How The No-Chill Method Impacts Beer Character | exBEERiments

[@esdammen]

As a no-chill brewer, and someone who reduces his hop additions by 20 minutes, and love to see an experiment where we compare quick chill with full boil time, and no-chill with reduced chill time.

[@feuer-gluat-quoim]

Agree. I'm brewing on no-chill cubes since quite some time and must say that without adapting the recipe, it's not a good comparison. 😅

[@vexy1987]

I don't think it matters insofar you adapt your recipe to optimise hop aroma extraction. If you're mostly brewing with others recipes, and blindly following along, this starts with some trial and error. The whole approach to testing the no chill approach is flawed for this reason.

[@TSATMA]

Haven't chilled in years. I don't transfer after the boil, just leave it in the kettle over night on the spent hops and trub. Top tip, putting a table fan in front of the kettle will dramatically speed up the cooling...

[@brianheuschkel3391]

Me too. Just leave in kettle.

[@covenant11]

My no chill container is my brew kettle. The lid goes on at flameout and I walk away until the next day. Thanks for teaching me about the hop addition timing.

[@MartinPedersenTM]

I live in Denmark, I've done no-chill for a couple of years. You save more than water, you also save your own time. I wash my fermenters, and let the hot wort pasteurize/sterilize them. I just drop it into them boiling, and close them up... it's much, much faster, and I don't have to use chemicals.

[@EbliZ]

I do the same in Sweden.

[@RichardDePas]

Interesting...never thought of doing this but it makes sense.

[@mountainmadman94]

That is a great idea. Most of my fermenters are Fermzillas, but I have an Anvil bucket and I am going to try this.

[@eladisimo]

Exactly.

[@Narapoia1]

If they are metal then great - I've been trying to reduce plastic exposure generally including brewing and am uncomfortable with the extended exposure of hot wort to plastic chilling in a cube or plastic fermenter. I use about 50L of water to cool my batches, all of which goes onto the garden afterwards, houseplants or is used to rinse my kettle/gear during cleaning so net use stays the same. Would be nice to save some time though, the immersion chiller is not the fastest.

[@AnalogueInTheUK]

I have always used hop bags to contain my hop additions - Brewing on a 30l Brewmonk. 60 min hops - No change 10 min hops - No change Protofloc - No change Remove hop bags at 0 mins. Flameout hops - Add at 90°C Whirlpool hops - Add below 80°C Again, remove the hop bags at the appropriate times and always keep the lid on once the boil is over. When finished, I seal the Brewmonk with masking tape (including the out pipe) and leave in the garage with the door open, overnight. I then carefully pump it into a fermenter, leaving most of the crap behind and getting very clear wort. By removing the bags, I tend not to get 'hop blur' - all my bitterness, flavours and aromas from the hops seem distinct and clearly placed.

[@BrewsNHacks]

I haven’t looked at the other comments yet, so maybe others are doing this. But, I use a small water pump and ice packs in a cooler of water, run it through the plate chiller (wort is using gravity). The water comes out warm, and I use that to mix with PBW or as the rinse water. So, if no hop stand, I’ll run about 1/3-1/2 of the hot wort through the plate chiller and return to the kettle twice, then replace the cooler water (reused as wash or rinse) and chill back down to run through the plate chiller one last time into the fermenter. That last run definitely gets me down to pitching temp, usually in the low 70’s °F. And this absolutely reduces the amount of water I use.

[@albrough]

Ethylene, not urethane 🇦🇺 here. I triple batch sometimes on a brew day, one batch goes into my fermenter and the remaining batches go into two HDPE cubes. I have in the past put the filled and sealed cube into a tub of icewater to bring down the temperature faster in summer. Works for me! Fresh wort kits are also popular and easily available here too, it makes for a very easy brew day

[@MrMattHendry]

Im one of the Aussie brewers that pioneered the No Chill concept .That came about when I worked for a homebrew shop and we had a friend who just started a brewery and we specifically made wort for Work Kits so the recipie was adjusted to accommodate for no Chill somo hops as First Wort but the majority where added at flameout .

[@fathersavage]

I'm from New Mexico, and it's hot and dry here. I've been doing no chill for 4 years. Works for me.

