pellet or whole

[Benny1982]

Is there advantages to pellet or whole hops? What does everyone reccomend. And what do you use to contain your hops in your brew kettle? I just brewed my first A.G. this past weekend. Everything went pretty smooth. Just a few kinks I have to work out of my brew day.

Thanks,
Ben

 

[TopherM]

Pellet hops sure are alot easier to work with. I think the only real advantage whole hops have over pellet is if you use them in a hop bag, they will contribute less to trub/sediment than pellet hops will in the same situation, which also keeps them out of your ball valves, plate chiller, etc.

Whole hops certainly have a nastalgic "making everything from scratch" feel, but I think from my experience, overall pellet has many more advantages over whole hops!!!

 

[Brulosopher]

Pellet are more efficient as well. I'm a pellet guy, and I use a large grain bag to contain all my hops during the boil. I use smaller hop bags for dry hopping... which is a practice I rarely engage in anymore.

 

[Tinga]

i think there is a bigger variety of hops in the pellet form. they also stay fresh longer and don't take up as much space. I like pellet better. some people say whole hops have better aromatic characteristics but I just did a couple IIPAs and one was dry hopped with pellets and one with whole. pellet one has a better aroma.

 

[Pie_Man]

It's my understanding that whole hops also absorb more wort than pellets.

 

[944play]

I think, though I don't have proof, that a small portion of whole hops, maybe a half-ounce in my typical 6 gallons at the end of boil, helps to make a tidier, less goopy trub pile after whirlpooling.

 

[RuffRider]

I use pellet hops. I think they are easier to work with and store. I don't seem to worry as much about where I got my pellet hops from (such as how old are they, how were they stored, are they still good) as I do whole hops.

They do significantly contribute to sediment in the kettle and possibly fermentor. I use a hop spider with a paint strainer attached to it to contain most of the hop particles. Some would say I get less hop utilization by doing this but it works for me. It definately helps keep sediment levels at the bottom of my kettle down. I built one in an hour using a few materials from the local hardware store. Below is a link to a thread on how to build one if you choose to try it. It also has a discussion on pros/cons:
www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/how-build-hop-spider-filter-hops-your-wort-231971/

 

[jstraight]

Is there a standard conversion rate between pellets and leaf hops amounts? 1oz pellet = ? oz leaf

Thanks,
John Straight

 

[duboman]

Is there a standard conversion rate between pellets and leaf hops amounts? 1oz pellet = ? oz leaf

Thanks,
John Straight

No, an ounce is an ounce, a gram is a gram. There is variance in the AA value between the two sometimes which needs to be taken into account though and there is more consistency in AA of pellets than whole leaf.

 

[esvoytko]

Re: the conversion rate. I think it's standard to use about 10 percent less when using pellet hops (although I'm not sure if the difference is very noticeable). You can also check out this calculator, which will let you input your whole hop weight and then simply change the readout: http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe

As mentioned above, pellet hops tend to store better. They are certainly more compact, and supposedly the oils and resins in the center of each pellet are protected from degradation by the compacted outer layer.

 

[jstraight]

Thanks all, John