Cube Hopping

[RelaxedBrewer]

Your brew of course... but I'd only do this if pitching the next day... and in that instance, I'd just leave it in the kettle and save the washing and sanitising the cube

I would, but I am actually doing 5 22L cubes and using 5 different types of hops to get a good feel for them all.

Putting those hops of yours to good use

Oh, and I am pitching the next day.

 

[Yob]

Niiice... fecking... work!!

Forgot about the size of your rig...

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Forgot about the size of your rig...




That's what she said.

 

[Crusty]

:icon_offtopic: Side note of cubing.

When transferring out of cubes, do you ditch the trub that's settled in the bottom or swish it around to mix it up and dump it all into the FV?

I pitch the whole lot into the fermenter.
The yeast will make good use of it & it all settles out.

I'm treating my additions as 20mins so what I am trying to sort out is the 15,10 & 5min. The 0min will just be dry hopped.
As an example of DSGA, I have a 60, 10 & 5min addition so am looking @ 60 as normal, 10 & 5 into the cube. Hopefully that will give me some form of flavour / aroma type hit.
I love the concept of no chilling but it's a PITA to get right.

 

[Kingy]

Yea my beers usually end up on the bitterish side when no chilled. It also seems to take longer to condition. Gunna get some tanks and a pump sorted soon and go back to chilling.

 

[Yob]

OG - 1070
FG - 1012

First batch
50g Mosaic - Cube
100g Amarillo - Cube

Second Batch
50g Amarillo - Cube
100g Ahtanum - Cube

Both of these are drinking now, after having demolished 1/2 of the Ahtanum / Mosaic keg, I swapped over to the Amarillo / Mosaic last night. I've gotta say that for big beers like these two, I dont think I'll bother making kettle additions again, Cube hopping is a massive win for me, can play with different hops with the same wort for true side by side comparisons, lost less to the kettle, take unhopped wort for starters and as I now brew 75-80l at a time I can get much more bang for my buck for brew day.

TBH, I think I'll give FV dry hopping a miss too after the results from these 2 kegs.. Im absolutely astonished at how drinkable these IPA'a are.. :icon_drool2: :icon_drool2: :icon_drool2:

A fellow member called in the other night and sampled The Ahtanum one and was well pleased with it too, so I for one am going to continue playing with this method.. many many good points, not many negatives.

:beerbang:

 

[sponge]

Yea my beers usually end up on the bitterish side when no chilled. It also seems to take longer to condition. Gunna get some tanks and a pump sorted soon and go back to chilling.

I treat my cube hops as 20min additions after having cube hopped for the last 1-2 years (YMMV). But I have noticed them to take a lot longer to condition also. I've found a lot to be harsh and grassy (even some that haven't been dry hopped) but have settled out after a couple of weeks CC'ing in the keg.

If I was able to chill (after we move out of this apartment I'll be getting a rain water tank for chilling) then I would to see if I can reduce the initial harshness, but for now it works fine for me. I was actually planning on trying the argon method for my next APA/AIPA, just having a FWH/bittering addition, and doing the <20min additions with a separate boil, cooling it, and adding it to the fermenter..

 

[mje1980]

Do you throw the cube hops in straight after the boil sponge, or let the wort cool a little first ?. I've been letting the boiled wort sit for 10 mins, then adding the hops and cubing straight away. That small drop in temp has seemed to give lots of aroma and flavour without any harshness. Just a thought.

 

[IsonAd]

Old thread but I was hoping Yob that you could give a bit more info on the IPA you did with just Mosaic used as cube hops..at least that was my understanding from the post above. I'm hoping to do an APA/IPA soon with mosaic and thought i might just cube hop them but would appreciate any guidance, quantity, time in cube etc. Cheers

 

[sponge]

Do you throw the cube hops in straight after the boil sponge, or let the wort cool a little first ?. I've been letting the boiled wort sit for 10 mins, then adding the hops and cubing straight away. That small drop in temp has seemed to give lots of aroma and flavour without any harshness. Just a thought.

I normally whirlpool and let sit for 10min or so, throw the hops in the cube and fill from there. So would slightly cool, but nothing too drastic.

