). If foam leaks out the top, spray clean with the starsan.

Re-tighten the lid, back off a few turns so it is on the thread and can't be knocked off but is loose. This will allow the CO2 to escape. Place in fermenting fridge, laundry sink or whatever space you use to ferment.

WHY?

My initial reason for trying this was to eliminate a persistent infection. I have since found the method so easy and problem free that I have continued for almost all beers. One less vessel to clean and sanitise, one less path to infection, less space required and less work for the same result. If you use jerry can style cubes you may even be able to ferment two at once side by side in a regular fridge.

WHY NOT?

If you are concerned about cold break material in your wort/beer, then this method is not for you. Plate chilling isn't for you either. This method means you will ferment on top of your cold break material. Hopefully you've been smart enough to leave behind your hot break in the kettle. In my experience, I have not found cold break to have a noticeable detrimental effect on my beer and I have not found literature that suggests it will be. I have placed in and won categories in competitions with beer made in this way so presumably experienced palates haven't noticed anything detrimental either.

WHAT ABOUT HEADSPACE?

If using the above linked no-chill method, you will be filling your cube, then squeezing the air out. What about krausen explosions and CO2 pressure?

I use 20 L Willow jerry cans which hold about 23 litres. My batch size is between 20 and 22 litres (final ferment volume). I squeeze the air out as recommended so when I come to adding yeast I have between 1 and 2 litres of headspace maximum. I'm not sure if it's the shape of the vessel but krausen is always very well contained. My cubes are almost completely full by the time I add my starter and I get a tiny bit of krausen leaking down the side of the cube in the first couple of days. I spray this with starsan (the pressure and liquid is usually enough to clean) and if required, wipe the outside with a clean sponge and spray again. Filling a 30 litre fermenter (that's 30 litres plus headspace) to around 25 L gives me as much or more mess than filling a 20 L jerry to the top. I have used this method with Belgian krausen monsters. I haven't yet tried a weizen yeast so I can't comment on that. The worst that can happen is you have some mess to clean up which happens with cylindrical fermenters too. Alternatively you can fit a blow off tube to your lid.The CO2 has no trouble escaping .

HOW DO I CLEAN THE CUBE?

This is surprisingly easy. First, rinse out the trub and sediment with a litre or two of water. Boil 5 litres of water and place in the cube with some, napisan or other sodium percarbonate powder (I currently use pure sodium percarbonate). Put the lid on tight (make sure it's tight).

Shake vigorously. Pressure will build from the heat and the cube will swell. Back the lid off, release the pressure. Hot foam may leak out around the lid thread which will help clean the thread if there's any scunge there. Close lid, repeat, then turn cube upside down and leave till needed.

PLEASE NOTE: You are dealing with boiling liquid and pressure and these vessels have seams so caution is advised. Cubes can and will burst along the weakest point (seams). Do this at your own risk. I'm happy to take the risk, make sure you are too or find another way. I would advise a gentle shake at first so if anything does burst, you will know without splashing yourself with hot liquid. Otherwise boiling water and turn upside down to remove the krausen ring, but gently to avoid pressure build up.

This gets rid of almost all scunge but 2 things that are useful in situations where it's needed:

1. If you still have scunge around the top of the thread after doing this, sprinkle a small amount of sodium percarb on it, dose with boiling water, then use a cotton bud to remove visible debris.

2. If there is stubborn scunge inside the cube, re-do the boiling water trick but add some raw rice so when you shake it, it scrubs the inside for you.

Sodium percarbonate with boiling water is a magic cleaner so it's rare I've needed to use rice or cotton buds.

Rinse well before use but starsan will remove a lot of the surfactants and grimy feel you get with napisan (you get much less with pure sod percarb) so you can use much less water than you might think. Water is re-usable for cleaning or watering plants - sodium percarbonate is biodegradeable. Hot wort or no, I recommend always sanitising a cube before no chilling. Simple, peace of mind and the added bonus of aiding the rinsing of the sodium percarbonate.

When fermentation, d-resting, conditioning etc is done, tighten lid and place cube in cold conditioning fridge. I still use my cylindrical fermenters as bottling buckets for bulk priming.