A Hop Question

[Brother Dun]

I have a quick question about hops. I read that 1/4 oz. of whole hops is equal to 3 oz. hop pellets. That seems like a whole lot of hop pellets to get the same effect. Can anyone tell me if that ratio is correct, because I don't want to use all those pellets and have a hop overload.

 

[kenb]

I have a quick question about hops. I read that 1/4 oz. of whole hops is equal to 3 oz. hop pellets. That seems like a whole lot of hop pellets to get the same effect. Can anyone tell me if that ratio is correct, because I don't want to use all those pellets and have a hop overload.

No that is not correct. Pellets are about 10% stronger is all...

 

[Brother Dun]

So if I have 5 ounces of 4.5% hops for a 5 gallon batch that would be enough, possibly too much? The recipe calls for 1 ounce for the boil and 1/2 for finishing.

 

[mrkristofo]

that would be way too much...like ken said, there's about 10% difference in utilization.

so for 1oz of pellets, use 1.1oz of whole hops. for 0.5oz for finishing use 0.55.

Or bump it up to 1.25oz and 0.5oz.

5oz will be way, way too much for that recipe.

 

[kenb]

So if I have 5 ounces of 4.5% hops for a 5 gallon batch that would be enough, possibly too much? The recipe calls for 1 ounce for the boil and 1/2 for finishing.

THen you would use 1 oz for the boil and 1/2 ounce for finishing and have 3.5 ounces left

 

[Brother Dun]

Thanks a lot guys, I would have been a little disappointed if I had used all those.

 

[RadicalEd]

Not as disappointed as when you first taste tested your hydrometer reading jk.

 

[ajf]

There is one other thing to consider. Whole hops degrade faster than pellets, and they will probably be about 1 year old by now. I ran a check in Promash on the effects of age on EKG hops (my favorite). According to Promash, EKG hops that started life at 4.5% will degrade to 3.83% after 12 months.
Factoring in the difference between pellets and whole hops, the recipe you stated would need 1.3 oz for bitterimg and 0.65 oz for finishing when taking age into account.

-a.

PS That seems to be a very low hopping rate to me (especially the bittering hops).
Perhaps if you post the whole recipe we could make a better judgement.

 

[Funkenjaeger]

I read that 1/4 oz. of whole hops is equal to 3 oz. hop pellets

Maybe by VOLUME, because whole hops take up a lot more space - a 1/4oz pile of whole hops might be about the same size as a 3oz pile of pellet hops. But of course, it's the weight that matters when deciding how much to use for brewing.

 

[Brother Dun]

The recipe I have uses perle hops, which I believe are around 9-10%. I'm using fuggles and goldings which are 4.5%. If that's the case then I should probably be doubling the amount of hops. I'm not totally sure how the equations work, but I think that should be about right. Also, the recipe is in whole hops, but I'm using pellets.

 

[Yooper]

Well, the IBUs also depend on the gravity. If you post the recipe, I (or someone else) can run it through some software and give you the correct amounts.

 

[Brother Dun]

The yield is 5 gallons. The recipe calls for 1.5 oz. of perle hops for boiling. The HBU is 13. Finished IBU is 43. The O.G. is between 1.055 and 1.061. The F.G is between 1.010 and 1.015. Let me know if you need any more info.

 

[Brother Dun]

Sorry, if forgot to say that I am using fuggles which have around half the HBU.