How to make Hop Plugs or Hop Pellets

Does anyone know how to make hop plugs or pellets. I would love to build some crazy device to make it happen, any ideas....?

Also, Is there a test to discover the the Alpha Acid content of the hops that I grow?

Thanks!

The main benefit of pellets is that they are shredded, allowing greater utilization. I would just shred them.

Tests for alpha acid are cost prohibitive, meaning that it would be cheaper to brew a test batch or just use them for aroma.

I don't have the address but the FDA can test hops. It's on the order of $45 per ounce.

I don't really see the point in shredding homegrown hops but knock yourself out. I think you'll lose more resins than achieve any gains on extract efficiencies. Pellets aren't just shreeded, they are also extruded through a press (think sausage grinder) which generates heat and help to improve their utilization. Sorry, I have forgotten the science behind it.

Grind them in a meat grinder then dry them out...???


As far as alpha acids, I didn't know if there is a cheap test strip for alpha acid content.

There is a lab in WA state that will test hops for AA. Can't find the info anymore, but like cheezy said, it's a bit spendy. Unless it's really an issue, I'd just use the center average for a strain for your IBU calculations as a starting point.

Id like to keep them whole, but for storage it seems that putting them in a plug form would be much more space efficient. I'm thinking of making a press out of some steel tubing and a long arm for compressing the hops. Kinda like a very powerful aluminum can crusher. Any ideas?

Why not just use a vacuum sealer?

Package each in small bags having 1 ounce each.

Hmmmm. With all the rage as late toward homegrown hops, stocks in vacuum sealers might be a good investment....

Takes some good equipment to make pellets, so I guess that's why they are shipped to England to be processed before being shipped back to us.

A topic on the greenboard discusses estimating the AA's of homegrown hops here.http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=88759

I would bet that vaccum sealing, or rolling a freezer bag tight with a small opening, and then closing it when it is at it's tightest would work just fine.

If you freeze them in a single layer, then they will stack on end nicely, like books on a shelf.

A vacuum sealer or plastic bag with a roller is probably the easiest option. Thanks for the link to the brew board. There is some interesting stuff in there.

Off to work I must go.....

Hi Ho!.....hi Ho!......

I just wanted to bump this thread up because I'd like to be able to make my own pellet hops. This summer was my first real harvest and it was incredible. The volume I got far exceeds my personal use, and I was ill prepared to harvest them. I'm hoping to be able to cure them in bulk next year and I'd like to process them so I don't need so much freezer space.

I think the thread dealt fairly well with the AA part of the question, but not the pellets. Any new information that anyone has would be appreciated.

I use a Food Saver to vacuum pack my hops wich helps cut down on the space required for storage but early on I made the mistake of just letting the machine do it's thing. The packs vacuum down into odd shapes that waste a lot of space. Now I press the bag flat as the vacuum is being drawn and the packages are a easy to store flat sheet less than half an inch thick.

One of the guys around me makes 1 oz plugs with a home made contraption I'll see if I can get more info

GlassblowersBrew said:

Does anyone know how to make hop plugs or pellets. I would love to build some crazy device to make it happen, any ideas....?

Also, Is there a test to discover the the Alpha Acid content of the hops that I grow?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

It's the same dilly as the thing that used to smash hardwood sawdust into wood pellets.

It's called, suprisingly enough, a pelletizer.

There was an article in a mag (BYO?) that had a home built plug maker out of a steel tube with removeable end caps, a wood dowel, and a hammer. Put the cap on one end of the pipe (kinda like the pipe booms) put lightly shredded hops in the open end, insert dowel, hammer the chit out of it, put in more hops, repeat. When the plug is big enough, unscrew the end cap and use the dowel to push the plug out.

What about making a tool to insert into a 20 ton press to make plugs? would there be any problem to really pressing the hell out of them?

I don't think there'd be a problem with using a 20 ton press. After all, when pellet hops are made it's using a lot of heat and pressure. If you can manage it go right ahead! Take pics and tell us how you made it.

There are "Pelitizers" out there for making wood pellets (for pellet stoves). They are on the pricey side.

