Whole Hops Brewing

I did some quick google searches and didn't turn up anything, so I thought I would ask here.

We have started growing our own hops this year and I was hoping to use them in a brew this fall. I thought it would be fun to use only hops we had grown, assuming we collect enough to make that plausible. Now I would imagine there are at least some differences between brewing with pellet hops and whole hops and was hoping for some pointers. Anything I should know about going in?

I prefer whole hop brewing over pellets.

- I would not use a hop spider since the cones expand a lot
- I would have a screen on your pickup tube/racking can/<insert however you get your wort into carboys> so your tubing doesn't get clogged
- Whole hops absorb a lot of wort, so you'll lose some of your final volume of wort when you transfer to carboys
- Use hops you grow for flavor and aroma additions, since you have no idea what the alpha content of the hops is

Whole hops are great for dry-hopping in a keg, pellets are not.
You want to use 5 gal nylon paint strainer bags from Home Depot for whole hops, both for brewing and/or dry-hopping.