I Love No Chill

[manticle]

Nothing against chillers - even borrowed a plate chiller recently to see the difference myself. previous chilling has been in a bath full of as many ice bricks as I can muster.

However I've been no chilling for around a year and a half and numerous brews (one a week on average) and the freedom NC gives me is great. It's not really the idea of shortening a brew day - I couldn't give a rat's as I enjoy the process. However planning a starter, having specific wort to feed the starter, being able to brew even if I have to wait for yeast to arrive etc etc is great.

Also I use less water.

Big thumbs up for NC from me.

 

[Guysmiley54]

Nothing against chillers - even borrowed a plate chiller recently to see the difference myself. previous chilling has been in a bath full of as many ice bricks as I can muster.

However I've been no chilling for around a year and a half and numerous brews (one a week on average) and the freedom NC gives me is great. It's not really the idea of shortening a brew day - I couldn't give a rat's as I enjoy the process. However planning a starter, having specific wort to feed the starter, being able to brew even if I have to wait for yeast to arrive etc etc is great.

Also I use less water.

Big thumbs up for NC from me.

I am considering trying this for the first time. How do you account for IBU and flavour/aroma additions? Do you strain all hops before transferring to the cube?

I plan to pitch within 24 hours. Is there any reason why I shouldn't just transfer straight to my fermenter (in a temp controlled fridge)?

I mainly do partials at this point. My fridge can achieve freezing point and I have been considering freezing 5-10 litres of clean water in my sterilized fermenter (quantity depending on the recipe). The plan would be that the hot wort would cool nicely on the ice and be ready to pitch relatively quickly.

What do you think?

 

[Brewman_]

NC is great. Never had a problem yet.

I don't ever carry any hops from the boil into the cube, but often add fresh hops to the cube when filling.

I also use cleaned and sanitised cube, add the wort as hot as possible, and then top up with boiling water and squeeze any air out.

Fear

 

[bignath]

I am considering trying this for the first time. How do you account for IBU and flavour/aroma additions? Do you strain all hops before transferring to the cube?

I plan to pitch within 24 hours. Is there any reason why I shouldn't just transfer straight to my fermenter (in a temp controlled fridge)?

I mainly do partials at this point. My fridge can achieve freezing point and I have been considering freezing 5-10 litres of clean water in my sterilized fermenter (quantity depending on the recipe). The plan would be that the hot wort would cool nicely on the ice and be ready to pitch relatively quickly.

What do you think?

My 2cents worth...

i wouldn't put it straight into your fermenter to slowly drop temp for a number of reasons.

1 If you are using your lid on your fermenter with the airlock, as the wort cools it will shrink, and in the process suck in all the water from your airlock into your brew, and then when it's all gone, it will suck in air and risk an infection. If you use gladwrap as your "lid" you will have the same problem. It will suck into your fermenter, and break the seal that is created by your o-ring holding it in place....

2 Using a cube resolves the above issue, and i find that once the wort is cooled to pitching temps, i can pick up cube and pour from a decent height into my fermenter, and this does a great job of aerating the wort as i pitch the yeast.

Re: other questions.

Some people use hop bags for all hop additions, so this would effectively remove the hops from the wort. I use a hop bag if i'm using hop flowers as i don't have any output filtration in my boiler.
I have recently begun no chilling and i like it a lot. I (like most of us) lead a very hectic life, with the rugrats hanging off my leg all the time plus work responsibilities means that this method FOR ME is more flexible.
About the hop additions - i think, most people who no chill would bring all hop additions earlier (you most likely know this already) because you will get more IBU's from your additions as your wort cools slowly. From memory i think it's roughly 15mins or 20mins earlier. Could be wrong about the exact time.
If you do a 20 flavour addition, maybe throw this addition in at flameout. If you do an aroma addition at flameout usually, then this would probably by a dry hop in primary fermentation.
I have been leaving my recipes completely unaltered lately as i want to get a feel for exactly what difference no chill makes to MY SYSTEM.
Some people feel it makes a huge difference, others notice no change whatsoever....

Hope this helps mate,

Nath

 

[Guysmiley54]

My 2cents worth...

i wouldn't put it straight into your fermenter to slowly drop temp for a number of reasons.

1 If you are using your lid on your fermenter with the airlock, as the wort cools it will shrink, and in the process suck in all the water from your airlock into your brew, and then when it's all gone, it will suck in air and risk an infection. If you use gladwrap as your "lid" you will have the same problem. It will suck into your fermenter, and break the seal that is created by your o-ring holding it in place....

2 Using a cube resolves the above issue, and i find that once the wort is cooled to pitching temps, i can pick up cube and pour from a decent height into my fermenter, and this does a great job of aerating the wort as i pitch the yeast.

