hop pellets, best quality, selection, price and packaging?

Hey guys.

I may be visiting the States in the fall sometime and aim to order a buncha pellets to bring back with me. Northern Brewer and Austin Homebrew both have pretty good selection. Austin Homebrew also has Sorachi Ace, which I wanna get, and Northern Brewer doesn't.

But does anybody know how these places pack their hops? Are they in nitrogen flushed light barrier bags or what? I could spend a lot of time e-mailing a buncha places and asking, but I figured a lot of you folks have ordered from a ton of places. So whaddaya say, who do you think has the best quality, selection, packaging and price for pellets?

I'm thinking of getting the following: Ahtanum, Amarillo, Chinook, Citra, Crystal, Mt Hood, Northern Brewer, Palisade, Simcoe, Sorachi Ace and Willamette. But I suppose I may narrow that down. And I am NOT looking to buy a pound of any of these, so I don't want to use Puterbaugh Farms/Hops Direct. I don't want to buy from any place that doesn't use good packaging along the lines of nitrogen flushed, light/oxygen barrier bags.

Any ideas or help is appreciated.

Hey Matt,

We (MoreBeer.com) have most of those hops, and are working on a couple of the others. As far as I know, we are the only ones who pack their hops in light barrier/oxygen barrier mylar bags, flushed with nitrogen. But I could be way off on that one.

I've had good luck with RebelBrewer as well. For pellets, they use light/oxygen proof bags and vacuum seal them. Couldn't tell you if they're nitrogen flushed or not. I think the only exceptions are some of the obscuro foreign hops that they stock. My last order I bought 4oz of Phoenix hops, and they each came in 1oz packages I could tell they didn't seal themselves. Either way, I've had good luck with storage, even if they sit out of the freezer for a week or two.

Every place I've ordered from comes in those mylar bags. They are vacuum packed, but I don't know about the nitrogen flush.

If you want quantity, you could buy a pound from a place like hopsdirect or freshops. I've also ordered from Nikkobrew. They come in a mylar bag (dont' know about the nitrogen flush in that case either, sorry!) and they are vacuum sealed. You could take them home that way, and repack at home, if you wanted to buy a variety by the pound.

I like to have lots of different hops varieties, and I've ordered by the ounce from morebeer, northern brewer, AHS, and brewmaster's warehouse with good results. If you don't open them, they seem to last a LONG time.

Jipper said:

Hey Matt,

We (MoreBeer.com) have most of those hops, and are working on a couple of the others. As far as I know, we are the only ones who pack their hops in light barrier/oxygen barrier mylar bags, flushed with nitrogen. But I could be way off on that one.

Click to expand...

I looked and you guys are missing Ahtanum, Citra, Crystal and Sorachi Ace in pellet form. But thanks for the info.

Thanks for all the info, everyone. Looks to me like Austin Homebrew, Brewmaster's Warehouse and Rebel Brewer all have all of these hops. Rebel Brewer has variable prices per hop, Brewmaster's Warehouse has 'em for $2.15/oz and Austin Homebrew has 'em for $1.99/oz.

Where can we buy the mylar bags at to split up and vacuum seal our own hops?

Hey Matt...You may want to try http://farmhousebrewingsupply.com . I just checked and they have every hop that you mentioned in your original email and they also sell in 4oz. increments. I just ordered a bunch of hops from them and they did come in the mylar bags, however, they were not vacuum sealed (my only complaint). Oh, and most of them are under $1 an ounce!

pava said:

Hey Matt...You may want to try http://farmhousebrewingsupply.com . I just checked and they have every hop that you mentioned in your original email and they also sell in 4oz. increments. I just ordered a bunch of hops from them and they did come in the mylar bags, however, they were not vacuum sealed (my only complaint). Oh, and most of them are under $1 an ounce!

Click to expand...

Thanks but the original post is from 5 months ago. I already went to the States and am back in Croatia. Not ordering anything from the States at the moment. But thanks anyway.

pava said:

Hey Matt...You may want to try http://farmhousebrewingsupply.com . I just checked and they have every hop that you mentioned in your original email and they also sell in 4oz. increments. I just ordered a bunch of hops from them and they did come in the mylar bags, however, they were not vacuum sealed (my only complaint). Oh, and most of them are under $1 an ounce!

Click to expand...

weird - i just ordered 3 varieties at 4oz each and they were all in mylar and vac sealed