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cubing dropping the btiitering addition


Waylon

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Just wondering how many people out there modify there hop additions,

 

When I started all grain brewing i would chill the wort through a coil chiller and then pitch the yeast!

Well chilling 70 litres seemed to be a slow process,

 

Thats when I switched to cubing as it saved lots of time and stress on brew days however I soon noticed my recipes were altered by the cubing process(much too bitter)

Still boiling my wort on rapid boils for 75-90 min then I decided to ditch all the mid hop additions and simply do a 40 min & flame out additions.... and later dry hop when needed

 

 

I keen to get a plate chiller before I go back to a traditional chilled batch but the cubing with seems get me by and make ripper brews,

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Hi Waylon

 

I have only ever known no-chilling in my AG brewing. I don't own a chiller. This may change in the future as I brew 23L at a time and an immersion chiller will allow me to bring my wort down to pitching temp pretty quickly. At the moment I'm still experimenting with no-chill cubing.

 

I've tried a recipe as recommended by Ben10 for a Galaxy Pacific Ale with 50g at flameout and 50g dry. So no boil addition at all, just a flameout steep for 20mins before transferring to cube. The Galaxy imparted a harsh bitterness. This could have due to old hops or too much Galaxy while wort was still hot, or both. Will try this again over the Christmas break, but 25g at flameout, minimal steep, then 25g cube hop and transferring the hot wort. 50g dry hop.

 

I want to try more cube hopping to get even more of that hop character and freshness into my hoppy APAs and IPAs.

 

A lot of my schedules now are a 60min or FWH addition for classic bittering, then a 10min addition and then flameout. Beers haven't been too bitter except for the Galaxy one. My revised schedule (depending on the style) might be a FWH, 0min, cube hop, dry hop.

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I did a tripple batch of bohemiam pilsner last year with all saaz calculated for 40 IBUs it ended up way over that using cubes

 

It ended up the hops to over powering in bitterness to be ideal to expectations, so since cut out the middle additions

 

Im keen to get a plate chiller as I use my coil chiller purly for heat exchanging and sparging in my brew system,

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I don't really modify hop additions, I just construct them to achieve the intended outcome. Usually a FWH or 60 min addition with 10 min and flameout additions. Last APA I added a cube hop on top of my normal additions and reduced the boil addition amounts to ensure the bitterness isn't too much.

 

I'd been finding my usual 38-40 IBU was too bitter lately. It never used to be, but I think maybe practically quitting smoking has made my taste a bit more sensitive to it. This latest batch I reduced the IBU to about 35, so hopefully it's a bit more balanced.

 

Other styles that don't have many or any late hops I don't do anything to, because they don't really need it.

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  • 1 year later...

I would like some comments on my no-chill hopping, whirlpool and cubing process; I don't use any recipe or process tools atm.

I am making midstrength pales and the taste results have been good, but I'm sure improvement is available for both taste and clarity.

  • At mash out, I FWT with 15g of high alpha hops to balance the sweetness.
  • Bring to boil for 60m
  • Whirlfloc at 10m
  • At 8m, I'll typically add 20g total of one or two lower alpha dual or finishing hops.
  • At FO I add 30g of hop. 
  • Then I wait 15m or so before I whirlpool.
  • Then I wait 15m before siphoning into cube, leaving 2-3L of break to chuck out.
  • I cool cube to around 40_50c in water trough before leaving to cool ambiently o/night.
  • I then like to DH 25-30g at first FG reading during ferment.
  • Cold Crash and Polyclar at 1c.

For instance, should I wait that time to whirlpool? Is my process close to acceptable practice? 

Cheers

 

 

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I don’t find your process that much different to mine to be honest. 

For my steep additions I’ll add about a third of the intended IBUs at flameout for 15m, remove the hops, then whirlpool, wait 15m then empty into a cube with approximately 65g of cube hops at around 82c. 

The cube hops have helped a lot for flavour.

I can not explain how much software has helped me in understanding how the end result can be. Each time I try a new beer I always have the recipe in front of me while I’m tasting to if there would be anything I’d change again from the last version of the same recipe. Software is unbelievably helpful 

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Not much different to my process either although I don't restrict FWH additions to high alpha hops, and I also let them steep in the wort for 25-30 minutes before I bring it to the boil, in order to mimic the process the way it's done on a multi vessel system as best I can with my  1V system. These hops aren't added at mash out either, I wait until the grain bag has been drained and removed. 

My whirlpool process is pretty much the same. Sometimes I don't whirlpool at all and just let the wort sit for 25 minutes before draining to the cube. I used this method every time when I didn't have a pulley system because I had no way to remove the hop spider and drain it, easily anyway. Both ways work pretty well.

For hoppy ales I also add a cube hop which has improved the flavour, and next batch I'll be experimenting with a small keg hop.

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Thanks guys. I like the cube hopping idea. Does that give you enough aroma/flavour to eliminate dry hopping?

Also, I'm thinking about Beersmith3, but realistically I now only make slight variations to just a couple of beer types for summer and winter drinking. I don't know how much I would use it, and whether it might complicate things for me.

You guys have taught me all I know about AG BIAB. Thanks. 

Cheers

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On 2/11/2019 at 12:51 PM, Otto Von Blotto said:

Not much different to my process either although I don't restrict FWH additions to high alpha hops.....

Is it fair to say, if I use a higher Alpha hop like Simcoe for FWH, then I can use less? For example I use 15g for bittering, as opposed to more for a low alpha hop?

Cheers

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That is true but I also use the technique to extract a bit of flavour (hence the steeping before boiling), so I figure by using lower alpha hops I can use more of them and get a bit more flavour from the addition. 

The other part is that I usually load up the cube and late hops, so the early addition is just topping up bitterness. Often with high alpha hops it's just a few grams which is a waste of time and effort weighing out to me.

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