[@DrDepperLP]

Anecdotally for me, I started with quick chill and later switched to no chill. The first several beers I made with no chill were all IPAs and were just unpallatable, but after changing hop timings, I now exclusively do no chill just because it's easier and have had zero issues since. Both make great beers, but if you are cheapskate like me and don't like the idea of putting hot wort into HDPE plastic to submerg in an ice bath, no chill overnight has been amazing.

[@MrBrianmuz]

One of the things about no chill that I'm not sure the U.S. has adopted yet is the implications for homebrew stores. In Australia, many homebrew stores will brew up a commercial size batch and fill a hundred plus cubes. They then sell these to homebrewers as "Fresh Wort Kits" (FWK). Some commercial breweries have even done batches of their popular beers and sold them through homebrew stores in a pack with the hops (for dry hopping) and yeast. This is a great way for people to get into brewing as you can just take ones of these home, pour them into a fermenter, and add a pack of yeast. Our homebrew club has also had events where participants all get the same FWK and have to brew a unique beer with it. Some people have concentrated it down (reboil). Some have pitched mix fermentation cultures. Some have dry hopped them. It's amazing how creative you can be with FWKs.

[@Narapoia1]

Whenever anyone asks me for advice on trying out a first brew, or getting someone a starter kit I always recommend getting a fermenter + fresh wort kit as it is so easy and you'll get better quality without a lot required from you in terms of mixing, farting about with liquid extract etc.

[@zepvideogamer8405]

I share the concern of wasting water. I collect the water of chilling into many containers and then use this warm water to clean the kettles, filters, everything, and the rest for the plants of my garden or other cleaning tasks. Another way to not waste the water is use a pump for putting it up to a tank and use it next time you need to cool the wort. No chilling makes me lose 1 day of time to enjoy my beer and I brew mostly very hoppy styles that as seen on this fantastic video, could be affected using that technique. Anyway I did it one time, and the beer came out good, and I think is a good option for some circumstances, like living in a very hot weather... Great video as usual, sir!!

[@ianlaker9161]

I use a stainless steel immersion chiller with hozelock fittings that runs from my garden standpipe to the garage where I brew. It reliably brings my wort down to around 22-24ºc in about 30 minutes.The considerable water 'waste' goes via the 'out' hose straight into two large water butts in the garden for later watering duty. So no waste when those butts are previously empty. Fine in the summer. Less so in winter!

[@mountainmadman94]

This is one of the brilliant ideas from our Aussie brothers that use more often than not. What I have been doing is whirlpooling my late addition hops and letting them settle, then I transfer the wort that is mostly clear with very little trub or hops into hot fill bags. I have fabricated a cap for the hot fill bags with a silicone hose so I sanitize it and connect it to the ball valve on my kettle and not expose my hot wort. Obvioulsy, when you replace the hose cap with the cap to seal the bag you need to wear gloves. Doing this allows me to have shorter brew days and keep multiple bags of pasturized wort on hand to ferment at my leasure. I have found that any late addition hops that make their way into the bag keep bittering, so I am sure to make sure everything is settled before I transfer.

[@bensadler7368]

When you're whirlpooling your wort, are you doing that at approximately boiling temperature?

[@mountainmadman94]

@@bensadler7368 No sir. I usually let it drop to about 195 down to 187-ish depending on the style if I want to prevent isomerization. then I whirlpool and let it settle for at least 20 minutes. It has always been over 165 degrees F when I gently drain into the bags. I don't do huge hop additions and the dip tube on my Anvil Foundry is pointing at 9 o'clock so I can get the wort out very clean. I have yet to try it on my keggle set up, but I expect it to work even better with a big hop addition because of the round bottom.

[@bensadler7368]

@@mountainmadman94 I'm about to move out to the desert and I'm planning on converting to no-chill brewing, so I'm really interested in your method. Do you let the temp drop naturally from the boil down to 195?

[@mountainmadman94]

I should also add that when I first started doing this I used cubes. I tried it with flame-out hops and didn't wait long enough for it to settle. Lots of hops made it into the cube and kept isomerizing as the thermal mass of the cube kept it from cooling for a long time. I inadvertently made a couple of batches that were too bitter for me to enjoy and I had to blend them with less hoppy beers to drink them.

