no boil no chill 1 week wheat beer

[BeerCat]

I have been playing around with this style of beer for a while now and thought i would share the recipe and method i have been using. It literally is grain to glass in a week.

25l
RO water with 0.19g per litre of calcium chloride
OG 1045
FG 1010
IBU 13
mash at 65c then mashout at 75c once you have full conversion

2.5 kg uk wheat malt
2 kg of maris otter (or pilsner)
150g acid malt
Wyeast 3068
Ferment at 22/23c
12g of magnum boiled in 1 liter of water for 20m strained and added to the fv.

As the title says this beer is not boiled but it is important to make sure its pasteurised. To do this i collect all the wort after mashing and sparging and hold it at 75c for 20 minutes. I also recirculate during this time to prevent and hot or cold spots in the wort. The mash and sparge volumes are really up to you. For a 25l batch i use 31l in total. Thats about 5l lost to grain and 1l of dead space in the boiler. I used to do a fairly small sparge but recently been doing a full volume mash and i seem to get about the same figures. I think it takes a bit longer to fully convert but i always do a long mash. I would recommend checking the gravity as the mash progresses with a refractometer to make sure you hit your figures. You can always add a little more grain if necessary.
Fermentation normally takes 3 or 4 days to complete and on the 6th day i keg it and force carb. There is no need to crash the beer. If i get any yeast come out in the first few pours i don't worry as it tastes great. Last batch i siphoned of 4l onto 500g of raspberries and let that ferment out and bottled. I now have a batch sitting on 3kg of mango made the same way.
For calculating bitterness i use this calc. Boil size would be say a liter. Batch size 25l and OG must be set to 1 as you are boiling water.
Head retention and lacing on these beers is amazing. Flavour wise i dont pick up any cloves just banana from the yeast and the malt. I will post a photo later.

Edit; I have added some acid malt to the recipe as its helpful to get the correct mash ph if using RO water. Obviously if you not it will be dependent on your waters ph so may not be needed.

 

[dad_of_jon]

A 1 week turnaround is Ideal for those with low stocks

 

[strange-steve]

Nice post BeerCat
If you wanted some clove flavours you could drop the fermentation temp a little.

 

[Drunkula]

What does it taste like? And what score would you give it?

Does the calcium chloride addition target any specific sulphite to chloride target? And what's your fermentation temperature?

Thanks.

 

[Clint]

1 week....the only figures that don't nearly add up is getting through the 40 pints in a week....

 

[BeerCat]

Here is a photo of the beer.

 

[BeerCat]

What does it taste like? And what score would you give it?

Does the calcium chloride addition target any specific sulphite to chloride target? And what's your fermentation temperature?

Thanks.

There are no sulphite additions to this beer. I aim for 50ppm of CC and thats it. Its the same profile i use for Czech lagers which gives a soft mouth feel. I would not say this is exactly like a commercial wheatbeer but then i have not drunk any for a while.
Flavour is banana with a malty backbone, very little bitterness but enough to balance the beer.

 

[An Ankoù]

You've inspired me, BeerCat, and I've one in the mash tun as we speak. I added a bit of caramalt and 2oz acid malt to my 2½ gallon test batch and used Hallertauer Hersbruker 30g @ 2.8% alpha acid. Hops went in the mash water while I was heating it to 75C then allowing temp to drop naturally to strike temp of 72C. Then hops and all into the mash. Mash maintained at 65C for first hour and then will allow to cool naturally over next 6 hours in a cheap and not-very-well-insulated picnic box. (I'm trying to get as much bitterness as possible from my hops). Mash volume of water 2½ gallons. I understand a thin mash favours protein degradation. I'll then strain into fermenter using chilled and oxygenation tap water, which is cooling in the freezer as we speak, to sparge and liquor down to target volume. I've got a Belgian wit ready for racking so the WB-06 yeast will come from that.
If it works, I'll owe you a pint.

 

[BeerCat]

Nice post BeerCat
If you wanted some clove flavours you could drop the fermentation temp a little.

I have not tried fermenting cooler as i wanted the beer in a hurry. First time i brewed it i took a sample after 2 days and it tasted like a banana milkshake. I couldn't believe it but i was unable to keg it that day and by the end of the week it tasted like a wheat beer. I might try to keg after 28 hours once i get a spunding valve.

