AHB Articles: Fermenting Directly in the No-chill Cube

[manticle]

It is alkaline. Use it to clean the house, wash bathmats etc (presuming you rinse most of the yeasty slurry out of the fermenter before applying the sodium percarb otherwise the solution would be fairly icky).

 

[paulmclaren11]

Is the original article available anywhere?

Cheers.

 

[manticle]

I might have it on a PC drive somewhere at home.

Send me a PM to remind me to look and I'lll check when I get back a bit later.

 

[Midnight Brew]

Fermenting two cubes currently with one using 1469 and the other an American strain. Both cubes had 22L in them leaving 1L head space. So I've turned the cube on the side so the tap is on the top, attached a blow off tube that goes down into a flask to catch the overflow. I was looking at doing this to specifically catch the yeast much like top cropping. It's currently 40 hours into ferment and its caught no yeast yet and there has been no overflow.

Really surprised that the cube has contained the ferment, even with 1469.

Will give an update when it has past the 72 hour mark but I doubt there would be any excess activity with krausen.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I'm going to make a confession that will likely draw jeers of derision from the peanut gallery.

I ferment in the vessel I no chill in. I have done the transfer thing and will do it intermittently, especially when I wish any cube hopping hops to be removed from the wort. When I do this, I use 'traditional' no chill methodology.

But more often than not, when I no chill, it's straight into the fermenter.

A couple of points to note:

1. I sanitise everything profusely. Bleach bomb, you name it. I'm fairly anal about sanitisation.
2. I rehydrate my yeast once I'm down to pitching temp. It takes off.
3. I gelatin and then transfer to another vessel when bottling time comes up.

I've never had an infection from this (as opposed to one infection since AG on a chilled beer).

I had a Saison I did last year (September off memory) using this method. I bottled it in January (don't ask, holiday came up in the middle of it and I kinda hadn't brewed anything else to motivate me to bottle it. It's gone now. But it was (for an old saison, that is) good, and not a hint of infection. It did do a bit of a ninja jobbie though.

I'm not saying this is best practice at all. But I have four kids and the missus doesn't like brewing all that much, especially because I do it in the kitchen, so doing it when I can get permission and quickly is of vital importance.

 

[Nicko_Cairns]

hey Manticle,

So you are taking the OG from in the cube itself, or did I read the article wrong?

Great article, thanks for sharing, I'm about to start doing this, makes sense to me.

Nick.

 

[manticle]

The cube has a tap and is like a different shaped fermenter. Take the gravity readings in the normal way.

 

[Nicko_Cairns]

The cube has a tap and is like a different shaped fermenter. Take the gravity readings in the normal way.

Okay thanks mate, I just read it wrong, thought you were taking it after removing the lid.

 

[manticle]

Take it just before pitching - otherwise you compromise the integrity of the no chill.

 

[Nicko_Cairns]

Thanks Manticle!

 

[kaiserben]

So is there a danger that a tap fitted to a no-chill cube could fail/leak due to the near-boiling wort?

I had an accident when trying to get boiling wort through of the tap of a esky/cooler (a long story) that resulted in the tap failing and wort spraying everywhere.

I realise we wouldn't need to use a chill cube's tap at boil temperature, but I'm just worried after my previous experience. However I suspect the type of tap on that cooler - a thumb press release with soft plastic - contributed to its failure. The taps we'd be using on the chill cubes are rigid plastic and probably much better suited, am I right?. I guess I'm just after some peace of mind from others who've already done it this way.

 

[sponge]

I usually pop the original 'plug' back in when filling the cube, then tip it on it's side and replace that with a tap for when I ferment in the cube.

Haven't had an issue doing it that way..

 

[manticle]

The warmth of the wort can make the area around the tap soft. In my experience it will pop out easily if knocked but if you are cautious, and don't knock it, it won't pop out by itself.

That's my experience (done tons of brews this way now) but yours may differ so exercise your own caution or do as Sponge suggests.

