Pellet or leaf hops?

[Oneflewover]

I would be interested to hear whether you use leaf or pellets and why. Thanks. :thumb:

 

[Tanzanite]

pellets are better, they dissolve and infuse more flavour and sink into your brew.

 

[beechwood]

personally prefer pellets..that's what i generally stick to using as you don't loose so much wort, that's what i find anyway :)

 

[Pawlo7671]

I use pellets as they take up less room in the fridge, store better and stay fresh longer than leaf. Also +1 what Tanzanite said

 

[Oneflewover]

Thanks for the replies. Do pellets foul up a false bottom or filter worse than leaf? Was looking at using a hop spider, but seems a waste of time for pellets.....

 

[beechwood]

i use a hop bag for my BIAB so can't really answer that question :-?

 

[Oneflewover]

i use a hop bag for my BIAB so can't really answer that question :-?

Thanks very much anyway :thumb:

 

[Ajhutch]

I found pellets were blocking up my bazooka filter quite badly. Last time I brewed I packaged each addition in it's own muslin bag and threw them in at the relevant time. They are easy to get back out again and the wort flowed out perfectly. So you could do that or create a hop spider from muslin to keep using pellets. I think if you do particularly hoppy brews pellets are better as they absorb less wort.

 

[BeerCat]

I used to lose so much beer using leaf. I much prefer pellets.

 

[pms67]

I think in a few years leaf hops will be a thing of the past, imo pellets are miles ahead, leaf hops are a hassle and give nowhere near the same effect as pellets.
Just saying 😉

 

[BlackIsland]

There was a time when I used all leaf hops, because I had a small false bottom in my boil kettle, and the leaf hops made a great filter bed for hot and cold break. Over time, though, the varieties available in leaf hops became more limited compared to pellet hops, and because the storage stability of pellet hops were much better than leaf hops, and I bought hops in bulk more to save money, and because I started using a pump, I moved away from whole hops to pellets almost exclusively. The only whole hops I use are home grown, and for them I use a hop bag or hop spider depending on the quantity. However, I don't use a plate chiller, and if I did, I would be concerned about pellets choking it up.

 

[Honk]

I think in a few years leaf hops will be a thing of the past,

And there was me thinking that was how they grew, where can i get a hop pellet plant? 😂

I mainly use leaf but may switch back to pellets due to being able to buy exact amounts. Prefer leaf though seems less processed.

 

[Slid]

I prefer the leaf hops in the Grainfather, mainly because they filter out a lot of gunk. They absorb some wort, but since grain seems quite cheap and I make mainly malt forward, English beers, with no more than 100g of hops, they are fine for me.

I would go pellets for dry hopping, though, as I really never trusted bags with leaf hops in them and they are a fag to deal with.

 

[ElvisIsBeer]

Never tried leaf, but I have read a few stories about leaf potentially linked to infections. Could be anything behind that, I guess.

I have used pellets and they tick many boxes for me. They carry a strong sense of the plant, they are clean and convenient. You can use them in a teabag. Great stuff.

 

[Dutto]

I've tried both for almost all of the different stages of brewing and prefer using them as follows:

Pellets
For Cold Hopping and Hop Tea; because they drop out with the yeast and give more flavour per gram.

Leaf
For Bittering and Aroma in the boiler; because they are easier to remove before transferring the wort to the FV.

Of course, like anyone else, when I run out of one or the other I use anything available. :thumb:

 

[Headlands]

I prefer pellets because I believe they are isomerized (not actually confirmed that yet though), reducing the sun-skunking affect of leaf hops. Also means i can use clear bottles as well as amber ones.

 

[MyQul]

From the answers here, in part its a preference thing but, it's interesting to consider most of the worlds hops are turned into pellets. Only a small portion are sold/kept as leaf hops for the UK market (we have/had a hop industry insider member who posted the actual figures a while back). I suspect for traditional purposes.
I also reads some stuff a while back that stated (backed up with data) that you get better extraction with pellets because the process of pellet making breaks up the cones. Cant find it at the mo but I'll see if I can find the article

 

[dps51]

I like leaf I find that pellets brake up and make to much mess
also I think you get a better hop taste and smell from leaf

 

[Dutto]

.............

I also reads some stuff a while back that stated (backed up with data) that you get better extraction with pellets because the process of pellet making breaks up the cones...................

I agree that hop pellets give "More bang for your buck." as our American friends say.

Looking way into the future (maybe 2019 if I'm lucky enough to survive that long) to a time when I will be gathering the hops from my Prima Donna hop plant (if it too manages to survive that long) ... :whistle:

... does this mean that chopping up the hop leaf at home will give a better extraction?

The reasons I don't use hop pellets at the boil stage is that I find them difficult to remove when transferring the wort to the FV; but by controlling the size, I could make the bits of hop leaf big enough to be caught in a sieve. :thumb:

 

[Sadfield]

Adapted my kit to use pellets, once you sort the filter/filtering side of things, I can't see any advantage of leaf. I now only lose a few ml of wort to hop absorption, and minimal kettle loses to trub. As the storage needs are so much reduced it facilitates bulk buying of hops, and as a result cheaper hops. Exclusively use pellets now for dry hopping, throw them in and let them stink to the bottom of the FV.

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