What's up with No Chill brewing?

[Thirsty Boy]

The main concern with No-Chill is that your hop additions behave differently. Not particularly better or worse.. but differently. And it can take a few brews to get a handle on the differences and how they happen in your particular brewery.

DMS has not been an issue - even when using imported european pilsner malts. An appropriate boil is of course required.

Why? would chill haze be an issue? It isn't - no chill beers are no more nor less inclined towards haze issues than chilled beers. But I want to know why it is that people think it is going to be an issue? Cold break occurs when your hot wort gets cool. The proteins that are not soluable at low temperatures precipitate out -- this happens at a certain temperature, the speed with which you reach that temperature matters not at all.

No chill is about saving water, saving time on brew day, I believe it reduces critical control points for infection; and it increases your brewing flexibility because no-chilled wort is storable for quite extended periods.

The one thing that is not an issue for sure - is beer quality. Far too many medals in the brewing competitions here in Australia have been won by NC beers for that to be a consideration any more. I have shelf full of trophies won by no-chill beers - and if I can do it anyone can.

I own both an immersion chiller and a plate chiller .. they both gather dust impressively. My no-chill cube on the other hand is full of a Munich Dunkel that I brewed on Monday.

TB

[brewmatt]

I plan to do this on my next beer. I will siphon directly into my bucket fermenter, already sanitized with the lid locked on, and then put a solid stopper in the airlock hole rather than the airlock. I have a few reasons for doing this.

1. Brew day length is critical to me, but I can always find an hour to aerate and pitch yeast.
2. I built my CFC too short and I can only get to 80-90 degrees with it, meaning I chill just enough to create a bacteria heaven and then wait until the next day to pitch anyway.
3. All the tubes and extra cleaning involved with CFC'ing creates too much possibility of infection (see 4)
4. No chill will result in less worry for me.

Any guidlines on how hop additions could be adjusted to compensate when going no-chill?

[chefchris]

Credit goes to The Pol on HomeBrewTalk.com

So for instance, a 60 minute hop addition would be a 40 minute No Chill addition.

[straight cash homey]

link no worky.
i dont like this idea because you cant trap in the freshness of the 0 min addition

[chefchris]

link no worky.
i dont like this idea because you cant trap in the freshness of the 0 min addition

fixed.

And you can trap it in, that's why we put a lid on it.

[brewmatt]

Chefchris: Is this chart just for estimating the bitterness contribution? Because it seems like a cube hop would have a significant aroma contribution, while a conventional 20 min addition has ~zero aroma contribution.

I'm curious what full effect of late and cube hops are beyond bittering, how much aroma can you get with hops thrown into the cube and then sealed up to cool?

[chefchris]

Chefchris: Is this chart just for estimating the bitterness contribution? Because it seems like a cube hop would have a significant aroma contribution, while a conventional 20 min addition has ~zero aroma contribution.

I'm curious what full effect of late and cube hops are beyond bittering, how much aroma can you get with hops thrown into the cube and then sealed up to cool?

If you can get flavor and aroma from first wort hops, what makes you think you can't get aroma or flavor from a 20 minute addition? Everybody first learns that you only get bitterness at 60 minute, you only get flavor at 30 minutes and you only get aroma near flame out. That simply is not true. I have an IPA (of sorts) that was only FWH. I have bitterness, flavor and aroma in that beer. Also, just a theory of mine, you are adding cube hops to hot wort, not boiling wort. I can't tell you the affect of cube hops yet and the one beer that I used a cube hop is not ready.

Basically the chart is acting like you get an extra 20 minutes of utilization and changes some of the aroma additions as necessary. Like I said, I did not put that together and I'm sure it's not perfected, but I have been using it with good results. I just brewed my second batch of Moose Drool from CYBI. I chilled my first batch, my second will be ready in about a month. So I will see if I can notice any differences.


I do hope you give no chill a try. You'll have to see the results. The IPA I was referring to earlier has got the best lacing I have ever seen on a beer, homebrewed or otherwise. And I'm not one to say "All my beers are awesome". I'm very hard to please when it comes to beer, and I'm my biggest critic. Give it a shot!

[mediumsk]

ive been looking to give this a try.
i love how many academically untested variables there are in brewing