Cube Expansion

[Newbiebrewer]

I was reading cortez's article on no chill cubing and it mentioned about removing as much air as possible, now I have a 25l cube I bought which I was gonna use however I was reading somewhere else that the cubes tend to expand with heat.

Would a 20L cube expand sufficiently to accomadate 23l of brew?

 

[mxd]

yep, that's roughly what you'll fit i them

 

[tipsy]

Would a 20L cube expand sufficiently to accomadate 23l of brew?

I don't know about expansion but mt 20lt Willow cube holds 24lts of cold water

 

[felten]

ditto ^

 

[Newbiebrewer]

hmm so 20L isn't the max capacity then what is it just a reccommended safe carrying load?

 

[Phoney]

I use a 25L cube with no worries. Just have to squeeze a bit harder to get the air out.

You could get away with a 20L cube, but what happens if one day you decide to brew a 24-26L batch? Well, you wont be able to.

 

[Florian]

You could get away with a 20L cube, but what happens if one day you decide to brew a 24-26L batch? Well, you wont be able to.

For that case there are still soft drink bottles, they hold the extra few litres nicely just like a cube. And it also makes it easier to grab one of them, once cooled, to use for your starter.

 

[felten]

Don't most PET bottles melt with 80c+ water?

 

[Phoney]

Don't most PET bottles melt with 80c+ water?

Yep, try pouring boiling liquid into a PET bottle and you'll end up with a horrible mess. You could use a a few longneck bottles to take up the excess. It's a lot of stuffing around but better than wasting beer I suppose....

 

[Bribie G]

If you get yourself a couple of these you can brew more than the cube can hold, just no chill them and pour into fermenter at pitching time. These 1 litre Schott bottles are expensive and a really good alternative is the V-8 glass bottles from the supermarket, if you can stand the thought of drinking 1.5L of beetroot n carrot or whatever :blink:
Clingwrap the tops of the V-8s because the lids can't be effectively sterilized.

So you can step your brew up to 25 / 26 Litres no problems as I have done in this case following a 25L recipe. The crucial thing is good sanitation. Also best to pop them in the fridge asap and then you can actually pitch your cube a bit quicker with 2 or 3 L of cold wort available.

 

[Newbiebrewer]

well I already have a 25L cube and a 20L cube now, the 25L one I was just gonna store some distilled water in so I could use it later to store a bigger brew in.