conversion factors

Ok, so in the front of my little beer notebook, I've scribbled down all the little conversions I've encountered--eg, "for bottling, use x amount of DME per gallon, or y amount of corn sugar...", etc, etc, etc.

Anyway, I'm just about to dry-hop my latest IPA (3 gallon batch) and I discover that I've gone and used my leaf hops for something else and forgotten to replace them. Oops. So, I have plenty of pellets in the same variety, so I'm not concerned, but I don't know how much pellet to use in place of the 1 oz leaf hops I used last time I made this. I'm guessing that the pellets are a bit more concentrated, so I'm gonna go with 1/2 oz, but I'd love to have a guideline I can refer to the next time I find myself in this predicament.

I just have to remember that as long as I keep it sanitized all the way through, it'll be beer when I'm done. And that's a good thing.

The figure that is always quoted is a 10% difference - ie - pellet hops give a 10% higher utilization so use about 10% less if you are substituting pellets for leaf hops, or 10% more if substituting leaf for pellets.

However, I believe that figure is for hops used during the boil - I'm not sure how that applies to dry hopping since you're not getting any bitterness - though I would assume it'd be safe to use the same factor.

+1

The conversion factor for whole to pellets is 10%-15%. Although, with dry hopping, I really don't think you need to make a conversion.

Agreed. With dryhopping, using the same amount of pellets for leaf hops should be fine.

Well, I went with the 1/2 oz for my batch. Out of curiousity, I think I'll re-rack it in a few weeks and give it a taste, maybe hit it with some more hops.

Thanks for the input, though. It goes into the little beer book for future reference.

I've done as many as three dry hoppings. It's easy to do in kegs.

The recipes in "Radical Brewing" say to reduce hop quantities by 25% when using pellets, this is boil though not dry hop