Pellets or Whole Leaf?????????

I just bought three pounds of whole leaf from hopsdirect. I am done with the Cascade and diving into the goldings next. I have used pellet hops before and thought they were convenient, easy to load into the bag and less messy than the whole leaf....aside from needing a "fine" bag, they seemed easier than whole leaf. I dry hop in bags and use bags for all my hop additions since I use a plate chiller...seems to work really well for my application.

Is there a difference in the AA in a pellet form than whole leaf?

Is there a reason I should use whole leaf for anything?

What do you guys prefer?

Thanks
Joe

For the past year, I have used organic whole leaf hops, because I appreciate that they are less processed than pellets. But I have used pellets before and they work just fine.

Personally, I think whole hops are a PITA to strain out after boiling and cooling. I much prefer pellets.

Like I mentioned I bought bulk for the first time. I weighed out and vacuum packed all 50+ ounces and holy sh*t it sucked (no pun intended). I mught go for pellet next.

It's purely MO, but I love leaf...

They act as a filter when racking, unlike pellets which get sucked up when racking.

I look forward to using whole cone hops from my garden for dry hopping. I don't care for all the schwag left from pellets. For the boil, I am not sure why you would choose whole over pellet.

In the boil, if you just throw leaf hops in, when you drain, they perform a filtering action, keeping the right amount of trub out of the fermenter. Pellets tend to clog some screens.

For the carboy and dry hopping, if you put leaf hops in, it's very difficult to get them through the neck. Pellets work much better for that.

Both bitter, both give aroma. Depends on how you brew....

I love using both but for me it comes down to a flavor vs. convenience issue. Pellet are much easier to use - to store, to weight out, to dry hop with, etc. Cone/leaf are much more difficult to work with (more work to store, weight out, soaks up more wort, a PITA to get into the fermenter to dry hop, etc.) but the flavor profile is superior with leaf. So I use both. If I use pellets to dry hop I know that I will end up with 5+gal in my corny. The taste will be a bit more harsh but I understand that. If I brew 5 gals of say IIPA and dry hop with leaf I know that I will lose a portion of wort and that my net will be reduced. However, the beer that I end up with is smoother than the beer brewed with the pellets. In the end it is all good beer so it really is a matter of a bit of convenience versus a bit of taste. Montanaandy

I getcha....I have used pellets a few times in the boil. I bag everything (boil/dryhop).

I use a 40 plate chiller so I need to be careful how much cr*p goes into it before it goes into my sanke for fermenting. I was surprised how large the pellets became (in the bag) during the boil. They increased in size and weight 4 times easy!

For first-wort-hopping and flame-out additions I typ use pellet (only because they 'dissolve' quickly and the oils are more quickly in contact with the wort) and whole for everything else. But I don't have any real big issues with straining or storing so those two things are not really part of my decision. A bunch of pellet hops starts to clog the strainer but as long as I let the wort settle sufficiently, they stay in the kettle for the most part.

pellets get better utilization and also hold up better storage wise.

Whole leaf are better as far as flavor & freshness when new and becoming a filterbed for racking draining into the fermenter.
If you are buying bulk like poundage you are better off with pellets for keeping longer.

So in reality the only drawback to pellets is that they are not as fresh as whole leaf hops (in most cases)?

In my case, I don't think I'd ever notice in the boil what is what since I use bags. I do know that whole leaf release a h*ll of a lot LESS particles (fine bag) in my cornies when I dry hop.

Pellets for cooking
Whole leaf for dry hop

Thanks for all the help
Joe

ILOVEBEER said:

So in reality the only drawback to pellets is that they are not as fresh as whole leaf hops (in most cases)?

Joe

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Not true! In most cases pellets are fresher. Pellets are much more stable under the same storage conditions and will stay fresher for much longer. So whole hops from the same harvest and stored under the same conditions are not as fresh as the pellets.

But, the pellet making process creates heat as the hops are squashed into the pellet shape. This heat causes the hop pellets to loose some of the aroma compounds. Whole hops may have a slight aroma advantage, but only if they are fresh.

Another thing to consider when using whole hops is that the bag is not equal from top to bottom. Much of the oils fall off the flowers and make a sticky dust at the bottom of the bag. The bottom of the bag is much more potent then the top layers. If you have a big bag and just start at the top and work your way down. The first few batches will be under hopped and the last few will be over hopped.

ILOVEBEER said:

I just bought three pounds of whole leaf from hopsdirect. I am done with the Cascade and diving into the goldings next. I have used pellet hops before and thought they were convenient, easy to load into the bag and less messy than the whole leaf....aside from needing a "fine" bag, they seemed easier than whole leaf. I dry hop in bags and use bags for all my hop additions since I use a plate chiller...seems to work really well for my application.

Is there a difference in the AA in a pellet form than whole leaf?

Is there a reason I should use whole leaf for anything?

What do you guys prefer?

Thanks
Joe

Click to expand...

Pellets for the boil.

Whole flowers for the dry hoppings.

In both cases I use fine nylon bags; so that there is no mess to clean up.

Awesome...thank you

As mentioned, if you can get the flowers/leaf hops fresh, there is nothing better for flavor/aroma additions. But as said, they do not store well, and lose the flavor/aroma to degradation pretty fast. If you are not going to use them up quickly, the pellets store really well and are much better over all when buying in bulk

OLDBREW said:

As mentioned, if you can get the flowers/leaf hops fresh, there is nothing better for flavor/aroma additions. But as said, they do not store well, and lose the flavor/aroma to degradation pretty fast. If you are not going to use them up quickly, the pellets store really well and are much better over all when buying in bulk

Click to expand...

+1... pellets are the way to go

Cool............ thanks