[@mountainmadman94]

@@bensadler7368 Yep. I leave the lid off and have a beer. Whe it is time to whirlpool I add the hops, spin it really fast for awhile with a long spoon and put the lid on. There is a hole in the Anvil Foundry lid that I can put a thermocouple in. A turkey fryer thermometer would work too. I always try to put it in the hot fill bag at 165 degrees or higher if it has been over 20 minutes of settling. I lay the bags in stackable plastic boxes that I got used ( U-line part # S-22259GR) and safely stack them until it is time to ferment. Aussies say it can last for months but I have never gone more than three weeks. One more thing, the hot fill bag is laying in the plastic box when I fill it so I can move it while it is hot.

[@curtpick628]

Have done it twice. One on a Lager, other an Ale. Both of which are moderate in hops. No issues from other drinkers or myself. These I have brewed several times. I couldn't tell the difference.

[@_mcdougle]

Only thing I notice is that I get more bitterness from hops. For low-to-moderately hopped beers (or beers with less added at the end of the boil) you probably wouldn't notice much, if any, difference. But if you're going for a particularly aromatic hoppy beer, no-chill reduces that and you end up with more bitterness instead. You could make up for it with more dry hops though - wouldn't be the exact same but should be similar

[@brianheuschkel3391]

I have been No Chill for a few years. I have reduced most my boils to 30min with all hop additions moving accordingly. Typically 30min, -10 min and -20 minutes of flameout. Saves time and water. I am US based Thanks for the video.

[@reyn66]

I practice no-chill into a spunded corny-keg. I have done this with a chilled method (just more to clean on brew day), and I have also used this technique in addition to no-boil.

[@Duci1989]

I live in the Netherlands and water is really cheap here. I do partial chill nowadays. Chill till the temp no longer drops rapidly and then rack and leave the rest of the cooling to the fermentation fridge. I need warm water for cleaning my gear anyways, so might as well get that from cooling, while also dropping the wort below isomerization temperatures.

[@THB406]

I do the same.

[@herbstava]

This seems like a good middle ground. How have your beers turned out? Similar to quick chill?

[@Duci1989]

@@herbstava Yep, no adjustments needed at all

[@herbstava]

@@Duci1989 good to know! Thanks for the information!

[@rustinmistric4005]

I've been no-chill brewing for about 4 years and it just makes brew day much easier with reduced equipment needed, setup, and cleanup afterwards. I use a hop spider in the boil kettle along with a kettle tube screen on the valve to reduce hop particles lingering in the beer after racking. After flameout I wait 5-10 minutes to let any remaining hop materials or whatever settle out, then rack into 6 gallon sanitized SS keg. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. I don't adjust my hop schedule timing at all, just a small reduction quantity wise (~10%). I entered a homebrewing competition a few years back using no-chill just to see if it negatively impacted the quality of the beer. Two of my three beers entered earned a 2nd (English Brown) and 3rd (Belgian Dark Strong Ale) in their respective categories (yes there was plenty of competition), so I would say it's a very viable homebrewing option. One thing that most likely helps is that I do not brew IPAs. I know it may be blasphemous, but I do not care for them enough to brew a 5 gallon batch and there are tons of examples on the market. I would rather brew beers I cannot readily find locally which usually turn out to be less hoppy styles. I brew a pale ale every year and no-chill seems to do fairly well with that style, but I could see where it would begin to fail as you venture into IPA territory. Just my two cents but I don't see myself going back to using a chiller of some sort any time soon.

[@dexterne]

"brew beers I cannot readily find locally". EXACTLY. This is why I got into home brewing. I like dark, malty styles and 75+% of the store shelves here (OR, USA) are IPAs. I also no-chill straight into a SSBB mostly and it's the easiest method for these styles IMNSHO. 🍻

[@camelnumber1814]

Try filling a brewing bucket with ice and running your coolant through a chilling coil immerse in the ice. Suddenly you don't have to waste a massive amount of water. You can freeze takeaway boxes full of ice in advance to make sure you have plenty. You'll want to add some water to the ice bucket to improve surface contact.

[@troykase9472]

The music at 1:00! Are you kidding? That was awesome!

[@jorgeandresvasquez8226]

What’s the name of the song?

[@TexasNativeBrewing]

@@jorgeandresvasquez8226 I'm on the fence of whether this may be AI generated music or not....