 

[Blind Dog]

I usually pop the original 'plug' back in when filling the cube, then tip it on it's side and replace that with a tap for when I ferment in the cube.

Haven't had an issue doing it that way..

+1. Never had a leak yet and always a satisfied sigh from the wort when I release the plug

 

[Forever Wort]

I ferment in the vessel I no chill in ... more often than not, when I no chill, it's straight into the fermenter.

I also let my wort chill in the fermenting vessel; in my case I use two 56l SS pots for fermenting in.

I simply transfer the boiling wort via silicon, slap a layer of cling wrap on, seal it with an occy strap around the rim, pop the lid on and wait on average about thirty-six hours before pitching.

No infections, no worries. The only plastic my beer comes into contact with during the entire brewing process is the silicon tube and nothing warps.

 

[Futur]

Reviving a bit of a dead thread here guys.

Has anyone come up with a better solution of oxygenation using this method?

Lifting the cube above your head like hemans power sword and shaking it at greyskull doesn't in my mind seem like a very successful method for achieving correct oxygenation. I know those with O2 tanks will be thinking this is a no brainer, but I don't have an O2 tank.

I normally use a large paint stirrer on a cordless drill and about five minutes and a bit more for lagers. I find lagers to be great using the no chill method due to the many recipes lacking late hop additions, but hence these beers need a good amount of oxygen which I don't see shaking a cube with minimal headspace achieving this.

 

[thylacine]

Reviving a bit of a dead thread here guys.

Has anyone come up with a better solution of oxygenation using this method?

Lifting the cube above your head like hemans power sword and shaking it at greyskull doesn't in my mind seem like a very successful method for achieving correct oxygenation. I know those with O2 tanks will be thinking this is a no brainer, but I don't have an O2 tank.

I normally use a large paint stirrer on a cordless drill and about five minutes and a bit more for lagers. I find lagers to be great using the no chill method due to the many recipes lacking late hop additions, but hence these beers need a good amount of oxygen which I don't see shaking a cube with minimal headspace achieving this.

http://brulosophy.com/2015/05/25/wort-aeration-pt-1-shaken-vs-nothing-exbeeriment-results/

Purpose: "...To evaluate the differences between a beer aerated by shaking and one made from the same wort with no effort put into aeration..."

My Impressions: "...Blinded or not, I could not reliably tell a difference between these beers. I fully agree with the remarks of panelists regarding how difficult it was to tell a difference. Both beers were great, I happily drank from both the non-aerated and aerated kegs..."

 

[goatchop41]

http://brulosophy.com/2015/05/25/wort-aeration-pt-1-shaken-vs-nothing-exbeeriment-results/

Purpose: "...To evaluate the differences between a beer aerated by shaking and one made from the same wort with no effort put into aeration..."

My Impressions: "...Blinded or not, I could not reliably tell a difference between these beers. I fully agree with the remarks of panelists regarding how difficult it was to tell a difference. Both beers were great, I happily drank from both the non-aerated and aerated kegs..."

From reading through a lot of Brulosopher's stuff, and listening to Jamil Z & John Palmer's podcasts, the observed lack of difference between the aerated and non-aerated batches would be more to do with the size of the yeast starter used than the oxygenation. Brulospher always uses a big, healthy and sufficient pitch of yeast (except in the xBMTs that test yeast starter size, of course!).
The oxygen is used primarily by the yeast during the reproductive/growth phase. If you use a big enough starter, then there isn't need for significant growth/multiplication of the yeast. Therefore, if you can't or don't want to aerate, just pitch a big enough starter!

 

[Logman]

Reviving a bit of a dead thread here guys.

Glad you did, I've got a cube that's going in like this tomorrow :lol: Don't know how I missed it.

The cube I have is chockers with a 8% or so Stout (no squeeze on the cube). Will fit a blow off but I assume you still want a decent bit of space with a blow off tube, but I want to toss as little as possible, what's the minimum air space with a big beer?

 

[Hambone]

Can you do this with extract or kits? That's all I'm up for just yet.
Cheers