BIAB + no-chill + US-05... is it that easy?

Not having brewed in a decade or so I am intrigued by these three relatively new time saving developments. When I left the scene BIAB and no-chill were rare or unknown (at least to me) and dry yeasts were sneered upon.

Now that I'm getting more serious about finally getting back into brewing I am drawn to this simple combo. Is it really that easy to produce good everyday beer this way? At least as a starting point, it seems the way to go.

 

Yep, that easy. I have done my last five batches as BIAB and No-Chill without any problems and the beer tastes great. I use White Labs for yeast so I can't speak directly to using dry yeast.

Good Luck

 

+1. Its all I do now. Almost all my brews are BIAB + no chills to no ill effect to the beer. I do not even use a chill cube and just let it sit in my brewpot overnight to cool (covered and clamped down of course!).

Brew days rarely take over 4 hours including milling, mashing, boiling, cleaning and finally racking the next day.

 

I've not tried BIAB or no-chill, but I can wholeheartedly endorse dry yeast. Unless I'm brewing a style that really requires a liquid strain (saison, Kolsch, etc), I pretty much default to US-05, Nottingham, S-04, and W-34/70 these days. With those four, I can brew a wide variety of styles that I like to drink, and I don't have to plan ahead and make a starter. I can spend more time brewing and less preparing to brew.

 

I BIAB and use an ice bath in the sink. In one hour I get the brew down to pitching temp. I usually leave the fermentor in the ice bath after pitching for an hour as well to get that starting fermenting temp nice and low. Then it off to the races.

 

For the most informative and complete source of BIAB try here.BIABrewer.info • Index page

 

I will speak to the no-chill and dry yeast. No-chill has been amazing for me, I just drain to a clean (doesnt even need to be sanitized) corny keg, let it drop in temp overnight, and the next day it is ready for oxygenating and pitching dry yeast.

In fact, I am looking to find something I can use my wort chiller for since its just sitting in the corner of the garage. I can think of something but I wont talk about it here

 

I've made some good no-chill BIAB beers. But I would warn you about recipes with late hop additions. I've found some of my beers were over bittered because the hops were still at a high temperature in the cube.

If I were going to do a no chill beer again, I restrict myself to recipes with only one 60 minute hop addition.

I know that there was a chart in the no-chill thread about how to adjust the hops for no-chill. I didn't have much luck with that.

 

Just an FYI, debate going on in the yeast forum regarding the need, to aerate w/ dry yeast. My consensus is it is not necesary w/ dry yeast.

I have taken it a step further, I no chill in the kettle, and then pitch directly to the kettle and ferment there, then transfer to a keg, easy peasy!

Funny, as I have also had thoughts of repurposing my chiller.

 

I guess there is a divide to some extent in the no-chill (air chill) community. Those who chill in the kettle vs those who chill in a cube. I can see the benefits to each but guess I lean toward chill/ferment in the winpak approach for my first attempts. But both are on my list to try.

 

I am short on brew time myself, even short on drinking time....working alot of overtime in prep for another child on the way in June...
The last couple beers I've done have been no chill biab and the latest one I kegged is amazing, took the keg over to the neighbors house, and after 3-4 pints he was asking me to teach him how to brew...it was nearly a single malt beer with us-05 that I just sealed the keggle up after boiling...I've only done this in the fall and winter, so wouldn't recommend it during the warmer months,,,but I get good seperation from the trub....I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it for someone looking to get into brewing all grain....

 

Doing my first of this kind of brewing technique today, I'll report back on my experience. Actually, I already started a thread on it...

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/first-biab-flanders-red-roggenbier-296527/