Here are some links:
http://www.woodpelletline.com/pellet-presses.html

http://buy.ecplaza.net/search/1s1nf20sell/small_wood_pelletizer_machine.html

I assume you would need to vacuum or inert gas package the plugs to protect them from oxidation just like leaf & pellet hops.

Here is a link where a guy talks about how he makes his own plugs... scroll down to the last posting on the page...

http://www.brew-dudes.com/whole-hops-hop-plugs-and-pellets/165

There are cheap Chinese pelitizers that will run you a couple hundred bucks, simply attach a DC motor to them... They are used to make animal feed, I looked into them for making wood pellets for my 2 pellet stoves but require binding agents and more pressure for wood.. Hops would work perfectly for this application as they contain essential oils to bind the pellet.. They come out hot and have to be layed out on a screen to cool before packaging..

svengoat said:

There are cheap Chinese pelitizers that will run you a couple hundred bucks, simply attach a DC motor to them... They are used to make animal feed, I looked into them for making wood pellets for my 2 pellet stoves but require binding agents and more pressure for wood.. Hops would work perfectly for this application as they contain essential oils to bind the pellet.. They come out hot and have to be layed out on a screen to cool before packaging..

Click to expand...

STOP...Don't go there.

I'm assuming you are talking about the flat die pellet mills? We tried that and it didn't work. Two things:

1. The temperature of the pellet gets too high when pushed through the die. You destroy the essential oils and alpha acids
2. The sticky lupulin builds up between the roller and the wall. Even with an oversized motor, it will grind to a halt in no time.
3. flat dies are also pretty thick, so you can easily loose several pounds as waste. If someone wants one to pelletize their own personal stock, you would waste more hops that you would get out.

If you want to pelletize, you have to go to a ring die pellet mill and they run big bucks. With the ring die, you have a large enough motor to make the pellet but you can also add a source of cooling to keep the temperature down.

And this advice comes at the expense of personal experience.

i think a sausage stuffer might work

GVH_Dan said:

STOP...Don't go there.

I'm assuming you are talking about the flat die pellet mills? We tried that and it didn't work. Two things:

1. The temperature of the pellet gets too high when pushed through the die. You destroy the essential oils and alpha acids
2. The sticky lupulin builds up between the roller and the wall. Even with an oversized motor, it will grind to a halt in no time.
3. flat dies are also pretty thick, so you can easily loose several pounds as waste. If someone wants one to pelletize their own personal stock, you would waste more hops that you would get out.

If you want to pelletize, you have to go to a ring die pellet mill and they run big bucks. With the ring die, you have a large enough motor to make the pellet but you can also add a source of cooling to keep the temperature down.

And this advice comes at the expense of personal experience.

Click to expand...

Just wondering if you tossed the cones in whole, or if you ground them up first. For a small scale grower, like 100 to 200 plants do you think you could get by with one of these cheap machines? Maybe constantly cleaning it out as you went? Just looking for a cheap way out. No one seems to want whole hops, so it looks like I need to make some pellets.

Naked_Hops said:

Just wondering if you tossed the cones in whole, or if you ground them up first. For a small scale grower, like 100 to 200 plants do you think you could get by with one of these cheap machines? Maybe constantly cleaning it out as you went? Just looking for a cheap way out. No one seems to want whole hops, so it looks like I need to make some pellets.

Click to expand...

I use nothing but whole hops!

I meant larger brewers. Home brewers seem to love whole hops, but I'd really like to sell to some of the micro brewers in the area. They like the pellets because the dissolve and just leave a sludge. Otherwise the whole hops clog up their equipment. That's what I've heard from 2 or 3 brewers so far, and they all would like pellets. Maybe I can just keep looking until I find someone who wants whole hops.

Naked_Hops said:

I meant larger brewers. Home brewers seem to love whole hops, but I'd really like to sell to some of the micro brewers in the area. They like the pellets because the dissolve and just leave a sludge. Otherwise the whole hops clog up their equipment. That's what I've heard from 2 or 3 brewers so far, and they all would like pellets. Maybe I can just keep looking until I find someone who wants whole hops.

Click to expand...

