Pellets vs whole leaf

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francoeura22

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Hi , little question here, if im using whole leaf hops instead of pellets, should i ajust the quantity ? I mean if i used to take 25 and 50 g of cascade in pellets should i use more if i take whole leaf ?? Thank you
 
There is a small difference. There will certainly be more of the leaf hops, but should serve nearly the same purpose. If you are dryhopping, I would recommend getting them in some bag and trying to sink to the bottom, you'll get better use out of them that way. The more ounceage the higher the impact from pellet to leaf though
 
I thought pellet was generally twice as "pottent" as plug or whole leaf? At least when I used the IBU calculator using 2oz of leaf shows an IBU roughly the same as 1oz of pellet.

I don't know about plug, but with pellets a lot of the moisture is removed from them in the process of making them compared to whole leaf.

So 1oz of pellets is actually more hop material than 1oz of leaf. It would be the difference between 1 ton of fired cured brick versus 1 ton of cut clay.
 
Where are you using them? Pellet hops get a little extra utilization in the boil because they have been pulverized. If you got to a recipe calculator and type in the difference but I believe pellet hops tend to contribute about 10% more in IBUs than whole leaf hops. As far as dry hopping I wouldn't worry about adjusting it for that...
 
I'm going to say at most +/- 5 IBUs may depend on the hop type, but I don't believe it's that big of difference. You are correct however that they are slightly more concentrated with the moisture removed.

Calculator I used said only a 3 IBU difference between 1oz leaf to 1oz pellet of cascade, but that is per ounce. So 2 oz would be a 6 IBU difference.

So may depend on the calculator type of hop, etc. But technically the pellet should be more concentrated
 
I use brewersfriend.com and just changed around a hop addition from pellet to whole hops and did the math. Came out to a 10% difference.
 
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