I wonder if any one have experience with no chill brewing method, when the hot wort ends up in a keg ? Usually done in 5 gallon stackable water container, my concern is that the hot wort will "wash" some of the nasty stuff from the plastic cube.
I did it once last winter. I brewed a Baltic Porter and loved the technique. I dumped everything right in the keg and let it naturally cool overnight in my basement. The next day I transferred off the trub to a fermenter, hit it with O2 and pitched. It saved me the hassle of using my chiller. Only works for lightly hopped beers though.
I use this method the vast majority of the time. It works beautifully. I use the plastic cubes sometimes, too, and I've had good luck with them, but all things being equal I'd rather have boiling hot wort in stainless than plastic. Most of my batches are 3-4 gallons, so I also ferment right in the kegs--not having to transfer to a fermenter makes things even easier. I've fermented up to 4.5ish gallons in a keg with Fermcap. I also disagree that it only works for lightly-hopped styles. It may not be the absolute best way to make a hoppy beer, but I've made some pretty decent ones with no-chill. I use the 20-ish minute IBU calculation adjustment that seems to be pretty widely accepted. I'll do a bittering addition at 40 (counting the IBUs as though it were a 60 min addition), a flavor addition in the keg (in a bag that I can pull when pitching yeast, calculated as a 20 min addition for IBUs), and a dry hop addition for aroma.