[@donosborn]

I was going to comment "you wrote a song for this episode?!" ha

[@dralois]

@@TexasNativeBrewingalmost definitely and I personally wouldn’t mind it not being used anymore going forward. The ethics of that are questionable at best.

[@ukapas]

I guess it's AI generated

[@ZukaraTheGame]

This is really helpful i made an imperial stout and was blown away how bitter it was.....i did the no chill method with kveik in summer shed. I didnt adjust hops for no chill as i never heard of that before but it makes sense. I have done this many times in the winter as it is plenty cold to chill my wort in a matter of minutes but this was the first time in the heat of summer. Good to know! I really hope the bitterness fades with time because its a pretty rough stout at the moment yet it is very young still. 😅

[@TheDiRk39]

I started with no chill but switched to quick chill, because its a bit saver for the fermentation if I can add the yeast directly, and also cleaning up goes much faster with hot water, which is what I get from the chiller.

[@viper29ca]

I use a cooler with 5gal of water, with 8-10 2 litre pop bottles, filled with water and frozen, and usually a bag of ice from the corner store. Cheap pond pump from Amazon. Hose from the pond pump goes to the immersion chiller, other end of the chiller goes back into the cooler. Usually fill the cooler before I start the brew day, so it is extremely cold by the time you go to chill. Also double to keep the beer day drinking beer cold as well!

[@Narapoia1]

I do something similar but freeze water in ice cream or plastic takeaway food containers so I can dump the ice directly into the water and cool more efficiently. Much easier to freeze the water in bottles though I bet esp when your chest freezer is as jumbled as mine hah. Capture all of the water and use it on the garden or for cleaning up the brew gear. It adds 30-40 minutes to the brew day that I would love to cut out but I don't like the idea of hot wort sitting in plastic for hours.

[@eladisimo]

As a no chill brewer for several years now, I found that if you adjust your timing and methods correctly, you can get any result accurately I cut back most llate hopping, and dry hop instead where needed.

[@kyleseifert3892]

That song was amazing

[@MrBrianmuz]

I've also seen no-chillers throw their cubes into their swimming pools to chill them faster. Not sure I'd recommend this practice but it shows some creative thinking at least.

[@dalejoy193]

I have done this as you have stated, I still left it hot to sterilize for 30 minutes and then in the pool.

[@donmac5926]

Been doing "no chill" brewing for awhile now, utilising the hdpe 20 litre "cubes" and kegland 20L wort bladders. I don't like the thought of wasting so much water for various reasons, believe it or not, here in the UK, we have periods of drought were using hose pipes isn't allowed and water is expensive due to the greed of water companies and their many shareholders. I also can only brew outside, in times of good weather. This got me thinking out of the box, as us brewers tend to do, and so I now brew a few beers over a few weeks and transfer the wort to cubes and bladders, in effect making my own "fresh wort kit" to ferment at my leisure over some months. I have left wort in the containers for months at a time with no issues whatsoever. In fact, there's a guy on yt who fermented wort 2 years after transferring to a cube with great success. So for me, it's a no brainer and a normal part of my brew day. Happy brewing guys 👍

[@tman9338]

Great insight to add hot side hops with 20 min delay for no chill !!

[@thej6219]

i only work with the no chill method, realy easy and no water loss. Great results every time. Realy nice video as allways, martin!

[@Dunk0The0Punk]

I use the no chill method all the time, primarily because I don't like to waste water, interesting results

[@croz71]

Being from Australia, I always use no chill. Water is expensive here and we have to pay for every drop. I do adjust the hop schedule by 20min though.

[@Face_Meat]

If a recipe calls for a hop addition 10 minutes before flameout, do you just add the hops 10 minutes after flameout?

[@draculasdaughter36]

I don't have a lot of space and I do my boil on my stove top. 5 gal takes forever to come to a boil, but 2.5 gal is manageable. So I mash with half the water, then, after the boil, I add 2.5 gallons of "near frozen" bottled spring water.

[@antonshelliem56]

Quick sidenote on the watercosumption. you can easily attach a aqarium pump to one end of the immersion chiller and fill up your sink with ice. If you further ad salt to the ice you'll end up with an extremely cold liquid as the salt allows the ice to melt at a lower temperature. While this still consumes some water and a significant ammount of energy from freezing the ice in the first place, I do think it's a more sustainable approach as energy ca be generated ecofriendly while drinkingwater is getting quite scarce in some places especially this time of year.

