difference in No chill and Chill beers in final product

[Retired trucker 2014]

I made a american blonde ale in late November for Christmas consumption. I had never done a no chill before and I think I made a mistake in the amount of hops I added to the whirlpool. I whirlpooled down to approx 180° F then transfered directly to my no chill container and set aside to cool. Yes I did include all the trub in the boil kettle. When it cooled I transfered the clear wort to my Fermenter and pitched my yeast. Four days in I dry hopped with 55 grams of citra. After 14 days I fined and bottled with corn sugar. When we began drinking this beerI expected a IBU of around 22 but ended up by taste at over 40 IBU´s. Now I am not unhappy with the result but not sure why it came out like this. Any suggestions why? If I do this again how can I predict my final bitterness so I don´t end up with something either to lite or to heavy . We don´t much care for beers over about 50 IBU´s. Beer is called Hot Blonde Christmas if you want to look it over. TIA.

 

[HighVoltageMan!]

The bitterness will increase with a whirlpool despite being below 180F. Isomerization does take place below 180F, but at a lower rate. I can't find the recipe in a search of BF, so it would be easier to comment if the recipe was posted. No chilling method may get complicated with late hop and whirlpool additions, but if the hops were boiled an hour, the extra time needed to cool the wort would have little or no effect on the bitterness. You can adjust the utilization of the whirlpool additions to help get a more accurate prediction of bitterness. Default is 10%.

The other thing to consider is alkalinity of the water. The greater the alkalinity, the perceived bitterness is increase. Typically the water for a blonde would be very soft (low alkalinity). This will improve overall smoothness of the beer.

 

[Michael_biab]

Agreed with above on the water - that would include other water profile variables besides alkalinity.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Yup I no chill pretty much every batch I do lately.
All I can say is the IBU'S is just a prediction number not the actual. As you have found you need to find what amount of hops works for you when going no chill.

I recently did a pale ale that had 75g of hops in the WP/overnight cool down I racked the boiling wort into the fermentor that had these hops bagged up. I think I used 10g 11%AA magnum for a 30 min addition (30min boil)

This was spot on for bitterness for a plae if anything a little under bitter but this is my palette.

Next run through you might need to dial back the WP addition maybe.

 

[Donoroto]

Yup I no chill pretty much every batch I do lately.

I wonder Ben, after the fermenter is filled with hot hot wort and sealed, can you toss it in the swimming pool to cool?

 

[GFHomebrew]

I wonder Ben, after the fermenter is filled with hot hot wort and sealed, can you toss it in the swimming pool to cool?

If I feel like it. I've done it once with a cube. I don't see any real advantage i don't feel I'm gunna gain anything positive from doing this.

It would be greatdto do some side by sides on it though no chilled vs chilled.

The only thing I've found no chill does to my beer is achieve more isomerisation due to the slow cool down if you factor this in its just like any beer I feel.

 

[Minbari]

Never really considered this i always cool the wort in the boil pot with the herms coil down to about 120F then transfer to fermentor. Glycol does the rest to pitching temp

 

[Blackmuse]

If I do this again how can I predict my final bitterness so I don´t end up with something either to lite or to heavy .

My advice would be a hop strainer that hangs over your kettle. If you immediately rack to the no chill container the hops will stay in the strainer and add very little additional ibus. There is some adjustment needed the other way though as the strainer will inhibit what you attain from the hops during the boil so increase hop usage by 10% to start (you can do this by putting your hop utilization to 90% in the recipe editor)... Adjust from there as needed.