Pellet or leaf hops?

Duplicate post sorry

Sadfield said:

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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Cheers. How did you sort out the filtering effectively as this is my main reason for erring towards leaf in the boil?

I use a grainfather/mangrove jacks hop spider, they're great. Pull it out and give it shake just before transfer to get the wort out of it. Think i paid £30, although you can get them from aliexpress for around £18.



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Hi All
Are views based on using a leaf hop and pellet hop, of the same variety, from the same farm or could the hops be from anywhere? Could they even be different harvest years and different suppliers?
Just a thought.
pms67 - I hope leaf stay strong
Jo :whistle:

Hi All
Are views based on using a leaf hop and pellet hop, of the same variety, from the same farm or could the hops be from anywhere? Could they even be different harvest years and different suppliers?
Just a thought.
pms67 - I hope leaf stay strong
Jo:whistle:

I was up at Adnams brewery a year or so ago, and was surprised to find that they use pellets exclusively now. The reasons given were much as others on this thread have said; easier to store, which meant that in the same space they could buy far more and get a bigger discount. Our guide also felt that they retained more freshness (less surface area exposed) and that they were also easier to handle.
Despite all this I still try to use leaf; don't ask me why though! I suppose I like the 'tradionalness' of using hops. I must say that I hadn't thought about how much wort I've been losing...may have to have a rethink!

I did try some pellets in my grainfather a couple of brews ago. I use a hop spider (ali express, anbout £7 delivered!) and thinking about it now, the pellets were actually easier as they took up less room. Definitly need a rethink now!

I like leaf hops as they do act as a filter on my grainfather. I do have a hop spider for pellets as they leave a right mess in the bottom. Leaves are much easer to clear up, and do look good in the boil :-)

Sadfield said:

I use a grainfather/mangrove jacks hop spider, they're great. Pull it out and give it shake just before transfer to get the wort out of it. Think i paid �£30, although you can get them from aliexpress for around �£18.

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Thanks for that. Is it fine enough to filter the pellets out well?

Ali said:

I was up at Adnams brewery a year or so ago, and was surprised to find that they use pellets exclusively now. The reasons given were much as others on this thread have said; easier to store, which meant that in the same space they could buy far more and get a bigger discount. Our guide also felt that they retained more freshness (less surface area exposed) and that they were also easier to handle.
Despite all this I still try to use leaf; don't ask me why though! I suppose I like the 'tradionalness' of using hops. I must say that I hadn't thought about how much wort I've been losing...may have to have a rethink!

I did try some pellets in my grainfather a couple of brews ago. I use a hop spider (ali express, anbout �£7 delivered!) and thinking about it now, the pellets were actually easier as they took up less room. Definitly need a rethink now!

Click to expand...

You are well on the road to pellets all the time, far,far better.
Take my word for it and laugh if you want to :whistle: leaf no more in two years, apart from growing stage obviously, the difference is huge :thumb:

I was reading this following a chat in local HBS today, and he thought leaf was on the way out. I got some pellets instead as that is pretty much all he had of what I was after.

I do need to find a way of filtering them out in the boiler though, as last time I used them they clogged the bazooka, and I had a right old fankle getting the wort out. Ended up using a sterilised jug and muslin-lined seive. Not ideal.

Does the hop spider keep the pellets out?

Also, for dry hopping, hbs chappie suggested popping the pellets into the empty FV, running hot wort onto them from the boiler, and then chilling in FV. He thought this would stop the blockage problem, which it would - for flameout additions at least.

My concern then was that the hops would sit in the FV for two weeks, which might lead to off flavours. His response was that the beer ferments out in 4-7 days, and is then bottled, so not an issue, but I'm of the 2+2+2 school, so not convinced.

Hmmm.....

Not much, it's a pretty fine mesh.

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