Brewing with Loose Leaf Hops - need advice

[milo_leon]

Hello all,

I got a couple 2014 hops from a friend that was vacuum sealed and frozen.

I currently have:

7 oz Cascade
3 oz Nugget
3 oz Mt Hood

I read that 2-3 oz loose leaf hops equals 1 oz of pellet hops - is this true?


I am thinking about brewing an IPA like this

85% 2-row malt
5% flaked wheat
5% crystal 40
2.5% carapils
2.5% sugar

I am thinking of using my nugget for bittering but not sure how much to use? I am also wondering if it would be easier to buy 1 oz of magnum pellets instead to bitter with?

As for my hop schedule:
60m: bittering hops (use all the nugget? or magnum?)
15m: 2 oz cascade
5m: 2 oz mt hood
0m: 2 oz cascade

dry hop: 3 oz cascade, 1 oz mt hood


any feedback on my receipe? this will be a 5 gal batch, aiming for a OG of 1.060-ish, may mash 152-154 for a medium body. have a couple packets of US-05 yeast on hand.

 

[maddcow]

I dont think the conversion ratio from pellets to loose leaf is 1:2. But ther is less utilization. Maybe like 10% or so. If you have brewing software it should convert it to you.

I like magnum better for bittering but i would honestly use the nugget since you have it. I also would get rid of the sugar in your recipe. Not really needed imo.

 

[milo_leon]

Okay I put in the numbers in BeerSmith and this is what I have:

10# 2-row
1# cara40
1# flaked wheat
0.5# carapils

Hop Schedule:
60m: 1.5oz nugget
15m: 2 oz cascade
5m: 2 oz mt. hood
0m: 2 oz cascade
dryhop: 1.5 oz nugget, 3 oz cascade, 1 oz mt. hood for 5 days


IBU should be 84.1, OG should be 1.064 and FG should be 1.017

should i boost nugget to 2 oz for bittering or leave it at 1.5?

 

[Yooper]

Where the hops dried before freezing? If not, it's more like a 6:1 ratio but then they'd be a sopping vegetal mess to use.

If they were dried before freezing, 1:1 is fine. They are hard to use for bittering, though, since you have no idea of the AAUs of them. So for late additions, homegrown (dried) hops are fine to use.

 

[milo_leon]

Where the hops dried before freezing? If not, it's more like a 6:1 ratio but then they'd be a sopping vegetal mess to use.

If they were dried before freezing, 1:1 is fine. They are hard to use for bittering, though, since you have no idea of the AAUs of them. So for late additions, homegrown (dried) hops are fine to use.

I believe they were dried but I'm not sure, the whole brick of hops feels quite solid. A friend of a friend gave me the hops last month and I'm set to brew an IPA so thought I'd use the loose leaf in the recipe.

 

[m00ps]

im pretty sure they are dried. They wouldnt try storing wet hops because theyd mold and stuff right?

The 3:1 ratio you are thinking about is probably referring to wet leaf hops which have just been picked. Their weight is mostly moisture

 

[curtw]

They're certainly dried, else they'd be full of mold.

I brew almost exclusively with (dried) whole cones these days, and I just use the weight of hops from the recipe. Don't be surprised at the massive VOLUME you'll get from an ounce of whole hops vs pellets!

I don't use hop bags since the whole cones are so massive; I just dump 'em in. But that meant I had to go with a screen or false bottom in my kettle to keep the cones from clogging my output valve.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to add: You may want to bump the amount only because the hops are > 1 year old, not because they aren't pelletized.

 

[Canuck137]

They are good for dry hopping, I have not tried them in a boil... but I can say 1-2 ounces in a hop bag (hop sock, mesh bag, whatever you want to call it) for dry hopping in an IPA is great.