I would say, in my case I am able to market whole hops on a commercial scale by selling solutions. Using a large hop bag would provide the brewer with a means of brewing with whole hops at any stage of their process... bittering, flavor, aroma, dry hopped, etc.

By selling solutions or a how to guide written for the brewer to use, you can provide ideas, interest - making your product wanted.

I am surprised to also see there is a collection of whole hop Nazis who think that the process [think heat] of pelletization destroys tons of essential oils/acids in the delicate hop lupulin glands.

I don't know if I subscribe to that belief (yet) but fresh (un-dried) hops provide flavors you just can't get with dried - let alone pelletized hops.

There must be something to heat destroying the lupulin. Hops Union uses liquid nitrogen to cool the machine that makes the pellets.

I like your idea of better marketing. I'll throw in a few free hops bags with the purchase of 10 pounds of whole leaf hops. How much could a case of those run me? Probably pennies if I buy enough.

This will be my second year growing, so I might be jumping the gun, but I want to be as prepared as I can be.

Any other advice would be great and thanks for the help.

Naked_Hops said:

Just wondering if you tossed the cones in whole, or if you ground them up first. For a small scale grower, like 100 to 200 plants do you think you could get by with one of these cheap machines? Maybe constantly cleaning it out as you went? Just looking for a cheap way out. No one seems to want whole hops, so it looks like I need to make some pellets.

Click to expand...

First step is to hammermill them into smaller pieces...basically grind them but in a softer process so there isn't as much damage to the lupulin. Then you take this mill dust and pelletize it.

On the smaller machine (flat die unit), we were able to run for about 15 minutes before we had to spend a 1/2 hour cleaning it out. So 100 to 200 pounds would take about 4 or more hours and twice that of cleaning...plus you would have a significant amount of product loss because most of the stuff that was cleaned out couldn't be used.

The basic idea of pelletizing is to reduce the volume for easier storage, less mess during the brewing process and reduce oxidation due to air contact with the hop.

In theory, you could just use the mill powder except it still takes up a lot of storage volume, leaves itself even more exposed to air for oxidation and there will have to be a lot of stirring to get it into the beer. It act like hot chocolate and floats in clumps on the surface.

Cooling the pellets is absolutely necessary. You loose alpha acids above 140F and you start loosing essential oils at around 100F. We keep our pelletizer below this during production.

GVH_Dan said:

First step is to hammermill them into smaller pieces...basically grind them but in a softer process so there isn't as much damage to the lupulin.

Click to expand...

Dan, how can we use gentle grinding to avoid damaging the glands while making hops into a powder form (in prep for pelletization).

So any advice for a small time guy like myself? Should I just change my marketing strategy? Work on finding an appropriate mill? Give up and grow corn?

fattymattybrewing said:

Dan, how can we use gentle grinding to avoid damaging the glands while making hops into a powder form (in prep for pelletization).

Click to expand...

OK, gentle grinding maybe isn't the right way to describe it. You use a hammermill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammermill as opposed to a blade grinder (i.e. coffee grinder)

The hops aren't beaten into a complete powder, rather the screen lets them out as soon as they reach the desired size instead of over-smacking them like an industrial coffee grinder would do.

Naked_Hops said:

So any advice for a small time guy like myself? Should I just change my marketing strategy? Work on finding an appropriate mill? Give up and grow corn?

Click to expand...

Well, either you need to find a market for whole hops...which isn't impossible...or you need to find a way to pelletize or at least make hop plugs.

In some areas, brewers have said they would be fine with whole hops. We'll see if that holds up. Homebrewers often will use whole hops, but that requires a lot of labor to package everything by the ounce.

Either way, you will have to dry the hops because when your production ramps up you will not be able to sell them all for wet hopped beers. So before you worry too much about pelletizing or not, make sure you can get them properly dried.

Don't switch to corn. You'll miss out on a lot of fun. Come June and July, I have my kids tie a string at the top of the bine every week. Its hilarious to watch them gasp when they see a foot of growth a week.

Ok, I won't pack it in just yet. I'll just stick to whole hops for now, and work on the pellets later I guess.