Re: other questions.

Some people use hop bags for all hop additions, so this would effectively remove the hops from the wort. I use a hop bag if i'm using hop flowers as i don't have any output filtration in my boiler.
I have recently begun no chilling and i like it a lot. I (like most of us) lead a very hectic life, with the rugrats hanging off my leg all the time plus work responsibilities means that this method FOR ME is more flexible.
About the hop additions - i think, most people who no chill would bring all hop additions earlier (you most likely know this already) because you will get more IBU's from your additions as your wort cools slowly. From memory i think it's roughly 15mins or 20mins earlier. Could be wrong about the exact time.
If you do a 20 flavour addition, maybe throw this addition in at flameout. If you do an aroma addition at flameout usually, then this would probably by a dry hop in primary fermentation.
I have been leaving my recipes completely unaltered lately as i want to get a feel for exactly what difference no chill makes to MY SYSTEM.
Some people feel it makes a huge difference, others notice no change whatsoever....

Hope this helps mate,

Nath

Thanks Nath, will take that into consideration.

I haven't ever seen anyone mention that using a cube is adding another vessel to keep clean and santise before use. Anyone out there found that to be a pain?

To be honest, it's the hop additions that stop me from no chilling. I am at an early stage and I'm still learning about hop additions/timing/quantities. To throw another variable into the mix right now seems like it may really slow down the learning process.

I would love to see a poll, because it seems like A LOT of AHB folks do the No Chill B)

 

[DJR]

i wouldn't put it straight into your fermenter to slowly drop temp for a number of reasons.

1 If you are using your lid on your fermenter with the airlock, as the wort cools it will shrink, and in the process suck in all the water from your airlock into your brew, and then when it's all gone, it will suck in air and risk an infection. If you use gladwrap as your "lid" you will have the same problem. It will suck into your fermenter, and break the seal that is created by your o-ring holding it in place....

Plenty of people do this. Just put a sanitised bottle cap over the hole in the lid.

I normally cube stuff and have been doing so for 3 years but the other day i just ran it into the fermenter. The only real difference is that with a cube you can leave some of the trub out and also aerate the brew a bit more, but you can always shake/stir/aquarium air pump some air into it.

Thinking of getting some cheap copper coil to build an immersion chiller though just for the convenience of being done rather than having to put a brew on before i go to work on a monday (usually brew on a sunday)

 

[bignath]

Thanks Nath, will take that into consideration.

I haven't ever seen anyone mention that using a cube is adding another vessel to keep clean and santise before use. Anyone out there found that to be a pain?

To be honest, it's the hop additions that stop me from no chilling. I am at an early stage and I'm still learning about hop additions/timing/quantities. To throw another variable into the mix right now seems like it may really slow down the learning process.

I would love to see a poll, because it seems like A LOT of AHB folks do the No Chill B)

The felxibility no chill gives me greatly outweighs the comparitively small inconvenience of cleaning another vessel. Quick hot water rinse, pink cleaning powder, let it sit for an hour, have a beer or two, watch some sport, empty vessel, hot water then cold water, put away for another day....

If you have a recipe you want to try for your first no chill, throw it up on the forum and let someone run an eye on it for potential problems.

Lastly, one thing i have been finding interesting lately, is using beersmith (brewing software) to get a vague idea of a predicted outcome from no chill. I enter my hop additions, and then play around with the "increase time" button and add a few hours onto the addition. After a couple of hours it doesn't add much more in the way of IBU's so i've been trying to work backwards. Plan my hop additions around this so that after a few hours in no chill cube, the temp has probably dropped to less than 80 degrees so bitterness extraction is really an issue and then add this amount as my "no chill" version of a particular recipe. Hope this makes sense, it's all fun and games this brewing caper....

 

[Silo Ted]

It's not really the idea of shortening a brew day - I couldn't give a rat's as I enjoy the process. However planning a starter, having specific wort to feed the starter, being able to brew even if I have to wait for yeast to arrive etc etc is great.

Also I use less water.

Exactly. NC is great :kooi: Couldn't see myself using chillers anytime soon.

 

[Barley Belly]

I love no chill too

Easy peasy

Instead of 60min, 10min & 5min hop additions I use :-

40min
Flameout
&
15min after whirlpool (5mins before draining to cube)

Works for me :beerbang:

Here's a copy of a suggested No Chill VS Chill hop usage guide

 

[Phoney]

I used to NC, but since buying a plate chiller I havent looked back. The hop aroma & flavours in my beers since ive been properly chilling my wort has been nothing short of freaking awesome and well worth the little bit of extra time & effort putting into doing it properly. plus I dont have to stuff around and guess my hop additions backwards to compensate.

