Users Of The "no Chiller Method"

[Bobby]

my amber ale turned out great. no-chill is great.
i have only used my immersion chiller once, and cant really see it getting much more use.

 

[devo]

my amber ale turned out great. no-chill is great.
i have only used my immersion chiller once, and cant really see it getting much more use.

What temp have you been running your hot wort into your fementer vessel? If that is how your doing it? :huh:

 

[Bobby]

it goes into the cube pretty much straight after flame out. hops and all go in - never had a problem with clarity, but depending on the brew sometime some hop debris makes its may through to the keg.
the wort would be near boiling when it goes it.

 

[devo]

it goes into the cube pretty much straight after flame out. hops and all go in - never had a problem with clarity, but depending on the brew sometime some hop debris makes its may through to the keg.
the wort would be near boiling when it goes it.

wow ok...so you don't find any issues with the heat vs the plastic/rubber tap seals etc???

do you pump a burst of CO2 into the vessel just prior to cubing?

 

[Gerard_M]

[/quote]

wow ok...so you don't find any issues with the heat vs the plastic/rubber tap seals etc???

do you pump a burst of CO2 into the vessel just prior to cubing?
[/quote]

Simply push the sides of the cube in, minimising the amount of air in the cube.

I finally pitched Duff's Australian Pale into a fermentor on the weekend. I reckon it has sat in the garage for an easy 6 months. Smelt nice & fresh when I opened it, & the OG sample was awesome.
Cheers
Gerard

 

[warrenlw63]

For me the whole thing went OK. I just wouldn't do it again with 6 hop plugs in the kettle. If I were to use plugs again I'd bag them or toss them bagged into the cube. The whole thing went pear-shaped when a bit of plug well um... "plugged" the pickup tube in the kettle. Blowing back into the wort to clear it would have done me no O2 pick up favours that's for sure. <_<

Thanks for the concern Devo... Knee's throbbin' like a bugger. Funny part was I wasn't even drinking. Just stood awkwardly on the stool. :lol:

Warren -

 

[Stuster]

Funny part was I wasn't even drinking.

Clearly the cause of all your brew day problems. :lol:

 

[doglet]

Warren - Do you think the blockages was a result of the no-chill or just because of the plugs? Thinking about it now you probably tried to drain the kettle into the cube without whirlpooling first so that the wort was a hot as possible entering the cube. What do other people do? I've taken to using hop bags and/or hop sock as I had blockages when trying to run wort through my CFWC.

Anyway hope your knee is ok - I fell sideways off a ladder last week and miracuously didn't spill a drop of paint from the bucket in my hand! All the practice of not spillling a drop of beer when drunk came into good stead!

 

[warrenlw63]

Doglet.

I whirlpooled the hot wort and let it sit for 15 mins. Still pulled the plugs through. I've gone as high as 5 plugs previously in an immersion chilled beer and barely had a leaf come through. I reckon everything's more inclined to stay in suspension when the wort's hot. :unsure:

Stuster. I think you may well be right. I made up for it afterwards though. :lol:

Warren -

 

[Phrak]

I've got a quick question about no-chill that I've been thinking about for a while now. (Apologies if it's already been answered)

Does the extra time it takes to cool the wort affect the hop bitterness levels?

Logic would suggest the extra time would make the wort more bitter, and also affect flavour and aroma levels. But is this true in practice?

Tim.

 

[kungy]

One thing i've done to remove the blockage when filling the cubes with hot wort is to kink the hose creating a blockage then squeezing it to pump the wort back into the kettle, helping to remove a blockage.

Its a bit weird to explain, but if you kink the hose when filled with hot wort you'll see what i mean when you see the wort and flowers get squeezed backwards and forwards pretty quickly.

The problem with this method though is that hop flowers can get transfered to the primary, and so you can have issues with blockages if racking from primary to secondary/bottling bucket.

So in short you're kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't

Will

 

[big d]

From what im reading and hearing i believe the no chiller method will become very popular if the impending water restrictions down in the southern states bite real hard.
Ive only done a few no chiller brews and so far the results are reasonable but will plan on doing some more for experiments sake plus the fact i will end up on tank water.

Cheers
Big D

 

[Hutch]

Does the extra time it takes to cool the wort affect the hop bitterness levels?

Interesting point you raise Tim - in my experience I did not notice any difference when I did a double batch, half of which was chilled, and the other half no-chiller, pitched a week later.

However, I suspect that if you add a significant amount of late hops, or into the cube itself (sort of like a hop-back), and fill when still close to boiling, you might increase the IBU's. A work mate of mine did this last weekend, and he recons its MUCH higher than the 42 IBU's he was aiming for. And he only threw 20gm Amarillo into the cube, and syphoned soon after flame-out. It certainly remains hot for a long time, so you would expect SOME additional bittering to occur.

I wonder how bitterness extraction works for temperatures lower than 100deg C??
Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Hutch.

 

[Phrak]

Hutch, MAH looks like he's answered our question in the other No Chiller thread:
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=152376

Tim.

 

[Batz]

I took a while to convince me I admit.
But now I use the 'no chill' more than I chill using my CCFC,I am very happy with the results.
Flash chiller bought from MoreBeer just sitting there these days,as the weather warms up I may have to go back to using it again.

