Brewing with Whole Hops

[CrushOnCraft]

I have some Chinook whole hops that I'm going to use to brew a West Coast.

I have a few questions:

• How much extra whole hops should I use instead of pellet hops, eg for every100g of pellets, how many grams of whole hops in the boil, whirlpool, dry hop?
• For 100g whole hops in the boil how much extra water would should I use?
• Is there any benefit in squeezing the hops at the end of the boil?
• Anything else I need to know?

Thanks

 

[Budgie]

This article sums up the difference between the two pretty well. The main takeaway, though, is this..

“Both the surface area and alpha acid availability [in pellets] translate to a 10 to 15 percent increase in utilization over whole hops. Though, technically this increase is not high enough for a brewer to change the hop amount in a recipe when going between the two forms”.

I don’t see any benefit to squeezing the hops after the boil. Yes, you’re gonna loose a bit of wort to them but not enough to be worried about.

 

[Budgie]

One other thing you might want to consider is the alpha rating of the hops. If you’re following a recipe that uses hops with a different alpha rating to the ones you’ve got you can use This calculator to find the right amount to use.