Anyone know if NakedHops did switch to corn? Given the utter failure of the crop out here in the drought struck midwest, it may have been a good move. Not as much fun, but a good fiscal idea.
How to make Hop Plugs or Hop Pellets
- Thread starter GlassblowersBrew
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PariahVineyard
Well-Known Member
All the information you provide is great. But it just gives me more things to worry about as we are trying to get into growing hops. :cross:
Hopefully PA doesn't have these requirements. Just one more thing to look up.
Actually even older than this thread is a DIY thread where someone made a simple pelletizer IIRC using a bullet casing and a dowel.
What I've found is that the states pretty much stay out of it until something starts happening and they see a new potential revenue stream. "Whoa, look at that. This industry is starting to pick up...we better send out inspectors and tax collectors." Just check with your department of commerce and/or department of agriculture.
PelletComp
New Member
@GVH Dan
Im not implying by any means that were going to start pelleting hops. We are a livestock feed company with a responsibility of reliability to our existing customers not to get stretched too thin on other crazy products. We do what we do and just do that well.
I might just want a personal challenge of conquering a new process. We have successfully pelleted difficult materials in the past with great results- which i personally get satisfaction out of even if we will never mass produce it
When those nice shiny glossy pellets start poppin out I still do a little mental fist pump in my mind lol.
When I read that the temp could not be over 100degrees I lost interest. We've successfully made other pelleted products using liquid N to cool our dies (even a flat die can be cooled with N) The process youre explaining to me is similar to other materials found in a specific pelleted fish food were familiar with. Thank you for letting me know hops are similar in nature.
Theres many many trade secrets in pelleting as anyone that does this for a living knows its an art.
My intent on my post was to let people know its not as easy as it sounds and that they would likely be very upset forking out a few $K for a cheap mill only to realize what they are trying to do is much much more involving.
Although i cant get into all the info on how to make a pellet i urge anyone considering the purchase of a mill to understand theres much more to it than anything youll see on youtube. Theres usually work involved in prepping the material for pelleting..
When they show "this machine pellets 1000lbs/hr" they are pelleting usually a very easy specific recipe thats already been reduced to size and has a forgiving moisture content. You get that same machine home and decide to throw some wood or grass in it (or hops) you have no idea what youre in for.
When i heard some of these posts about mills and the process i had to chime in ... hopefully save some poor guy some money if he got a wild hair to buy a mill - its not as easy as it looks.
Im not implying by any means that were going to start pelleting hops. We are a livestock feed company with a responsibility of reliability to our existing customers not to get stretched too thin on other crazy products. We do what we do and just do that well.
I might just want a personal challenge of conquering a new process. We have successfully pelleted difficult materials in the past with great results- which i personally get satisfaction out of even if we will never mass produce it
When those nice shiny glossy pellets start poppin out I still do a little mental fist pump in my mind lol.
When I read that the temp could not be over 100degrees I lost interest. We've successfully made other pelleted products using liquid N to cool our dies (even a flat die can be cooled with N) The process youre explaining to me is similar to other materials found in a specific pelleted fish food were familiar with. Thank you for letting me know hops are similar in nature.
Theres many many trade secrets in pelleting as anyone that does this for a living knows its an art.
My intent on my post was to let people know its not as easy as it sounds and that they would likely be very upset forking out a few $K for a cheap mill only to realize what they are trying to do is much much more involving.
Although i cant get into all the info on how to make a pellet i urge anyone considering the purchase of a mill to understand theres much more to it than anything youll see on youtube. Theres usually work involved in prepping the material for pelleting..
When they show "this machine pellets 1000lbs/hr" they are pelleting usually a very easy specific recipe thats already been reduced to size and has a forgiving moisture content. You get that same machine home and decide to throw some wood or grass in it (or hops) you have no idea what youre in for.
When i heard some of these posts about mills and the process i had to chime in ... hopefully save some poor guy some money if he got a wild hair to buy a mill - its not as easy as it looks.
Amen to the "ART" part.
Don't get me wrong, I would love to hear anyone else's success stories. Heck, failure stories are great, too. They teach you what not to do.
Amen to the lb/hr also. Even with all the improvements we have made, our 1,000 lb/hr machine typically runs at 1/4 of that to get the quality we want. I know another guy who had a flat die that he got to work...but he only got out 5 to 10 lb/hr and had to do it out on his porch, at night, when it was less than 10F outside. Image doing just a single acre (1000 to 2000 lb) that way.
What size casing? I've got a bunch of 44's. Mount a bunch of them on a board so you can sweep the mill powder in and it could become fairly efficient.
How did he get them out once they were compressed?
The HopMonster(?) Mill I saw at HopUnion, I was told how delicate of a line in the pelletizing temperature was. .01 degree difference either way from the optimal temperature would be either a fire hazard, a hazard to the machinery, or a hazard to the hop, said the mill manager. I was able to grab some Cluster hops fresh out of the pelletizer, they were nearly too hot to touch, far over 95F, it felt like to me, and after, we visited the farms, and the kilns, where we were told the essential oils begin to degrade over 100F. The large places that test/process hops, deal with STRICTLY baled hops, but I am not 100% sure if they are shredded beforehand, or not.
Interesting...I'm not sure that we saw a .01 degree range but it wasn't huge.
The 100F mark is partially based on preserving oils, aromas, etc....our entire drying process stays below 90F...but we also saw the pellets turn into glossy little crayons much above that. These "crayons" just wouldn't break down fast enough for the brewers. Likewise, we could get them too cold where the pellets didn't hang together but that is more often due to excess moisture in the cones before they are pelletized.
The 100F mark is partially based on preserving oils, aromas, etc....our entire drying process stays below 90F...but we also saw the pellets turn into glossy little crayons much above that. These "crayons" just wouldn't break down fast enough for the brewers. Likewise, we could get them too cold where the pellets didn't hang together but that is more often due to excess moisture in the cones before they are pelletized.
On the homebrewer scale...I can't say any progress has been made.
On the small scale grower scale...there are a number of companies/organizations that are currently marketing flat die systems that are turnkey ready to produce pellets. Some love them and some don't. Personally, we just sold our ring die mill to get a bigger one. We had the old one in the hundreds of pounds/hr but we wanted to break the thousand/hour barrier.
The big issue is availability. Last I heard there was 8 or more pelletizing facilities in NY, where they only need 3 or so. MI and CO may not have enough. MN and Nebraska are bringing their first ones on line last fall or this fall. Slowly but surely, the pelletizing barrier is being taken care of in each region for the small scale growers.
On the small scale grower scale...there are a number of companies/organizations that are currently marketing flat die systems that are turnkey ready to produce pellets. Some love them and some don't. Personally, we just sold our ring die mill to get a bigger one. We had the old one in the hundreds of pounds/hr but we wanted to break the thousand/hour barrier.
The big issue is availability. Last I heard there was 8 or more pelletizing facilities in NY, where they only need 3 or so. MI and CO may not have enough. MN and Nebraska are bringing their first ones on line last fall or this fall. Slowly but surely, the pelletizing barrier is being taken care of in each region for the small scale growers.
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