Lazy Brewing

[Nicholas Jones]

We all get lazy, lately even finding the time has been a real battle, however I have used a technique last few brews to compensate for some laziness, with no adverse effects. I get pretty sick of standing around waiting for my wort to chill at the end of brewday, kids and wife are generally over my indulgent day in the brewery so I kind of give up at about the 35 deg mark (the last 15 deg takes sometimes another half hour) and transfer to fermenter, pitch the next day. This may be a function of my ridiculously heavy pot holding too much heat so this possibly isnt a problem for others. However, to satisfy any paranoia I might have about an infection taking hold I just pitch in a little bit of yeast (like 10% of total) so Im satisfied that at least the dominant organism will be the one I intended to have in there. Love to hear peoples thoughts. And any other lazy techniques if you have them!

[Willem Truter]

It definitely wont hurt. I hear of people "cubing" their beers in Australia. After a brew day they simply put it in a jerry can, leave it and when they want to ferment it they oxygenate it and pitch a yeast.

[Crusader-Rob]

I would go the no chill route, have a read as william said.

they dont chill at all, and chuck their beer in a cube/jerry can and chuck it in the fridge to chill down.

this somewhat sanitises the vessel as well, but be aware of the oxygen etc. thats all i can say.

not sure on the ins and outs of it all.

[Nathan]

Used to "Cube" a bit back in the day, Def saves time but can be a bit hit and miss with regards to results, In the end I used to chill below 65-75 then cube into a known clean sanitized cube with whirlpool hops with great results,

Makes me wander now why I to stand around for 1/2 an hour waiting.....Hmmm

[Cain Harland]

Even worse than waiting for the chill. I use a counter flow chiller so can't chill with out whirlpooling (unless I slowly transfer and chill from boiling but this leaves some of the beer hot for a long time and puts a lot of trub in the fermenter) so have to wait for trub to settle after chilling but before transfer. I always cut this settling way too short and to save some time stop initial chilling at about 35c, settle then try and chill the rest of the way during transfer.

Nathan was cubeing good for the beers with heap of late hops? I've wondered about avoiding the cube and doing no chill in the fermenter with a bit of CO2 to stop oxygenation but letting it suck in air through an airlock as it contracts.

Most of the time for lagers its impossible to get to pitch temp with ground water for chilling so like Nicholas I just stop chilling early (also about 35c) and let the fridge do the rest. Proper oxygenation equipment would be handy for this as I usually aerate the wort via a tube with venturai (holes) poked in it so it sucks in air during transfer and oxygenation at 35c is a no no.

I would be interested in hearing about peoples experiences with overnight mash and short boils.

[Peter Smith]

I have never left a mash overnight but have mashed then sparge, take  temp to 80C for a bit to stop any more action then just covered and turned off, turning back on in the morning for the boil.   Seemed to work without noticeable issues.

Its become somewhat standard now for me to chill quickly to 75C, then hold and whirlpool at 75C for an hour with whirlpool hops and then just turn off and let wort cool itself covered overnight, rack to fermenter and pitch the next morning.   I use oxygen from an oxy/acet welding kit.

I haven't done this for a pilsner yet as I normally brew them around this time of year and the ground water and chiller makes pretty short work of the cooling, So far most have been noble hops. I don't think it would add much for a traditional pils but if trying to make a big NZ hopped pils i think the whirlpool would work really well, adding lots of flavour with minimal additional bitternes.  You need to learn your kit.

Not sure of the whirlpool hop IBU calcs in beer smith, think it over estimates IBUs a bit, guess the temp at which yopu whirlpool is v important ie , if you flame out and add it will take a while to get from 100C to 75C and this time could add a lot of bitterness from 150g of hops....   but if you wait till 75C you get flavour vs bitterness.

I normally boil for 90 mins but recently had an issue that caused a 45 min boil, luckily all the bittering had been added at what I though was 90min....    Was Gladfield's American ale malt and maybe 5% gladfields med crystal IPA type grist,  Not a sign of DMS.  I always boil pilsner and wheat beers for 90 min.   Going forward for PA/IPA  I will probably do 45 min boils...

I think the whirlpool time and method makes a massive difference vs the boil time.

