Lucky Dog Brewing

Recipes 

Ok so I see most people use whole hops, which I want to use in the future but I have some pellets still from when I did extract. I am gearing up to do my first all grain batch and was going to use those pellets. Now couple questions:

I assume using whole hops is easier to strain out and leave in the boil kettle when you drail to the fermenter right?
But is it cool to use the pellets and how would I strain those out and leave them behind? I plannned on using a homemade bazooka tube. Tell me what you think. any other suggestions and comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

BMW-LBD

Yooper

Recipes 

I use pellets often. I just use a strainer/colander when I pour my cooled wort into primary. Those hops pellets just turn into green sludge and you can strain them out. I've dryhopped with pellets, too, and it was fine. They just kind of disintegrate.

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Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

terrapinbrewer

Recipes 

musilin bag!

i always put my hops in a musilin bag, its kinda like a tea bag but a bit larger wholes, makes workin with pellet hops a breeze, just dump the hops in the bag, through the bag in the brew pot (with part of the bag hanging out so you can handle it) and bam! pain free pellet hop usage!

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nothin shakin on shakedown street...

terrapinbrewer

Recipes 

also, ive run into problems using pellet hops for dry hopping, as they can tend to clog up the hose when emptying the fermenter

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nothin shakin on shakedown street...

mrk305

Recipes 

I leave them in. I pour my whole bucket into the fermentor, hops and all. I may get almost an inch of trub, but who doesn't? I usually secondary and I don't put my racking cane all the way to the bottom.

imasickboy

Recipes 

I can't speak for everyone, but I would guess that most are using whole hops right now because they were easily available in bulk, at reasonable prices, from hopsdirect and freshops. Pellets seem to be nearly impossible to find, while meeting those two conditions. I've always used pellets, until now. When prices and availability stabilize in the future, many may go back to using pellets, I would think.

Jo3sh

Recipes 

The hops shortage has made me reconsider my whole-hops-only snobbery when all I can find for a given style is pellets. I prefer whole when I can get them because the Bazooka tube in my boiler keeps them out of the fermenter, but I had seen pellet goo clog it up. I resolved the issue by using pellets in a nylon-mesh lingerie bag my wife picked up for me at the fabric store.

The whole thing is nylon, including the zipper pull, so there's no risk of metallic off-flavors in the beer, and it does a fine job of containing the particles without hindering the flow of wort through the mass.

Alternatively, you could use a nylon knee-high stocking - a brewing buddy of mine buys them at Wal-Mart, three pair for a dollar, and just puts the pellet in and ties them shut. Cheap enough to be disposable and small enough to fit in a Corny for dry-hopping, too.

SuperiorBrew

Recipes 

My hops always wear a bag I use what ever i can get my hands on, I have not been able to tell a difference between the pellets, plugs & whole. I do like the pellets for their added storage longevity and compactness in my freezer.

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Rich

TheDom

Recipes 

+1 on the bag. There's nothing at all wrong with using pellet hops. The first time I used a bag with pellet hops I was amazed at how clear the beer was going into the primary.