I've used both in 2 sizes of muslin bags most of the time. But the last few brews,I dumped the pellets in loose. And I mean IPA's with some 8ozs of hops in them. Loosely added to the boil,I think the hop flavors have more of an "edge"...a bit more depth. Just a little fuller flavor to them. But with whole leaf hops,a large muslin bag would be easier. Otherwise,the pellet hop leftovers get strained out with my dual layer fine mesh strainer on top of the open fermenter. When it's all poured in,I use my sanitized Cooper's spoon to fold the gunk over & over to drain it down to a thick mass. then dump it.