hop pellets over leaf?

hello all,

for my first post (yes im a noob) i wanted to ask if one is better over the over for extract brewing? ive only brewed one batch from a kit and want to try putting something else together. i want to use citra leaf hops but i have no idea if it works the same (oz for oz) as pellets.

thanks logan

Welcome, and nice first question!!!

Others can chime in, but I would say do yourself a favor and get some paint strainer bags, then use the whole leaf hops. You can use pellets no problem if that's what you have. Typically I think you use 15% more for leaf in order to get the same than from pellets which give you better efficiency. It also kind of depends on your setup. Cons for both are that pellets will gunk up a screen, but end up losing less wort in the end. That's why I say if you want to use leaf hops, try the paint strainer bags. Best of both worlds. If you don't try to separate the gargantuan amount of hops you will be adding for an ipa, prepare to lose up to a gallon of wort out of a 5 gallon batch.

So for every oz of pellet hops, use 1.15 oz leaf. Cheers!

I prefer leaf, I think it has a cleaner flavor. But I've been having a tough time getting anything other than "C" hops in leaf form locally.

Also, there are some hops that are near impossible to find in leaf form, like New Zealand, Australia, and Japan hops.

I only recently used leaf with most of my experiences being with pellet. I do think that I have had better results with the leaf. I do also think that freshness is a factor and that they are especially well suited for dry hopping.

You can use the same amount of hops, pellet -vs- leaf. But the leaf hops will absorb a little more wort so you might consider bumping your volumes up slightly to offset that.

Given my experiences I have started looking for leaf in advance of my brew day since I think I'd like to use them more than I have.

Cool thanks for the input!