overnight no-chill brewdays

[ozroger]

My no-chill procedure, using a BM50:

At end of boil, leave stand for about 15 minutes to allow convection currents to settle down.
Get a good whirlpool going, and leave for another 15 minutes.
Slowly drain into 20 litre poly cubes.
(I think they're HDPE, but there are quite a few formulations of PE today, so the cubes might be one of the variants. But whatever, they're foodsafe, and can stand boiling water).
Fill the cubes absolutely chockers, screw the cap on (obviously), lie them on their sides, and in true Mashbag tradition: "Run Away" - for weeks if you want to!

The wort is still above about 80C when the previously sanitised cubes are filled, and you can then ferment the wort at leisure.

It's been working in our neck of the woods for a LONG time.

[IPA]

I don`t doubt it works but what is the gain ?
Even if you could fit flfty litres of wort into twenty litre cubes completely full you will have to transfer them before pitching the yeast. That means sanitising another vessel(s). My usual brewlength is fifty seven litres which fills three cornies. I cool the wort direct into a sixty litre FV using a plate chiller which takes twenty minutes. I then pitch the yeast and "walk away" Job done apart from cleaning up. Which has to be done in every case. I do understand that in rural OZ there can be a water supply problem so it would make sense to economise and not cool using water. But in Europe this is not the case and the cost of water is minimal. So in Europe the only gain is the twenty minutes cooling time during which you can commence cleaning up. Therefore in reality the net gain is zero.

[ozroger]

I tried faffing around with a Counter Flow Wort Chiller for a while, recirculating the precious rain water back into the rain water tank, and spending a few dollars on ice from the nearest store 10km up the road which stocked it most times. Plus of course the petrol to get the ice. Like I said, all too hard.

I even created a spreadsheet to calculate EXACTLY how much ice I'd need from a -18C freezer to chill down x litres wort to y degrees on a z degree ambient day. That was fun to do, factoring in old heat coefficients from ice to water. I think 540 somethings came into it somewhere. (or was that water to steam...)

Anyway, FOR ME, no-chill just works. Out of a 55 litre batch, I get two cubes, each 22.5 litres, and 10 litres into a mini Coopers FV which I pitch next morning. The two cubes I ferment whenever with different yeasts, different dry hops sometimes, so I end up with three different beers.

Also quite uncommon among the guys at the local (45km away) brew club, I still bottle my beers - have been doing that for nearly 50 years.

So a classic case of horses for courses.

[IPA]

Hi Roger
As I said reasons for no chill can be understood in OZ. But here in Europe people argue that it saves time. Above,I stated,that it is not in fact true. Good to see you here on Jim's. I remember you on the BM forum.

[drjim]

I think the no chill concept is good. I was using jerrycans during the summer and chucking them in my swimming pool to cool over a few hours (100 quid above ground intex pool rather than anything special!). All the gunge settles to the bottom of the can so you can easily pour the clear stuff out - though I never bothered.

However I am far too impatient to wait overnight or leave things for longer. Plus I live in Manchester with limitless rainwater collected in an IBC to cool with if the pool isn't up. Also use pool water with a circ pump for cooling if I want to use either immersion or counterflow cooler. Helps heat the pool up too.

[f00b4r]

I know some no chill brewers take a small portion of the wort the next day and then boil it with late (15 mins or less) hops, sieve that into the fv and then pour in the rest of the wort (this also bring it back to pitching temperature, ready for fermentation). If you have the facility to make a big batch of wort it gives you finer control if you want to brew split batches using different hops. You could also add in steeped grains to create very different beers. If you were trying to do that on the brew day some beers would not have the electrics/gear to split a batch 2-3 ways.
Also some people really are time poor, I guess that’s why things like canned wort etc exist as well, even with quite a exorbitant markup compared to doing it yourself.

[MashBag]

I do think boiling smaller volumes with specific flavours makes a lot of sense.

If its a known recipe, it is easier, quicker & cheaper.
If it is to build a flavour element or make a correction it is much more precise.