5l No Chill Extract - K&k Concentrate

[loikar]

Morning all,

At the moment I'm brewing when a fermenter becomes empty, so usually 1-2 brews a fortnight depending on what I'm brewing.
So its a routine of boil, chill, into fermenter, make up to batch size, pitch, ferment, rack, bottle and then start again.

I have been thinking about getting 6, 5L jerrys from Bunnings and doing 5L boils, adding the rest of the ingredients and then storing it as a no chill cube.
So All i would need to do is pour the concentrate into a fermenter, make it up to 23L and pitch the yeast whenever a fermenter is free.
This way I could have up to 6 different brews ready to go whenever a fermenter is ready and not have a bunch of 20L jerrys hanging about. and It also wouldn't restrict me to brewing just on the weekends as knocking together a 5L boil can be done in a couple of hours.

Does anyone else do this?, or would it be better to go for the 23L jerrys?


Cheers,

BF

 

[Pennywise]

I've been thinking of doing the same thing because I don't have the equipment to do full size boils, and I'd really love to try my hand at full AG. I'll be following this.

 

[Pollux]

As I recall, BribieG used to make a 20L batch and then cube it as 4 * 5L cubes to use for partials when required...

Linkies

 

[marksfish]

i borrowed bribie g idea and used the five litre cubes fo partials, and it works well.

if doing concentrated boils you have to watch your hop utilisation otherwise all should be good.

 

[Bribie G]

Good idea, provided you boil the whole 5 L to sterilize it, and make sure you are getting a good seal on the cube lid. For longer term storage you might even consider cling wrapping them, quite feasable with those small cubes. I found (still find with my tocan stouts) that the major bummer is waiting for the wort to cool before pitching and I've even resorted to bags of ice. So if you have a frenzied brew up for a few hours and cube five or six, then store them somewhere as cool as possible, you can have instant brews ready to go. The advantages of no chill aren't restricted to all grain brewing. However hop additions in the form of dry hopping or hop tea would be best done in the fermenter IMHO.

 

[loikar]

Well that's it then,

When I get back from Holiday, i'm gonna get me 6 5L cubes and have a big brew day to fill them all.

Instant wort, just add water and yeast!

 

[RdeVjun]

Great idea BF, good thinking and sounds feasible. Don't want to pooh- pooh the idea, but like marksfish, I'd suggest keeping an eye on hops utilisation (nb, the chart refers to post- boil SG), it'll take a pretty big hit at really high SGs. If your bittering hops are high AA% and cheap it should be OK, while the additional hops cost could still be offset by all sorts of other factors (convenience, space etc.).
Leaving some late hops until its in the fermenter might help, like BribieG says, but you can't really do anything much about bittering or flavour additions. Gives you a chance to change your mind about late hops too, particularly if the first few batches aren't quite to your liking.

 

[buttersd70]

Great idea BF, good thinking and sounds feasible. Don't want to pooh- pooh the idea, but like marksfish, I'd suggest keeping an eye on hops utilisation (nb, the chart refers to post- boil SG), it'll take a pretty big hit at really high SGs. If your bittering hops are high AA% and cheap it should be OK, while the additional hops cost could still be offset by all sorts of other factors (convenience, space etc.).

Therres no real reason why utilisation would have to suffer....you could either:

1. design the concentrated wort to be mixed up to volume with water and 1.5kg of LME (which, because it is tinned, is sterile, so can just be directly mixed in). Or,
2. do the boil with a BG to allow for good utilisation; and then add the remaining malts at flameout, prior to cubing.

Nothing says that all the malt has to go in at the begining of the boil. Extract has already been boiled, and whirlpooled, in it's production. It only needs to go into the boil to either disolve, or to sanatise (in the case of extract that isn't from a sterile tin).

 

[RdeVjun]

Yeah, fair cop Butters- I hadn't thought of that as I was still thinking of AG methodology, even though I saw the thread title and section. Thank goodness you're here!

BF: looks to be onward & upward then!

 

[loikar]

Yeah, fair cop Butters- I hadn't thought of that as I was still thinking of AG methodology, even though I saw the thread title and section. Thank goodness you're here!

BF: looks to be onward & upward then!

Yup,

So basically my boil would be the same SG as the 23 litre batch.
The LDME or LME or dex or whatever else would be added at flameout.
I would probably still dry hop prior to pitching....

I'll give it a go in a few weeks and keep you posted!

Cheers,

BF