First no chill SMaSh

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Ronix81

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Looking at doing a no chill biab in the morning. I have made several brews already but always used my immersion chiller and followed recipes I've found with a few changes. I'm now looking to brew a few SMaSH brews to get an idea of hop and grain characters. I've got marris otter and pilsner plus a few kg of wheat plus half a kg of Gladfield gladiator. As far as hops go I have Amarillo galaxy Waimea summer and a little mosaic. What im struggling to grasp is there a certain ibu I should aim for and if I use pilsner grain with no chill and do a 90 min boil should the first hop addition be at 60min for bittering instead of 90? Also do I let the wort sit in the kettle after flame out before cubing or get it straight in there and sealed? Sorry for such newb questions, I've read to much and confused myself and don't won't to brew something that is to bitter and undrinkable in the name of a learning curve.
 
Hi Ronix81, My normal no chill goes like this,
Boil for 90 mins
Add Bittering hops at 45 mins or 30mins,if doing a Pale Ale aim for 20-30 ibu's, the rest of the hops go straight into the cube,
Add whirfloc tablet 10mins before end of boil, flame out and let sit for 10 mins, then do a big whirlpool stir and let sit for another 10 mins this gets the trub to settle into a cone in the middle of your pot, by this time your temp should be between 85-90 deg, ok to transfer, squeeze air out of cube, tip on side so that the handle gets hot liquid in it and kills any bacteria that may be lingering .

Best of luck for tomorrow
Gregos
 
I would suggest either - do your brew as you normally would when you chill. Compare and if you believe there is too much bitterness/not enough hop flavour, alter next time

OR

Brew as normal, add your bittering charge @60 (regardless of 90 min boil - boil 30 first), then move any other hop additions forward by 15-20 mins. Any late additions like 5 or flameout, move to either whirlpool or cube hop.

Alternatively do a forum search for the argon method.

Depends a lot on the beer, how hoppy it is and how much relies on late additions. Early bittering additions can stay pretty much the same.
 
I would suggest either - do your brew as you normally would when you chill. Compare and if you believe there is too much bitterness/not enough hop flavour, alter next time

OR

Brew as normal, add your bittering charge @60 (regardless of 90 min boil - boil 30 first), then move any other hop additions forward by 15-20 mins. Any late additions like 5 or flameout, move to either whirlpool or cube hop.

Alternatively do a forum search for the argon method.

Depends a lot on the beer, how hoppy it is and how much relies on late additions. Early bittering additions can stay pretty much the same.

I'm guessing cube hop is exactly that, hops in the cube. Should I do this in a sock or just tip them in?
 
Up to you. If you use a sock, do them loose, allowing for absorption and swelling. I prefer naked - particles will drop out.
 
Don't sweat too much. Just have a play around and work out where your preferences sit. It's very easy to get so caught up in making every beer 'perfect' that you second guess every process.

Do your best to understand the basic mechanisms at work, taste the results and compare to theory, adjust, tweak, brew, taste and repeat.
 
I did my first biab no chill yesterday. 60min boil. Hop additions at
60min
0min
And in the cube after 15mins of whirlpool

From what I've read it's roughly 15-20mins later for your additions with no chill. If u are transferring at 85-90deg, the cube addition shouldn't add hardly any bitterness...

I rekon play around with it and after a few batches you'll work out what works best, that's my plan anyway...
 
I'd go naked with the cube hops, hard to get the socks out if they blow up too much - lots of crud will get to the fermenter but I don't worry about it too much.

As for the schedule, I just follow this rule of thumb now;
  • 60 min or FWH can stay as they are
  • Anything below 60 mins (and to 15 mins) shift to 15 minutes later (eg. 45 mins becomes 30 mins, 20 mins becomes 5 mins)
  • Anything below 15 mins just move to flameout
  • Anything at flameout/whirlpool move to cube
  • Dry hop as normal
I used this method for an XPA I did recently and I had it properly analysed at Boags. The IBU's came within a couple points of the original recipe (which didn't account for no chill). Pretty happy with that so I'll stick with this method as a general guide but it's always open to tweaking on brew day. ;D

I also use Ian's BIAB spreadsheet, I set the "Boil Min" field to 0 for whirlpool and -10 for the cube-hop IBU calcs (I still transfer to cube at around 85-90 degrees so there's still some isomerisation happening but it's minimal). Not sure what you're using for tracking your recipes but I've found this to be pretty great for my setup (Crown 40L urn)!
 
Decided to go for 40 mins and cube addition. Should come in around 30ibu. I've got a few sacks of grain so will brew the recipe again with a different hop schedule in a few weeks to compare
 
First wort and cube additions work pretty well.

I've been experimenting with letting cooling the wort to about 85c, then steeping the hops for 30mins, then cubing. Get some beautiful hop flavours with none of the harsh bitterness of the cube additions.

I do love me some cube hops though.
 
First wort and cube additions work pretty well.

I've been experimenting with letting cooling the wort to about 85c, then steeping the hops for 30mins, then cubing. Get some beautiful hop flavours with none of the harsh bitterness of the cube additions.

I do love me some cube hops though.

I have been doing simular except I lower mine to 70 and try and keep at that temp with my grainfather then steep for 20 and then transfer with counter flow chiller that takes about 10 minutes . Going to experiment with slightly higher temps for different hops but 70 worked a treat for galaxy . Currently have a smash with just amarillo and pilsner for the malt in the fermenter will dry hop in keg .
Key is to experiment and take notes to try and get a beer dialled into your own tastes
 
I have been doing simular except I lower mine to 70 and try and keep at that temp with my grainfather then steep for 20 and then transfer with counter flow chiller that takes about 10 minutes . Going to experiment with slightly higher temps for different hops but 70 worked a treat for galaxy . Currently have a smash with just amarillo and pilsner for the malt in the fermenter will dry hop in keg .
Key is to experiment and take notes to try and get a beer dialled into your own tastes

Care to share the Ibu or hop additions, I have some Amarillo and have never used it in a brew so wouldn't mind having a baseline to start from
 
Care to share the Ibu or hop additions, I have some Amarillo and have never used it in a brew so wouldn't mind having a baseline to start from

It's an experimental brew but had great success with this using galaxy and pilsner malt (the recipe idea was given to me by a brewer here in Tassie) So decided to try simular with Amarillo . It's a good introductory drink for people who don't normally drink craft beer

Not sure how it will go with amarillo but basically for a 21 litre batch I used 25g as whirlpool hop for 30 min (10 of that was transfer time) holding temp at 70. The galaxy brew I added for 3 days near end of ferment 25g. But for this brew I will add 25g of Amarillo dry hop in keg as I will be away for work. Will taste test this after about 3 days and remove or leave hops in keg . If to bland I will add some galaxy dry hop aswell but as its a keg for mates coming around I don't want to blow them away with hops
 
Best thing to do is just play around with the additions to find what suits you best. Everyone has different tastes and preferences and different ways to achieve the goal. Early boil additions don't really need to be moved anywhere, the difference is not even noticed.

For hoppy pale ales I do a 60min or FWH, then a 10 min and flameout, with a generous dry hop later on. I input the late additions first then just top up the IBUs with the early boil addition. I've found this to give a decent hop flavor and aroma and the bitterness is kept under control by not using too large an early addition.
 

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