Pellet vs Leaf

I've always went with leaf hops for the last 4 years, but after using some pellet hops given me by a fellow member who recently went to school, found the flavours imparted by the pellet to be superior to that of the leaf I had been using.
I buy from Hops Direct for the most part, and have always found their product to be of excellent quality. The hops I have been using were all stored in a freezer and were fully aromatic upon opening the packs. No cheesey smells or otherwise decectable off flavours.

I plan on ordering all pellet from now on.

Anyone else find this also or do you find leaf to be the cats meow?

Leaf is great for dry hopping, specifically if you plan to DH in a keg, otherwise, I think the utilization, and flavor of pellet hops are better. IMO the flavor of pellet hops can be more uniform, due to how they are processed. I only use leaf for DH, and FWH, to alleviate a ton of particualte in my beers.

Cheers!

I always go with unprocessed ingredients when possible with brewing, cooking, etc. I rarely use pellets, and only when the leaf version is not available. They clog up my system, and I don't notice any flavor/aroma benefits to using them.

I don't understand the "how they are processed" comment. As far as I know pellets suffer some degradation from the heat generated when pelletizing, of course I do believe they store better and therefore retain what they started with in a better way. Ultimately a crap shoot and hard to prove either side. Gunkless brewing wins out for me.

I mostly use pellets just because 12-14 lbs of pellets takes up a much smaller space than 12-14lbs of leaf and I have never found a weakness to pellets in my process.

I know adding leaf dryhops to a carboy is inconvenient.
And for some pellets clog there pump systems.

All hops are "processed" except for the one month a year when you can get "wet hops."

Beezer94 said:

I mostly use pellets just because 12-14 lbs of pellets takes up a much smaller space than 12-14lbs of leaf and I have never found a weakness to pellets in my process.
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Yeah, I was also looking at the compactness of pellet vs the room whole hops take up in my freezer.

I personally believe that leaf imparts a smoother taste than pellet but that using leaf is much more work than using pellet. I normally will use mainly leaf and a small amount of pellet in the boil/BK and dry hop with pellet because I find it too difficult to wash the yeast with leaf present. However, cleaning up several ounces of leaf material at the end of the brewing day this past Fri. had me re-thinking things. It is a lot easier to pull up a false bottom with a nice thick layer of pellet trub and to deposit it into a garbage bag then it is to attempt to pull the FB up when it is full of leaf which ends up spilling all over the place much of the time. Using pellet on a hoppy beer can be a problem though if the pellet trub forms too thick of a cake on top of the FB. Montanaandy

It's truly a "to each his own" thing.

I haven't noticed any difference in flavor/bitterness at all, but prefer leaf over pellets: I hate the sludge and can rack around the leaf.

My opinion only, everyone has there own.

r2eng said:

It's truly a "to each his own" thing.

I haven't noticed any difference in flavor/bitterness at all, but prefer leaf over pellets: I hate the sludge and can rack around the leaf.

My opinion only, everyone has there own.

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Quite true.

I used leaf for the traditional aspect of brewing. Now my mind is toward using pellet.

I used pellet for ....... ever, and only occasionally used leaf when pellet was not available. generally found pellet to be cheaper too.

I just ordered 5 lbs of leaf (+ 3 lbs pellet) because the hops were either only available as leaf, or were cheaper as leaf (different from my previous experience). I'm either going to fall in love with leaf, or never going to buy them again!

I've used both. Personally I like the leaf better only because of the sludge residue from the pellets being a pain. The leaf hops form a nice natural filter when straining the wort.

That being said, I don't mind using pellets if need be.

I tend to use pellets for bittering. I figure the alpha acids don't degrade as much with pellets so my IBUs should be more accurate. Less drop off of that number.

For other additions, I mix and match depending on what I can get when ordering time comes. I don't notice any flavor difference but I haven't done a real comparison.

What is everyone's opinion on the use of plugs? I just got three of these guys this past weekend. For those who aren't familiar, they're like gigantic pellets, each approximately 1oz in size.

msarro said:

What is everyone's opinion on the use of plugs? I just got three of these guys this past weekend. For those who aren't familiar, they're like gigantic pellets, each approximately 1oz in size.

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Butt or Hop? :cross:

Ace_Club said:

Butt or Hop? :cross:

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Hop, silly!

The other one makes your beer taste funky

msarro said:

What is everyone's opinion on the use of plugs? I just got three of these guys this past weekend. For those who aren't familiar, they're like gigantic pellets, each approximately 1oz in size.

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I've used 'em with great results. And they're not really like pellets. They're more like really heavily compressed whole hops. They're not all ground up like pellet hops. If you open one up and start pulling it apart, it's whole hops that are just heavily compressed.

If I could get them I'd use them more. I think they probably store better than whole hops. The ones I've used are exactly .5 oz each from what I recall. The packages I used had 2 plugs, .5 oz each. Easy to add without measuring if you use .5 oz divisible quantities.

MattHollingsworth said:

I've used 'em with great results. And they're not really like pellets. They're more like really heavily compressed whole hops. They're not all ground up like whole hops. If you open one up and start pulling it apart, it's whole hops that are just heavily compressed.

If I could get them I'd use them more. I think they probably store better than whole hops. The ones I've used are exactly .5 oz each from what I recall. The packages I used had 2 plugs, .5 oz each. Easy to add without measuring if you use .5 oz divisible quantities.

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Interesting. Does anybody know if any of the big online retailers offer plugs?

I like pellets because whenever I use whole hops they seem to soak up too much of my beer. I want to drink my beer damnit, not give it to the hops!!

msarro said:

What is everyone's opinion on the use of plugs?

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I like plugs, just wish there was more places to buy them. I think they are a good compromise between the pluses and minuses of both whole hops and pellets.

They basically hydrate out to whole hops as afar as as I can tell, and I like the big leaf for filtering. Plus a bit more protection of the Alphas as they are somewhat compressed.

I have a personal issue between myself and pellets. We don't like each other and avoid each other at all times. But again, it's a personal thing.

Just brewed a CDA today. 4 hop additions in the boil, and one to come as dry hopping. Have Pellets on hand. My plan is to dry hop with pellets when the time comes, then probably rack off again to another carboy, let it sit for two weeks or so to clarify, then keg. Don't know how else to dry hop in a carboy, and still end up with a clear beer. Even though it's gonna be black, I want it clear - no suspended hop bits, when drawn from the tap.

AleJoe said:

I like pellets because whenever I use whole hops they seem to soak up too much of my beer. I want to drink my beer damnit, not give it to the hops!!

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THIS!!! Can't believe it took 17 posts for it to be mentioned. With an IPA you lose a gallon (of a 5g batch) or more to hop absorption using all whole hops!!! That's 20%!!

I've been sticking to pellets for consistency of product. I bought a couple batches of cheesey smelling whole hops. Boo. I get great flavor, aroma, and utilization out of pellets. Plus they don't soak up as much beer.