"No-Chill" Cubes

[Leard]

Just jumping in on this discussion because I'm considering no chill just to be more green. Why the need to bother with these cubes? Are there any ill effects of chilling to 80 (for whirlpool), and then sending the wort straight to my plastic fermentation bin overnight? I have a fridge to ferment in with an Inkbird that would help speed up the cooling.

[vacant]

Just jumping in on this discussion because I'm considering no chill just to be more green.

I'm BIAB and usually no-chill but if I use my immersion chiller, it's with reverse osmosis water I filter myself. Getting say 35 ltr or RO will produce around 120 ltr "waste" water. I collect this, then use it with a £5 submersible aquarium pump to run through the I/C rather than run the mains. I collect the warm output from the I/C to clean my kit. It feels quite green but I agree, no-chill is better.

[PeeBee]

Just jumping in on this discussion because I'm considering no chill just to be more green. Why the need to bother with these cubes? Are there any ill effects of chilling to 80 (for whirlpool), and then sending the wort straight to my plastic fermentation bin overnight? I have a fridge to ferment in with an Inkbird that would help speed up the cooling.

"No-chill" doesn't describe it to well. It's really a method of "preserving" the unfermented wort for days, weeks, months on end. The break in the brewing process is very handy for a variety of personal reasons. But it also doesn't waste gallons of water, very handy if brewing in the Aussie outback from whence the technique was sharpened up.

Just leaving the wort to cool in the fermenting bucket is what we all did not so long ago. Slow cooling may mean hot-break isn't quite as effective. But the "may not be" is because nobody can honestly tell if it "may be".

My most recent brew has just finished fermenting. It was made four days before going in the fermenter along with the three-day old yeast starter that was assembled after the beer was made.

[drjim]

It's all just another way of doing things isn't it. I've been using water from my above ground swimming pool to cool 60L batches over the summer. Last brew I did before weather went too bad (I'm outdoor brewing) was cooled using the contents of my IBC based homemade hot tub which barely shifted a degree in response to cooling 60L of bitter down. Hot tub is now parked in the corner next to the shed over the winter, I also have 1000L rainwater in an IBC for "watering the garden" which I can use for the same. I'd have to get to semi-industrial levels of brewing to get those above fermentation temp in the UK.

Aussies and other hot places have different problems, a swiming pool in Sydney might be 25 or more degrees at night, we are lucky to live in a cool country with loads of rain!

I find the whole no chill thing really interesting when it gets to hop stands and end of boil hop scenarios. You just can't work any of it out. I think you sort of reduce final hops and guesstimate the IBU as it cools, or maybe you have to use a spider and make sure it's all out.

that's my 2p!

[Leard]

I find the whole no chill thing really interesting when it gets to hop stands and end of boil hop scenarios.

I use a hop spider anyway. So late hop additions and whirlpool hops would get taken out by with the spider at the end. That should mitigate any issues of no chilling.

[PeeBee]

... I find the whole no chill thing really interesting when it gets to hop stands and end of boil hop scenarios. You just can't work any of it out. I think you sort of reduce final hops and guesstimate the IBU as it cools, or maybe you have to use a spider and make sure it's all out.

'Tis a bit a problem. I've been considering resurrecting "hop-backs", like the Blichmann "HopRocket" (though they are a bit pricey) ... an "in-line infuser", or the like to stand-in for "hopstands" and so-forth. They are more effective too. Or hop infusions ("tea") added at more convenient moments.

There'll be a way but I'll get using these "cubes" sorted first.

[MashBag]

But it can taste of poo (or Marmite, burnt rubber, etc., etc., but none have the same impact as "poo").

Put it in the beer, not on your toast.