[Nathan]

Hey Cain.......Sorry about the T/C cable I haven't even looked you still need some?..

As far as your question goes I found that even if you transfer into the cube with the late hops in the cube they still bittered the beer to much hence why I chilled to below 75 then transferred into cube with late hops in it.....Worked great

[Cain Harland]

Cheers, I don't need the cable, found one on ali express with a 3m cable and a longish M8 probe, as well as being just prefect for the smoker it fits in the hole left in my crock pot where the broken handle used to screw in so have been using the controller for sous vide cooking as well.

Both sous vide and a temperature controlled ugly drum smoker get my recommendation for ways to put the electrical skills learned from brewing to good use.

[Tilt]

How were your results hit and miss with the no-chill?  It took me a couple of goes to nail the bitterness adjustments but after that I reckon N/C produces the same results as conventional chill and pitch for malt focused beers.

[Nathan]

I did easily six or so brews no chilling and most turned out to bitter but the odd one was great, Still a great technique and worth considering.....I did a brew comp one day where you had to brew on site with your gear and while everyone was standing around waiting to chill there wort I just cubed it and left got some strange looks but hey I scored second place so cant be that bad an idea..

Hell I'm brewing today I might just cube it

[Tilt]

I no chill / cube for most of my brews as a matter of course these days. The main reason is to save time, but also partly to not use all the water I used to chilling with my immersion chiller. 

I usually brew a double batch (45ish litres post boil) of wort with my flavour and bittering additions added in the kettle, then I flameout, whirlpool and let settle for 15minutes.  I run this lot off to 2 sanitised cubes at approx 90 degrees to pasteurise (possibly with some cube hops added for a "steep" addition) and store for whenever I'm ready for the next step.  I've usually got 2 or three cubes from different wort batches in storage at any one time which gives me a chance to mix up the order of things and run through the cold side brewing routine on a work night.  

There are ways of pimping these "base wort" cubes to get a range of results from a batch of base wort, e.g.:

• recover a couple of litres wort from the post boil kettle trub and then boil this up for 10 minutes with some late hops, chill and pitch with a cube
• boil down the same recovered wort to a toffee like consistency and pitch with a cube for a dose of rich melanoidin caramel (works beautifully in a Special Bitter)
• spin up different yeasts for two cubes of the same wort for a bit of variety
• steep some crystals and roasts separately, boil this and then add it to the fermentor with a cube (works well for brown ales and porters)

The only drawback I've found is that nothing substitutes for a large steep/whirlpool hop and then a quick chill for a really bright hoppy pale ale, but you can go close with cube hops and a decent dry hop in the fermentor.

The other time saving tweaks I use:

• use a decent false bottom rather than my old braided hose set up - the sparge flows faster and more evenly
• grind my malt 0.1-0.2mm coarser.....with some attention to mash pH both these have cut my sparge time in half while only losing a couple of points of efficiency - worth the trade in my book.
• Set the electric HLT on a timer to start heating while I'm either at work (for an evening brew) or asleep (for a weekend brewday)
• Recirculate through my HERMS coil with a pump while mashing.  This, along with paying attention to mash pH and Calcium levels, brings quicker conversion (and can step the mash temps for a wort made to a certain profile) but more importantly don't have to spend time on the vorlauf for crystal clear wort in the kettle
• I boil with a 3 ring gas burner and turn the flame on as soon as there's a couple of inches of wort in the kettle.  I also use an over the side element in the kettle to help bring it up to the boil.  I'd estimate this saves me 20-30minutes

These days I'm tending to focus more on malt and yeast oriented beers so this all works well for me by breaking a longer "mash to pitch" brew day into smaller parts, removes the chill time and gives me plenty of time to focus on the yeast propagation and healthy ferments while having more time for other family focused stuff.  

[Peter Smith]

Boil down the same recovered wort to a toffee like consistency and pitch with a cube for a dose of rich melanoidin caramel (works beautifully in a Special Bitter)

This sounds a great idea.   Going to give that a try....   

[Sam DT]

Not that I've tried it but how about 15 minute mash 15 minute boil?

http://brulosophy.com/2015/11/12/short-shoddy-my-1-hour-all-grain-b...