Every so often I'm still not 100% happy with some grass notes I get from cube hopping (even without dry hopping) so have started playing around with longer whirlpool times to let it cool a little as you've suggested, but also just adding whirlpool hops and no cube hops.

On my next APA I'll be giving the argon method a go as I do enjoy the results I get from cube hopping, but it still lacks the punch I'm after every so often.

 

[davedoran]

I have been cube hopping and treating it as a 15 min addition. Maybe I should be upping to to 20 min... hard to know really.

I have been reading a lot about hop stands and whirl-pooling. Interesting to find out that most of the big breweries do it and some pretty famous AIPAs are made without dry hopping (getting all their aroma from the whirlpool). It is reported that the temperature that you add the hops in during whirl pool can make a big difference as well. Some breweries are making multiple additions as the wort cools.

My next attempt at an cube hopped APA I am going to put almost all my bittering hops in the cube and then wait for it to cool to 80C. Then add another charge of hops. Hopefully this will emulate what some try to achieve with the hop stand before chilling.

Your brew of course... but I'd only do this if pitching the next day... and in that instance, I'd just leave it in the kettle and save the washing and sanitising the cube

Done this a number of times now without incident. Nervous as hell the first few times :lol:

Sorry if this is obvious to others but why would you only do this if pitching the next day?
Is this to minimize hops to hot wort exposure? If so it would have been down to pitching temp or thereabout the next day anyway?

 

[Proffs]

Sorry if this is obvious to others but why would you only do this if pitching the next day?
Is this to minimize hops to hot wort exposure? If so it would have been down to pitching temp or thereabout the next day anyway?

I think they're just worried about increased risk of infections. Normally when cubing the hot wort sanitizes everything and remains that way until it is opened again.

 

[Lakey]

My process for APA's and IPA's is to add FWH and 60 min additions as normal, put 30 mins additions (if needed) to flame out, let wort sit for 10 mins before whirlpool, whirlpool wort, let sit for 10 mins then dump wort into cube with cube hops for a flavour addition. The wort gets down to about 85 degrees by the time I dump to cube. I then dry hop/keg hop for aroma.

 

[Lakey]

I never really know what the exact IBU's are but I don't really care, every beer done this way has enough flavour and aroma for my likings and isn't too harshly bittered.

 

[sponge]

Yea I treat my cube additions as 20min after many different attempts using various times for those additions. YMMV though as each system will be different.

I'll normally get 1/4 - 1/3 of my bitterness from FWH, then treat whirpool as 25min and cube as 20min. I tried a few all cube hopped beers but just seemed a little harsh with the bitterness compared to adding a bit at FWH.

I think I'll try a similar thing with a known recipe but only with the FWH hops then the argon method for the late hops just for comparison sake.

 

[davedoran]

I think they're just worried about increased risk of infections. Normally when cubing the hot wort sanitizes everything and remains that way until it is opened again.

Ok,
Would this not be the same risk as dry hopping?

 

[sponge]

There will be many more knowledgeable brewers who can answer this more accurately, but due to the fermentation process producing CO2 and alcohol, the pH of the beer dropping, and the large quantity of healthy yeast, there is much less chance of bacteria surviving in that environment than with wort which is just some nice sugary room temperature liquid, perfect for bacteria growth.

 

[Ninegrain]

I cube hopped with 50g of Glacier after leaving the kettle for 10 minutes to settle on my first BIAB last week. I did it by throwing the hops into the cube prior to filling it with the hot wort. Ended up over reducing to 17L, not the intended 20L so just tipped it all into the cube trub and all. Made it up to 23L at 1.057 and pitched last sunday and today its at 1.010 and tasting good. If the same tomorrow I will dry hop ~25g, crash chill for a week, keg and let you know how it tastes Glacier is low AA so will see how it went for bitterness and work from there as a baseline for my next batches and more intense hops.

 

[davedoran]

Please do ninegrain. Will be good to know

 

[damoninja]

I did a 10 minute IPA but cube hopped it, so it was more like a negative 10 minute IPA.

Turned out bloody nice.