GVH_Dan said:

OK, gentle grinding maybe isn't the right way to describe it. You use a hammermill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammermill as opposed to a blade grinder (i.e. coffee grinder)

The hops aren't beaten into a complete powder, rather the screen lets them out as soon as they reach the desired size instead of over-smacking them like an industrial coffee grinder would do.

Click to expand...

Cool thanks for sharing. Its nice to get your personal experience perspective Dan!

GVH_Dan said:

OK, gentle grinding maybe isn't the right way to describe it. You use a hammermill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammermill as opposed to a blade grinder (i.e. coffee grinder)

The hops aren't beaten into a complete powder, rather the screen lets them out as soon as they reach the desired size instead of over-smacking them like an industrial coffee grinder would do.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your sharing your expreince with us.

I own and operate http://www.PelletComp.com

We primarily make alfalfa, corn, grass feedstock pellets as well as some other products.

I can tell you from many years of experience with a pellet mill that

1) If you think you are going to buy a cheap (under $10K) pellet mill, throw some material in and get pellets you are wrong.

Making pellets is an art... it requires proper temperatures, moisture levels, lignin content, and a very consistent and proper feed rate into the mill.

These cheap chinese made mills (some may say "American motor" but they still have a chinese MILL) are garbage. They jam, plug, wear parts wear wrong or uneven, bog down, the list goes on and on...

sure you can buy them all day long for about $2k... trust me they are garbage.

You must consider a consistent feed rate (simply hand feeding them is tiring and causes many moisture level flukes which result to plugging. The result is to buy or build a good variable speed hydraulic controlled conveyor belt with a hopper. Theres another $3k if you build it yourself 4-5k+ if you buy one.

On hammer mills... they make A LOT OF DUST. consider ventilating the shop space with filters or doing it outside only. Might as well call it a dust mill. However shredders are much less dust.

Im in Monroe, WA... bring me 40lbs of hops and we can figure it out at my mill.... at the price per pound for pelleted hops im tempted to give it a shot, but i dont know anything about brewing and I have a lot of responsibility to my livestock owners to provide high quality feeds.

theres much much much more to it than anyone on this thread has even considered... i do this professionally for a living.

Cheers to you beer guys!

Slight zombie thread but its popping up at the time of season when people start thinking about this.

PelletComp, you are right but there's a lot more to it than just that. We've learned much more since this post started 2 years ago.

Flat die pellet mills...Chinese built or otherwise...do not work. The oils and other sticky stuff in the hops jam them up very quickly. To keep them running, the feed rate must be slowed WAY down. So you are talking a very expensive ring die pellet mill.

Using a standard ring die doesn't work either. It took us a lot of experimenting to get the hole specifications just right.

You DO NOT want to compress these under high heat like wood or ag food. There is no lignin in hops. They hold together via their own sticky-ness. High heat destroys the alpha acids, boils off the oils and turns the pellets into waxy crayons. What do I mean by high heat? Anything over 100F.

So how do we achieve that? We use liquid nitrogen to keep the die around -40F. That gives us a pretty good pellet that shows no signs of degradation compared to the original cone. Anyone who is using "cold air" either in the die or cooling it immediately upon leaving the die is going to suffer. Unless you a forcing massive amounts of -50F air into the die, you won't have the same cooling capacity. Likewise, quickly cooling the pellet after compression does you no good. The damage is all ready done.

The other advantage of using nitrogen is we are able to provide a blanket of the gas over the hammer mill, conveyor, pelletizer, next conveyor, and then packaging. This means from the moment we break up the cone, it is protected from oxygen. Is this a bit anal retentive? Well, our chemist doesn't think so.

You are also right on the variable speed. We have VFD's on everything as we found the speed of even the pellet mill should vary by cone variety and size.

Its been one trying adventure trying to get this right....but interesting.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. As soon as we had this process all set up, the State of Wisconsin changed the rules and we were subject to USDA inspection and GMP criteria. So we had to move the whole operation to a facility that we could washdown, upgrade everything to stainless steel or food grade, set up inventory tracking and a thousand other things. We are close to obtaining a USDA grant so we can write some of this information up for the "small scale" hop processors and distribute it. So if you are thinking of selling your hops, check to see if your state requires a license or you could be in major trouble. I know WI and NY have added requirements recently as have other states that escape me.