pellet vs whole hops

I'm looking to save some money by buying in bulk and was curious if there was any difference in using 1 oz of pellet hops vs 1 oz of whole hops or do I have to use a little more or less?

 

Generally speaking, you will get a greater contribution of alpha acids from pellet hops than an equal weight of whole hops. That being said, some people find whole hops to provide better aroma.

If you are using brewing software (even hopville and the such) just make sure to plug in the correct type and it will calculate estimates for you.

 

I think the biggest consideration for buying hops in bulk is the space required. I can comfortably have 4# of pellet hops into my freezer and still use it for things other than hops. I can't imagine how much space leaf hops would take up.

 

It's quite ridiculous. They take up a LOT of space

 

If you go to Avery's website and check out their beer tour video, they'll show you their room where they store hops, and due to space constraints, they use pellet hops. I figure if one of my two favorite breweries uses pellets, I can too.

 

My problem with whole hops is they always tend to make trouble for me in the kettle and in the fermenter. They clog up the tube and break my siphon when trying to transfer from the kettle and they are a pain to get though the tiny neck of a carboy when dry hoping.

This is why I love pellets.

 

So you can buy pellet hops in bulk?

 

yes. try hopsdirect, nikobrew, northernbrewer, rebelbrewer, freshops, austinhomebrewsupply, and many others on the web.

 

Whole leaf hops suck up a lot more wort/beer so there are adjustments that need to be made in your volumes. In addition, the AAU value of whole hops may vary due to the grower and the growing season so utilization may change as well. Just because the hops are the same variety the AAU may be different between whole and pellet.

 

How small are your freezers? My pellet hop 1# bags take up about 5X9" and are 1/2" thick. Leaf hops are vacuum packed and I would say take up the space of a youth sized football.

 

Thanks. When I browsed northernbrewers magazine and website I assumed they only sold leaf in bulk by the image. I guess that's what I get for assuming lol.

 

thanks for that link, amazing that i've never seen this vendor on here considering the amazing prices on pounds of hops.

 

so, I boiled pellets for the first time (partial boil, extract). While I normally strain the leaf hops out with a spaghetti strainer while pouring into the primary, the pellets clogged up the strainer.

What's the solution? Do I have to strain the pellet hops out of the kettle when dumping into the primary?

 

-Chill your kettle and stir it real well.
-Let it settle for a while (I normally stir real well and let it sit so it can continue cooling in the sink of water for another 15min or so). This is called whirlpooling.
-Siphon from your kettle to your fermenter and you leave behind a whole lot of junk.
-I then use a hand blender to aerate the wort.

 

I use a 5 gal. paint strainer bag that fits inside my fermenting buckets. Pour your wort into the bucket with the bag inside of it, pull out bag, squeeze out the wort and you're good to go.

 

I open the spigot on my kettle and strain through a sanitized paint straining bag to catch hops and random break materials. The bag fits nicely over my primary bucket and I can get a good dozen or so uses out of each bag. It also does a decent job of aerating my wort although I don't think I've ever brewed a truly heavy beer yet. Probably take last statement with a grain of salt.

 

All very true. But that is why you wrap your racking cane with the nylon mesh bag and funnel the leaf hops in your secondary before the beer is in there.

Pellets are easier to work with so you don't necessarily have to follow the same guidelines. Just toss em' in.

 

Oh that's way faster and easier than my method...I like it!:rockin:

 

Search for "hop spider."

 

When the strainer starts to slow down from clogging, stop, turn the strainer over and tap its rim in your sink. All the pellet hop debris will fall into your sink without contaminating the strainer. repeat untill the beer is transferred.

The hop spider is great also.

Pez.

 

Hop spiders dont' catch 100% of the pellet sludge, unless I'm using the wrong strainer bag, but I still strain it afterwards as described above.

Once you've done a batch with a pound of hops, mixed whole leaf and pellets, you realize exactly the issue this guy is having.

That said, if there's not copious amounts of hops like I just described, it's no big deal to let them get into the fermenter, but leaf hops create issues (that can be overcome of course) with siphoning, and pellet hops make yeast harvesting very difficult.

 

BTW, I'm addicted to big IPAs. My process is to double hop bag my pellets in the boil kettle (leaving lots of extra room in the hop bag for expansion), whirlpool while chilling, strain into the fermenter (I soak the strainer bag in starsan) and that pretty much takes care of things.

 

BTW, I'm addicted to big IPAs. My process is to double hop bag my pellets in the boil kettle (leaving lots of extra room in the hop bag for expansion), whirlpool while chilling, strain into the fermenter (I soak the strainer bag in starsan) and that pretty much takes care of things.

 

freshops.com is one place for cones.