No Chill Advice

[punkin]

I'm taking the plunge to no-chill next week. I bought twelve twenty litre cubes from Plasdene and will be going no chill for most of my brews in order to save time with my immersion chiller and allow me to get down to pitching temp.
It will also allow me to still brew 80l batches, but control my ferments (and my keg count) by fermenting triple or even double batches where and when i need them, while still having stock and being able to brew when convenient.

A lot of pluses.

Minuses being learning new ways to apply hops, and learning a new system.

I pan atm on moving all my ten minute additions to flameout and my flameout additions to dry hop to start with and learn the differences on brews i know.


Having twelve cubes, a beer stock down to my last keg (due to weekends tied up) and a week off next week, means that i can spend a few days brewing.

The max possibilty for me with one fermenter would be three cubes in the fermenter and 12 cubes full, or 300 litres in 4 batches over 4 days.



I've read the no chill article on here and searched a stack of threads and was just hoping for some constructive last minute advise on how to go about it. Things like how to get any residual flavours from the keg, how important is it to fill the cubes right up to 23l as it would suit me for kegging purposes to have 21 litres in each etc.

Any tips gratefully recieved.

 

[kymba]

hey punkin don't forget you can ferment in the cube, and if you have the jerry style cubes you can sink a knee into the side while nipping up the lid to only have 21L in there

and i have found it easiest to siphon from the big hole using beer line straight into the beer out disconnect (hold in place with a spring clamp), rather than fk around with taps that do get knocked and potentially spill lava or your newly fermented beer all about your person

 

[kelbygreen]

Got no advise, I find with no chill you lose a bit of hop flavour and aroma.

As said just squeeze all the air out of the cube, I fill mine to 21 lts. Use a towel and knees to squeeze the air out

 

[punkin]

Thanks, i have the cube shaped cubes, not the jerry's.

A lot of stuff i read said it didn't matter having air in there, so long as all sides had sufficient contact with hot liquid.

 

[Yob]

With the jerry style ones you can put them on their side for 10th mins or so to sterilized the handle/lids...

I spose you can do the same with cube style ones?

 

[Jazzafish]

Hi Punkin,

Nothing wrong with no chilling, lots of benefits as you mentioned. Personally I chill some brews and no chill others depending brew styles and stocks.
IMHO, you will notice a taste difference in no chill brews with large amounts of late hops.

While there is some validity in moving your hop additions in no chill batches to compensate, it isn't a linear process. It is hard to explain, but I suggest you brew a double batch of a hoppy beer, after the boil fill a cube and set aside then chill the rest. Ferment and compare.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I personally think that its better to have as much air our of the cubes as possible - it limits HSA, which exists no matter what bollocks you hear spouted. Also your cubes may well seal better immediately after filling because there wont be so much positive pressure from expanded hot air inside. No need to be pedantic about it - as mentioned, other people dont find it important at all, so its not a deal breaker. But especially if you plan longer term storage of the cubes - air exclusion doesn't hurt and might well help. A little squeeze action still mostly does the trick on the square cubes as well as the jerries.

My advice for making the change.

Make no changes at all - you cant possibly tell what "difference" no chill makes to your beers if you change other things as well as your chilling regime. Fill some cubes with your normal recipes brewed as you usually do them - taste the results, see what you think. Change accordingly. And I dont mean brew once and make a bunch of assumptions - I mean brew a number of your trusted recipes and see how no-chill changes them, rather than trying to second guess how it might change them.

Possibly expect:

* Increased bitterness
* Different but - and I want to stress this - not necessarily worse or lower hop character.... just a different hop character.

No Change - till you've tried it. The beers wont be bad.. they just wont be the same. Start fresh.


Oh - and fill your NC cubes with hot (preferably boiling) water - let them cool down and taste the water in a blind triangle with water boiled and cooled in glass. Repeat as required. When you cant taste a difference... then the cube isn't contributing any flavour to your beer. If you can - it is. Worth the trouble? - up to you.

 

[Maheel]

if i have the wort volume i put a small wooden block under the lid end and when pull the handle up so the wort completely fill the cube rather than squeeze.
fills the cube on a slight angle with the block under the end

with the heat it sort of flexes the cube "up" and allows you to just about fill it right to the lip

once you seal it up flip it on it's side for a while to cook the handle etc

only issue is when u open them to ferment they can leak / spill a little being so full and the cooling effect squeezing the cube

i seem to get random volumes using my lazy brew method and dont always get to do the above...

 

[stux]

I don't drill out the bungs on my cubes, less infection risk

Have you looked into the argon method of getting aroma into NC beer?

I found its best not to put the cube trub into your fermenter, get extreme hop oiliness if you do

 

[manticle]

I agree with Thirsty - brew as is then adjust to your palate.

Also it's easy to fill to 21 L then squeeze the remaining air out so the cube is full.

 

[fergi]

i am drinking my JSGA at the moment,its screwtops recipe.

now after tasting a few stubbies of JSGA recently i am finding my version has a bit too much bitterness for the style, and is a bit light on for aroma/flavour.

i dont believe its the recipe i think it has to do with N/C.

for the guys that have n/c i am thinking of next time doing a 60 min boil as usual but throw in the 60 min hops at 40 mins and the 15 mins at flameout.
any thoughts on this idea, maybe the bitterness is over riding the aroma/flavour.

fergi
,

 

[manticle]

Why not just reduce the bittering addition or put the late additions in later?

I'd try one method first, then the other if that doesn't work. Both together is confusing.

Alternatively if it's just a balance issue, increase the flavour addition to compensate.

Trial and error for your palate.

 

[Dazza88]

Fergi, nochill the bittering additions and do a mini biol at pitching for the late additions. Search for argon minibiol,its in his signature

 

[seemax]

Do your normal brew minus the late additions and no chill as per normal.

When you're ready to ferment, chill the cube to say 4C. Remove approx 4L and bring up to boil, and then add your 15min, 5min, 0min, etc hops additions...strain into your ferment, add the contents of the chilled cube and if you've done the sums correctly it should be at "your" desired temp (eg 20C for an ale).

It's a bit more work but it does essentially recreate the process of traditional late hop additions and chilling the wort soon after.

I've tried it a few times on APA's with decent results ....

 

[fergi]

thanks guys, food for thought, i will try one or two ideas ,definately,

i do remember there was an article on bittering additions and if i remember most of the bittering takes place fairly early in the boil.
am i correct in this assumption or was i daydreaming.

i thought it was a sliding scale calculator, maybe it was on another website.

fergi

 

[jkmeldrum]

Up until recently I didn't have a counterflow chiller. I just used to put the lid on my boil pot and cover the lid seal with two layers of alfoil and leave outside overnight to cool down.

I always found the beers way too bitter, didn't realise it was due to the no-chill factor. Since buying my counterflow plate chiller I am enjoying those same recipes much more. The IBU counts I was seeing in recipes didn't correspond to the bitterness I was getting.

 

[kelbygreen]

you are right molly by the whole idea of no chill (to me) is I have fermenters full a spare day to brew and the gear there. So I can brew beer and have it waiting to ferment. If my fermenters are empty I use a immersion chiller. But the problem I have with this is I like to reuse yeast so if I no chill once one is done I can tip the next on the yeast (do double batches).

I mean ideal world I could brew when I want to rack it to keg chill and put on the yeast or have a yeast ready to go when I am brewing but hell we look for easy ways lol

 

[dr K]

had any probs with botulism by fast chilling?

K

 

[manticle]

yes

i am dead

 

[dr K]

me too