[@victorvannatter312]

That chill or no chill song slaps

[@hatherlow]

I have no chilled for around 40 brews, always with bagged hops, for brews with big flameout "80 degree" additions controlling bitterness is an issue. For those with smaller or no late additions it works well,.

[@yanickbertin5769]

I make a partial chill, my immersion chiller in a ice cold water pump my beer through the chiller and drop in my fermenter at about 30deg C put the lid and want the next day to add my yeast… a good compromise for me and potable water😉

[@laurenceprantner8618]

As I (and many others) have a veggie garden to care for, my chill water is NEVER wasted, and always just flows to those that need it. So, in regards to the no-chill method, I see no use for it in my brewhouse. Great video, Martin! I always wonder how different methods of boiling/cooling wort affects the flavor/aroma of the beer. Thanks!

[@Mikkogram]

Wet hay comes when DMS gets over the noticable threshold. Just had a discussion with a couple of colleagues about DMS in a Helles

[@Mikkogram]

I am waiting for the "SMM is so low DMS is no problem" buddies. It is still a concern if you do no-chill and/or 30 min boil

[@dalejoy193]

No chill every beer I have made.Stout ,Helles and IPA. Any beer style that requires boil hop additions to 20 minutes to go, ( 20 minutes to go are now a flameout hop addition) all other additions, 15 ,10, 5 mins and flameout all go in the dry hop near the end of fermentation. Taste OK to me mate. Cheers for down under!

[@Tense]

The other method is recirculating the water while using ice. You run it like normal till 120f and then recirculate back into the same water using ice. I use less than 6 gallons water.

[@goateemike72]

I used an over sized cooler and recirculate the water through my flow chiller. Lots of ice, because when that water is spit back into the cooler it’s Hot!

[@davisdavis6989]

I use less then 5 gallons of water, ice and an immersion pump with a large immersion chiller, takes maybe 20 minutes depending on the target pitch temp

[@SCROWMD]

i imagine this would be a good method during the Winter here in the North East USA.

[@niklastrippler1053]

I often double batch 2x50L. Often I transfer the first batch at boiling, and let my glycol chiller get to work (which sanitizes the unitank), often targeting 10*C, and let the second batch chill somewhat before transfer (down to like 40*C). When they mix they end up in the mid-20s, and the glycol chiller will stabilize it at the correct temp in half an hour or so. It does mean I need to dump some trub though.

[@CTP-bbq-HundHutte]

Wow. I would have never thought the results would be so different

[@tommykraft9648]

I never actively chilled and it works great for me. But I don't get why you would take the extra step and fill it into the cube instead of transfering it directly into your buket/keg/ whatever - again worked great for me so far

[@tortap]

The cube can be filled to the brim and sealed. No suck back of contaminated air as it cools.

[@tommykraft9648]

@@tortap I see, thanks for clarifying!

[@albundy5398]

I have no cooler so I have no capacity to chill down to pitching temperature. But I do take care to cool my wort (mostly 23l batches boiled in an electric boiling kettle) down to about 80 C as quickly as possible to halt hop isomerization on the one hand and to stop possible DMS formation on the other. I also prefer to boil for only 30 to 45 minutes to save energy (electricity is expensive in Germany), so DMS might become an issue. To cool my wort I use two 1,5l plastic water bottles filled with -18C ice which I take from the freezer. I drop them into the wort about 2 minutes after flameout, stirring them cautiously from time to time. Sometimes, when the batch is less than 20I and there is still headroom in the kettle I additionally use cold sparge water (1-3 liters) to dilute the wort and cool it down even more rapidly (sort of high-gravity brewing). It takes a maximum of 15 minutes to reach 80C this way, with a water addition it's below 10 minutes.

[@tomwidauer8376]

I used to quick-chill while we had a pool, so I could just let the water run off into it. nothing was really wasted. Since we moved and got rid of the money grave, I stopped chilling and got myself a number of cubes to keep some wort as FWKs when doing double batches. I never noticed a difference between chilled and no-chilled worts, tbh. Not saying there isn't but I haven't noticed any.

