Cube Hopping and FWH are (in my opinion) quite closely related. One of the reasons you can get flavour and aroma from a FWH addition, is that the hop oil hydrocarbon fraction, is exposed to heat and oxygen for a period of time, without the temperatures being so high (ie boiling) that the volatile hydrocarbons are immediately driven off. This allows a bit of time for the Hydrocarbon fraction to oxidise into more aromatic and more temperature stable compounds. Much of this is driven away by the boil, but a portion of it remains.

In cube hopping, a similar thing happens ... except there is no boil to follow.

I have cube hopped many beers - experiments done and BU analysis I have had done on cube hopped worts .. suggest to me that hops put into the actual cube loose will give you a bitterness equivalent to that you would have gotten if you had added the hops at 25-30mins in the boil and then chilled. If you put them in a hop bag (with plenty of room in it) in the cube... this cuts down the bitterness they contribute and it will be closer to equaling a 15-20 min addition.

I avoid all mid to late hopping additions in beers I am going to no-chill. (which is all of them these days) They are pointless. All they will do is mess up your bitterness calculations. I add my bittering hops with 60mins to go ... and any other hops go into the cube, or are added to the fermenter as dry hops or a hop tea.

Cube hops give a wonderful hop flavour and a less intense, but more lasting and somehow deep hop aroma. You will (in my experience) find it hard to get the very very intense aromas that you might associate with a hopback or even a 0min/whirlpool addition - you just don't get the fraction of aroma that is caused by the hydrocarbon portion of the hop oils. You will need to dry hop and/or make a hop tea to get that.

Do the calculations for bitterness right - - and you can make a beer with no hops in the kettle at all. All yur bitterness can come from your flavour and aroma hops, in the cube.

I have done this a couple of times and it works very well. Its a little hard to judge the bitterness .. but after a couple of brews you get the hang of it. In the fementer as I type, is an American wheat with Nelson Sauvin and Galaxy as the flavour/aroma hops ... I actually hadto use some standard kettle bittering on this beer... last time I made it with cube hops only and the hop flavour and aroma were too intense. I had to swap in 10IBUs worth of kettle hopping to make the stuff drinkable.

If nothing else -- No-Chill gives you mad American bastards yet another place you can add hops; and I am guessing you probably will.

TB

PS - I only use pellet hops. I have no damn idea what would/could happen with flowers or plugs

very interesting. thanks for posting.

Quadruple hopped!

Good Point!

DO NOT TRY THIS - unless you want to clean up a big mess.
The plastic fermenter buckets aren't as flexible as no-chill cubes, so as the wort cools the bucket will crack under the vaccum of your shrinking wort. Granted I've never tried it, but that's what the experts say. You're much better off ordering the cube than taking the chance.

I'd be more inclined to put an airlock in it - but stuff a cotton ball into the airlock, moisten it with vodka or something so it acts as a filter for air that comes into the bucket as the wort cools.

I've NC'd in a sealed bucket before... but mine didn't seal up all that well, so you may end up with teh afore mentioned mess if you dont have some way to let air in.

I ferment in corney kegs. Would a Keg work instead of a cube? I'm thinking of attaching a sanitary air filter the the gas out while it cools, then put my airlock on after pitching the next day.

I'm also guessing that 200+ degree wort from the boil kettle is going to sanitize the vessel it's being transferred into. What tubing can handle that kind of temp?

The Fool.

When I started AG I didn't have a wort chiller as I was used to partial boils and ice baths. After hours of trying to the ice bath with 6 gallons of wort in an aluminum pot I put it in my beer fridge overnight with the lid on and he thermometer plugging the hole in the top. Pitched yeast the next day, did this several times and made good beer. Im sure it wouldve been better otherwise though.