That said, the only advantage NC gives you is the time to pitch your wort into the fermenter whenever you want. ie: You must have your yeast, spare fermenter & space in your fermenting fridge ready to go as soon as you finish the boil otherwise.

 

[manticle]

I am considering trying this for the first time. How do you account for IBU and flavour/aroma additions? Do you strain all hops before transferring to the cube?

I plan to pitch within 24 hours. Is there any reason why I shouldn't just transfer straight to my fermenter (in a temp controlled fridge)?

I mainly do partials at this point. My fridge can achieve freezing point and I have been considering freezing 5-10 litres of clean water in my sterilized fermenter (quantity depending on the recipe). The plan would be that the hot wort would cool nicely on the ice and be ready to pitch relatively quickly.

What do you think?

Actually I don't worry too much about it. If you want to compensate, generally consider each addition has about 15-20 minutes extra added to it but for me, even hop bursted ales, no chilled have come out beautifully. I am developing more and more love for bitterness though - if entering a comp or if not so into bitter then maybe try compensating.

People do slow chill (which is what you're doing transferring to the fermenter). It may work but it is a different process and has different principles to no-chill. No chill is heat packing wort into a sanitised container which is pasteurised (by the heat obviously) and sealed.

Next bit is general and not directed at GuySmiley

Didn't start this thread as a pissing contest between NC and Chilling by the way - just a tongue in cheek homage to a method that works well for me in response to the recent 'I hate no chill' thread.

Chill or no chill but whatever you do, have a beer and chill.

 

[chappo1970]

Ewwwww! Botulism city!

 

[manticle]

Totally. Every time I eat DARREN's chicken from my DARREN"S no chill cube I DARREN die a little inside from DARREN botulism poisoning *******.

You still brewing mister?

 

[chappo1970]

We brew tomorrow morning mate. Raven inspired, otherwise I would couch it all day.

 

[chappo1970]

See what no chill does????

 

[black_labb]

Don't think about the fact that you are no chilling the beer as a limitation, its an opportunity. You can cube hop which ends up working very well. the hop aroma is stuck in the cube and you get 15 minutes worth of bittering out of it. For alot of my beers I do a 60-90 min bittering addition and cube hopping. Sometimes i'll make a hop tea or dry hop. You can always do a hop burst in a hop tea to add to the brew after so half the aroma doesnt blow out the airlock.

Only limitation I can see is when trying to follow a recipe. I usually just simplify a recipe to bittering, cube hopping and dry/hop tea additions but thats just me. I like to be able to start the boil and not have to think about it for an hour.

I drain all the trub straight into the cube (every last drop) and put it on top of my stack of milkcrates (where my bottle conditioning beers are stored) and then syphon it out. It is very efficient this way at keeping trub out and wort in, and when its 4 milkcrates above the fermentor it comes out like a hose which aerates the wort very nicely.

Yes, I do love no chill

 

[chappo1970]

Yes yes! Botulism is awesome!!!

 

[Mattese]

Chappo has risen!!!

 

[Peteoz77]

Well, let me see.... I haven't read the other thread, so I'll just comment on how I feel about No Chill.

It works. I allows guys to make beer that THEY love to drink, without the cost or hassle of a chiller or the water that they use. I think it's perfectly suitable for those folks that do it, and love their beer.

I prefer to brew my beer with as much of the "Professional" style and equipment as I can. I feel that professional brewers have had thousands of years to try to perfect a system that balances cost with great beer. Most of the professionals DON'T brew great beer.. but that's not a fault of the equipment.

I have brewed in a fairly large commercial brewery (2000 litre batches), and I have learned a LOT while doing it. a few of those things that were really important, were getting the wort from the kettle quickly, through a chiller, and oxygenating the wort on it's way. Another was holding the beer at an exact temperature during the fermenting process (Glycol chiller jackets on the fermenters.) If anyone would like to see pictures of these very important features, I can supply them.

So, what I am saying is that truly great beers need specific processes and temperatures to make them taste great, and almost as important, consistent. A good Heffeweizen can NOT be fermented at 24 degrees, nor can it be no chilled. You will still make beer, but it won't be the same beer as if you fermented at 17 degrees and rapidly chilled it.

No chill is good, and it works and for the folks that do it an love it, it's the ticket. But a proper chilling method and even more importantly a proper fermentation temperature is vital if you are trying to make great beers.

Yes, I know some members have made award winning beers via no chill. Imagine if they had chilled and fermented at the proper temperature what that award winning beer might have tasted like?

 

[mxd]

welcome back chap chap.

Yes yes! Botulism is awesome!!!