I think chillers are one expense a new brewer could do without for a while.

Batz

 

[devo]

I did my first no chill "czech pilsner" on the weekend purely out of concern for how much water I was wasting with my emmersion chiller method....so far so good.

 

[browndog]

The no-chill method is perfect when using a hop sock. I after whirlpooling and letting rest for 15min I drain straight to my fermenter and the wort is beautifully clear. I let it sit overnight and pitch the following day. Too easy.


cheers

Browndog

 

[Boots]

A while back i did a no-chill brew (Big Brew Day 06 - Poor Richard's Ale) it sat in the no-chill cube for at least 6 weeks, more likely 2 months.

It placed second in the sabsosa Specialty category on the weekend with an ave score of 40.
Everyone who has tried it has commented on how clean tasting it is so i see no problem at all with no chill. It has to be said though, that it was not a hop driven beer at all. mid 30 IBU with no hops after 30 mins. It did retain the molasses aroma quite well though.

I do reckon that hoppy beers may suffer ... but I'll soon know. I did a Northdown Hopburst English pale ale that has been in the no chill cube for at least 2-3 months already and i still haven't pitched.

Can't see myself bothering to waste all that water just to get my beer down to 35 degrees to often.

 

[DJR]

Hey all

Just thought i'd include a couple of pictures of the "No-chill Tightass Aeration method" that gets good results. Basically get a 5cm long piece of racking tube, put some cuts or drill some small holes in it, put it on the end of a bottling wand stuck into the tap, and pour into the fermenter. The liquid flow will cause venturis (gaps of vacuum) in the holes and aerate the wort on its way to the fermenter. The wand and the tube should be thoroughly sterilised just to make sure.

Here is the pic of the tube with no wort running yet. It's on an angle because the stupid tap was leaking at the right orientation.

Note that this shows the wort coming COLD out of the tube, as this has been cooled overnight in the cube it's coming out of.



Here is it running



Here is the foam that comes of it... impressive for a simple, 10c set up. (note that the fermenter is not full yet, it's only at about 17 out of 21L. When i put the lid on the foam was at the lid)

 

[Darren]

Nice way to make Sherry!

cheers

Darren

 

[DJR]

Nice way to make Sherry!

cheers

Darren

Darren

How would i make sherry? The wort doesn't contain alcohol at that point - i don't see how it would be different to using an aeration stone?

The beers i have used this method on (4 now) have all been fine, the oldest one is now 3 months old and is not showing any oxidation problems.

 

[Kai]

I think maybe Darren thought you were running it through hot like that, rather than cold from the cube.

I use a similar aeration method to yours, I'll call it the lazy ass method. Similar principle, just skip the valve & tube and drop it straight into the fermenter

 

[Darren]

At first I did think you were adding the wort hot, but then I realised it was from the "chill-cube".

Isn't it better to airate your starter rather than your wort?

cheers

Darren

 

[DJR]

At first I did think you were adding the wort hot, but then I realised it was from the "chill-cube".

Isn't it better to airate your starter rather than your wort?

cheers

Darren

Aha that explains it. Yes the wort was at about 17C so no HSA risks.

I reckon it can't hurt to aerate both anyway. The starter was a 700mL well aerated started of WLP036, can't hurt to give it a bit more so it can reproduce to suit 23L properly.

I did have a chat to Matt Donellan of St Peters about it and his main concern with the ESB Fresh wort kits he does was adequate aeration - when i mentioned this to him he agreed it would be a good idea. Of course it doesn't beat an aeration stone but it helps.

 

[Darren]

DJR,
Airation like that will end up with high bacterial/wild-yeast loads. You are exposing almost every drop of that wort to the environment.

You shouldn't forget that the only reason bigger breweries use airation stones is because they cannot swirl their tanks if needed (and seldom is given a healthy starter)

Drop it gently, keep it clean and it will be a better beer.


cheers

Darren

 

[DJR]

Darren

Point taken - i can see that there may be a risk of spoilage from the air that is being sucked in to the venturis. Haven't had a problem yet though so fingers crossed.

We are homebrewers and anything goes that makes good beer

 

[Kai]

Isn't it better to airate your starter rather than your wort?

I have heard that before, daz. However I wouldn't be confident that i could get enough air into my starter for adequate aeration just by shaking so dropping it is for me.

 

[Darren]

Kai,

I either use dry yeast or when using liquid yeast make a small beer as a starter . Keg that batch then drop the next wort gently onto a cleaned up cake from a previous batch http://www.wyeastlab.com/hbrew/hbyewash.htm.

cheers

Darren

 

[Kai]

Too much work for my bones, though I do like the idea of two batches of beer instead of one.

 

[mje1980]

That's it, i've read enough, im doing it!!. Gunna get a cube from bunnings, and put my cfc in plastic in the shed. I really like the fact that if i have a free week, i can brew a couple of batches, and store them for a few weeks in a cube, then, if i get busy, all i need to do is just make a strarter, and dump a cube on top. Too easy, saves a LOT of water too. I guess running it into the cube hot, you would have to do it gently, and not aerate, until you pour it out of the cube cold, on top of the yeast.

CHEERS