Pellet or Whole Hops

If a recipe calls for 1oz of hops for 60 minutes and a kit comes with pellets and on the next go round you want to use whole hops? Do you still only use an ounce? Also when using whole hops is normal proceedure to use a mesh bag and pull the hops out after the boil? Rather than leaving in like when using pellets? If that's not the only way to use whole hops does the amount of hops used change depending weather you are leaving in or not?

Thanks,
Mike

 

I don't know what the exact calculations are, but if you are using leaf hops, you will need to use a little more than the same weight of pellet hops. I have used both and I just toss them in the brew kettle and don't worry about hop bags. It's easy enough to leave them behind when draining the boiler.

 

Pellet hops have better bittering qualities than whole hops do. So if you are bittering with whole hops you would want to use slightly more. I remember reading that its about 1.1oz for every oz of pellets. Maybe someone can chime in with somethign a bit more concrete, as I use a brewing software to calculate for me.

As far as hop bags, I just throw them in, no bag. Actually I have to bag my pellet hops to avoid clogging my boilermaker screen, but I never used to bag em.

 

I just threw my leaf hops in the boil loose and let them tumble around. The one time I tried a hopsack I didn't get as much utilization out of 'em. After cooling, I just poured the wort out into the fermenter through a strainer. I do partial boils, so I would pour my first gallon of top up water over the hops in the strainer to get all the worty-hoppy goodness out of them that I could.

 

So am I right in coming to the conclusion that pellet hops are better?

 

All other things being equal, you need about 10% more whole hops to achieve the same amount of bittering as with pellet hops.
However, if you start messing around with hop bags for whole hops, other things do not remain equal. The hop bags prevent the hops from being boiled as vigorously and reduce the utilization.
I agree completely with schristian619 for the same reasons. I have never bagged whole hops, but do pellet hops, and if the hop bag isn't big enough, hop utilization really drops off badly.

-a.

 

Certainly not.
Because I need to use a hop bag for pellet hops, I use the same weight for either, but I don't have to wash the hop bag if I use whole hops.
The loose whole hops also provide a wonderful filter when draining the kettle through the CFC.
Some say that whole hops also taste better.

-a.

 

They both have their advantages. I switched to pellet because I can get them cheaper than whole hops and some aspects of my brewing make them easier. They're a bit tougher when I'm transferring since they turn into goo and clog up my strainer.

 

when using pellet hops you should do a whirlpool to make avoiding them easier when transferring