I just received a bunch of whole hops (Chinook, Cascade, Centennial and Zeus) from a local grower. They were dried, vacuum sealed, and tested for alpha and beta %s. Seems pretty legit, so I’m giving them a whirl. I’m thinking of throwing 11 oz of them into a 5-gallon batch. My plan would be 1 oz Zeus for bittering at 60 min, and then 10 oz Cascade, Centennial and Chinook at flameout or hop stand.
I’ve brewed for 8-9 years, but almost exclusively with pellet hops. I’ve only used whole hops an ounce at a time till this point. I’ve read the typical articles comparing whole hops vs. pellets, but none of them are really talking about this large amount of whole hop material. Here are some questions I have:
1) How much wort will ~11 oz leaf whole hops absorb?
2) Pros and Cons of putting them in a hop bag to be able to pull them out of the fermenter? I don’t currently have a false bottom or valve in my boil kettle. I just pour the cooled wort through a strainer and funnel into the fermenter. I’m guessing it will take several cleanings of the strainer to get all my wort in the fermenter.
3) Do I grind them up a little to increase the exposed surface area for flavor? For bittering / isomerization?
4) Any differences in flavor and aroma extraction for whole hops with a hop stand (20 minutes @170F) vs pellets?
Basically, I suspect that with this quantity of whole hops there is something process-wise that’s going to be really different from my pellet hop experiences. Something that I haven’t considered yet, and it’ll trip me up. Thanks in advance.
I’ve brewed for 8-9 years, but almost exclusively with pellet hops. I’ve only used whole hops an ounce at a time till this point. I’ve read the typical articles comparing whole hops vs. pellets, but none of them are really talking about this large amount of whole hop material. Here are some questions I have:
1) How much wort will ~11 oz leaf whole hops absorb?
2) Pros and Cons of putting them in a hop bag to be able to pull them out of the fermenter? I don’t currently have a false bottom or valve in my boil kettle. I just pour the cooled wort through a strainer and funnel into the fermenter. I’m guessing it will take several cleanings of the strainer to get all my wort in the fermenter.
3) Do I grind them up a little to increase the exposed surface area for flavor? For bittering / isomerization?
4) Any differences in flavor and aroma extraction for whole hops with a hop stand (20 minutes @170F) vs pellets?
Basically, I suspect that with this quantity of whole hops there is something process-wise that’s going to be really different from my pellet hop experiences. Something that I haven’t considered yet, and it’ll trip me up. Thanks in advance.