 

[BeerCat]

You've inspired me, BeerCat, and I've one in the mash tun as we speak. I added a bit of caramalt and 2oz acid malt to my 2½ gallon test batch and used Hallertauer Hersbruker 30g @ 2.8% alpha acid. Hops went in the mash water while I was heating it to 75C then allowing temp to drop naturally to strike temp of 72C. Then hops and all into the mash. Mash maintained at 65C for first hour and then will allow to cool naturally over next 6 hours in a cheap and not-very-well-insulated picnic box. (I'm trying to get as much bitterness as possible from my hops). Mash volume of water 2½ gallons. I understand a thin mash favours protein degradation. I'll then strain into fermenter using chilled and oxygenation tap water, which is cooling in the freezer as we speak, to sparge and liquor down to target volume. I've got a Belgian wit ready for racking so the WB-06 yeast will come from that.
If it works, I'll owe you a pint.

Nice one. You have reminded me some acid malt is helpful to get the mash ph down depending on what water you use. I normally use it but have forgotten the last few times. Mash hopping is one way to go, i have added hops to the mash before but i seem to get a more reliable IBU by boiling them in water and uses a lot less hops. Best of luck with your brew, let us know how you get on.

 

[An Ankoù]

Nice one. You have reminded me some acid malt is helpful to get the mash ph down depending on what water you use. I normally use it but have forgotten the last few times. Mash hopping is one way to go, i have added hops to the mash before but i seem to get a more reliable IBU by boiling them in water and uses a lot less hops. Best of luck with your brew, let us know how you get on.

I've got some isomerised hop extract if all else fails, but I doubt I'll need it with a wheat beer. If this turns out ok, I'm going to try a mild and a lighter beer. I particularly want to see how to handle the protein content without boiling- hopefully without resorting to proteolytic enzymes.

 

[BeerCat]

I did read about people making Imperial stouts using the no boil method and drinking them in 2 weeks. If you want a hoppy fast beer use some kveik and ferment hot for a few days, let the temp drop, dry hop and keg. Also made lagers which after adding finings are crystal clear.
@David Heath has some very good info on his youtube channel

 

[BeerCat]

I could not resist cracking open a bottle of the raspberry. I keg everything now but as i only had a dj full i bottled half with sugar and the rest with sugar and lactose. Its carbed up in 4 days and its the best fruit beer i have made so far. Very prominent raspberry flavour, not too tart. It was 4.3% before i added the fruit. Should of put more in the fridge!

 

[An Ankoù]

Following on: I must have mis-measured the malt somewhere as I've got an OG of 1063 from total grain bill of 5lb 14oz in 2½ gallons of wort! Don't see how- the pile in my straining bag with a similar bill for this morning's brew looks the same as yesterday's- ah well, the first Imperial Wheat Beer. Fermentation's going like the clappers of Hell so have moved the fermenter into an empty fridge and turned it on full to get this under control. ....
An afterthought: I wonder if the increased OG is due to dissolved solids that would otherwise be left behind as trub.

 

[Clint]

Could this method be used to make a hazy IPA?

 

[Drunkula]

Could this method be used to make a hazy IPA?

From the podcast I was listening to yesterday then definitely. They were saying a short boil leaves loads of stuff in suspension and to do just that if you want a beer that looks like soup.

 

[BeerCat]

Could this method be used to make a hazy IPA?

Yes indeed, I have one on tap now which I soured. Omit the hop tea unless you want more IBU and dry hop after initial fermentation. It's good to dry hop the corny as well if you can.
I use voss kveik but anything that flocs fast would work. The beer will be permanently hazy unless you add finings.

 

[strange-steve]

Could this method be used to make a hazy IPA?

This is taken from Scott Janish's new book which is all about hazy, fruity IPAs:

"For those that occasionally brew no-boil beers, like a no-boil hazy IPA, it’s probably best to at least bring the wort up to 85°C to stop limit dextrinase activity so the beer doesn’t attenuate more than expected as well as lower the final dextrin count which can negatively impact mouthfeel. I’ve brewed and sampled a few no-boil NEIPAs, and I personally don’t care for them, especially in higher alcohol beers. The massive amount of fresh dough character from not boiling dominates the dry hops and the lack of hot-side hopping leaves the beer with very little hop saturated flavor."

 

[-Bezza-]

Well I'm tempted to give this a try. My recent hefeweiss was ready to drink in 3 weeks which I thought was pretty quick! As you say, it's meant to be hazy and yeasty, so all this cold crashing and conditioning isn't needed.

 

[An Ankoù]

I think Steve and Bezza have summed up the debate here. On the one hand, we don't brew beer so as to drink shiit, on the other I despair at the amount of energy goes in to the boil only for it to be cooled and wasted as quickly as possible. And it's not the money for the electricity and gas I'm talking about.
If the wheat beer's ok, I might be able to compromise on the summertime quaffing stock.
Must have a look at this book by Janish.