Dry hopping? pellets vs leaf vs plugs

Not so much the advantages/disadvantages of using one verus the other, such as leafs might absorb more beer or make bottling/kegging harder...

but do you notice a big difference in the final product when using pellets vs leaf vs plugs for dry hopping?

Ive dryhopped using plugs once(which isnt enough to draw a conclusion) but i got awesome results compared to pellets

Opinions vary on this subject. Here is mine...

I believe that whole leaf hops (no bag...just toss' em in so they have as much contact as possible) are better for dry hopping than pellet. I find a slightly more vegetal aroma comes from pellets myself. They contain the stems/leaves/plant detris, along with the desirable cones. Heat and extreme compression cause deterioration of the lupulin glands which are the essential part of the hop.

No experience on plugs, but I would say they are better than pellets, but not as good as whole.

That said, it comes down to personal preference.

You should split your brew in half and dry hop one with pellets, the other with whole (same variety, of course). That way you can judge for yourself.

Kippis!

+1
I strictly use whole leaf hops for dry hopping, for the same reason mentioned above. But try both and see what you like, a lot of people prefer pellets, I'm just not one of them.

Every time I dry hop with full leaf I find myself irritated for doing so as they soak up so much beer. If you're dry hopping with a couple ounces it is noticeable, to me at least.

That being said I use both pellets and full leaf.

I've dry hopped with pellets once and once with whole. The whole hops had so much more aroma and flavor. I can't say that both batches were otherwise equal, but I was much more impressed with whole than pellets.

The loss of beer was a bit disappointing, but if the final product tastes so much better, then it's worth it IMO. Just should have brewed more than a half-batch!

Personal preference is whole cones, my experience with dry hopping pellets was remarkably similar to musick's comments.

I have had good luck with both, but I actually prefer to use pellets in stainless steel tea balls. I can't stand to lose all that beer, and if you use fresh pellets, you get great results...

Homercidal said:

I've dry hopped with pellets once and once with whole. The whole hops had so much more aroma and flavor. I can't say that both batches were otherwise equal, but I was much more impressed with whole than pellets.

The loss of beer was a bit disappointing, but if the final product tastes so much better, then it's worth it IMO. Just should have brewed more than a half-batch!

Click to expand...

sorry to steal the thread....

but ..

how much loss should I account for?

I will be dry hopping next week with 1oz whole leaf

12 oz of beer per ounce of whole leaf. That's what Denny Conn told me once.

^How much loss is there with plugs?

I did a head to head dry hop vs pellets (50/50 mix of Simcoe and Amarillo) at what would calculate to ~3 oz if it was a 5 gallon batch. It was a 1.066 OG/1.009 FG, 179 IBU IPA. IMO, leaf hops gave much more flavor, and other people who tried it said the same. Here is the thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/1-gallon-ipa-experiment-dry-hopping-whole-leaf-vs-pellets-387678/