[@quilde]

I'd be interested to know at what point the difference comes in to play. For instance, could we chill to sub 80 degrees C and then no chill the rest of the way?

[@JoeWhiting-h7h]

Great video and a great channel. Keep up the good work !

[@Tricky_Adventures]

Semi Quick Chill with Using Less Water: I fill up my sink with water and use a cheap $16 pump connected to my immersion chiller to recirculate the water back into the sink. Drain and refill the water a couple of times as the first and second batch of water will get hot quickly as it drops the temperature. After the wort gets down in temp a bit I do another sink of water with several frozen reusable ice packs to chill it down enough for me to put in the fermenter. GROWNEER 550GPH Submersible Pump 30W Ultra Quiet Fountain Water Pump The outlet valve is removable and threaded and can be replaced with a cheap threaded connector to easily connect to the chiller line's input.

[@victorvannatter312]

For me, I chill because it speeds the process up. But I’m not concerned about the water usage. First, I’m on an unlimited supply deep well, so I’m not worried about water usage. But even beyond that, I just save the exhaust water and put it in my laundry washing machine. No waste.

[@EtherealPrelude]

That HDPE container used on the the no chill method is almost certainly leaching endocrine disrupting compounds into your beer if the wort is nearly boiling when it's transferred over.

[@Jgreendyk1]

I no chill in the summer. I do pick things like Saisons and Koyts for beers as they are my beers with less hops. If it is hoppy then it does not happen in the summer for me.

[@suziederkins3310]

Another great experiment!

[@thekris4378]

I’ve tried both ways with great results. Of course I haven’t split a batch and done half-and-half. 🤷‍♂️

[@gustag]

huge content, thanks!

[@clivebrooker1]

30 US gallons of water is 113.5 litres, water in the UK is approx 0.1p per litre = 11.4p. Is it worth risking the flavour/quality of a batch of beer for 11.4p?

[@TheAndlix]

The big question is, how does it taste after 2,3 or 6 months?

[@johndurette8294]

Consider that historically brewers (prior to chillers) didn't have the ability to cool wort as rapidly we can. Seems like this influences styles more than quality. I'd think even evolution of yeasts too.

[@byronlivermore6596]

i wonder if drawing the quick chill second could account for the hazier appearance in the quick chill American lager. I often use no-chill on my parti-gyles since the brew day gets pretty long.

[@dden7670]

I'd like to try this. Just to clarify, when you say adjust by 20 minutes, if assuming a 60 minutes boil and a schedule of let's say additions at 60, 15 and 5 minutes. The additions would now be at 40, -5 and -15 minutes, the "-" indicating after the boil was stopped?

[@jonathanwilliams1974]

I’ll continue to chill. I don’t waste water. The chiller water just goes to top off my pool.

[@DimpieDeBruyn]

I've been doing No-chill since forever ... i get beer 😜

[@Wind_Ninja_Jubei]

Well i live in Australia, i do no chill and adjust my recipes to compensate and never had a bad batch. I just dont see why i would bother to chill to be honest.

[@dlbuffmovie]

HAHAHA.....music so perfect and custom.

[@BritBluesMan]

Suno for the intro/background music? :D

[@tomknight2366]

Definitely some AI crap on the last few episodes.

[@zt7489]

Are there different qualities of HDPE cubes to be used with regard to the release of microplastics into beer and then into the consumer? This shit is turning up in millions of people.

[@beerbaron7448]

Not a fully fair test as you said that the Helles was no winner in taste preference the Light Lager was a clear winner with the No Chill but you said the IPA was a win for the Quick Chill but it should have been discounted because as you said the preference was generally down to the No Chill beer being more bitter because it was over hopped. A No Chill recipe would have been adjusted for that in the IPA so because it was more bitter it was easily distinguishable and disliked because it was too bitter so you should have made that test invalid

[@SeanEidge]

“Helles with a German ale yeast”. Wait, what?

[@charlesjohnson5811]

*High Density Polyethylene

[@TheAlchemistsBrewery]

Don't save water, there is no need to do so.

[@ml.2770]

Yuck. DMS brewing. Better use pale malt and boil a long time or you're making cream corn beer.

[@simonn8212]

Spare us the AI music please, or at least put on a trigger warning.

[@JannisWegmann]

First? :O

[@leonibar937]

@cervejafácil