How To Move To Pellets?

[HomeBrewWest]

HB have just brought out a range of nitrogen flushed pellets that could potentially rock out boats (bulldog brand). Freshness, stable alphas / predictable results blah blah blah.

The problem is that they dissolve into mush when you boil them. Fine for microbreweries with whirlpool technology etc. But muslin bags don't work well for pellets.

I'm sure this is not a new issue, but I have looked across several forums and not found a definitive answer?

[legion]

I use a bag made from voile. Dry hopping no bag and then chill to 4c and the hops drop to the bottom.

[HomeBrewWest]

I once put a few pellets in a bowl of water, mush on the bottom. Green tint above. For weeks. Makes me wonder if they really fall out naturally during fermentation. So, how can you make a low EBC beer with them? Same with cones I guess?

Cold crashing is not really an option for most of us. Especially at this time of year.

[Geezah]

I have used pellets for a couple of years just using muslin bags for the boil. I mainly make APA's and have never experienced a problem with either colour or debris.

[NobbyIPA]

HB have just brought out a range of nitrogen flushed pellets that could potentially rock out boats (bulldog brand). found a definitive answer?

the definite answer is as i use loads of hops both pellet and whole in the boil with absolutely no problems
using my hop stopper which is fairly easy to construct

here you go

my hop stopper

Stainless Steel Woven Wire # 20 Mesh - Coarse -600mm x 300mm

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130986137133? ... 1497.l2649 enough to make 2


so fold your 600mm x 300mm mesh
crimp tight with mole grips or hammer down
[/URL]

[/URL]


[/URL]



[/URL]


[/URL]


[/URL]


[/URL]

side drain boiler
[/URL]

new boiler fitting




90 gram simcoe mixed whole and pellets

Ihave since upgraded to 304 stainless for the tube

[Kev888]

Yes, pellet hops are fine and either pass through and/or clog many conventional hop stoppers. If you want to keep them back without a whirlpool, then a fine filter is needed, and it needs to be a large area to allow good flow past all the tiny, clogging pieces. There are a number of mesh envelope designs on jbk similar in concept to Nobby's, or the other way is a fine mesh hop spider or bag.

I use the latter as its easy to employ as and when I choose to use pellets, and makes emptying them easy (my boiler is too big/heavy to tip easily). But it won't catch break and so on; IMO that doesn't matter, but if it bothers you then an envelope strainer would be the answer.

Cheers
Kev

[CestrIan]

If you use a mixture of whole hops and pellets, then you are less likely to block the hop stopper. When you give it all a stir at the end of the cool, the large whole hops drop to the bottom first and then the finer pellet debris along with the break material settles slowly on top and the whole hops act like a filter. I generally use whole hops for bittering and a mix of whole hops and pellets for the late additions.

[HomeBrewWest]

What about putting the pellets in one of these:
https://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/beer/beer ... nylon.html

I've seen them and the nylon mesh is very fine. A problem might be hop utilization. I wonder if you would have to add extra pellets to the bag in order to get the same effect as just dropping the pellets directly into the wort?

[Kev888]

I use a similar one - mine is larger because I do larger batches and still like the hops to have enough freedom to float and mingle with the wort freely, so presumably if these smaller bags fit your hop bill they would be fine. However my bag is also a bit coarser, I don't have any problem with a bit of hop matter escaping into the wort/FV (provided its not in big enough pieces to trouble the plate chiller, anyway) so I can't say for certain if the finer mesh ones work just as well, maybe someone else can.

Within that caveat, I've used the bag both for whole and pellet hops; comparing the former I really can't say that I've noticed any lower utilisation from using it. Supposedly you get a higher utilisation from pellets; whilst I wouldn't dismiss that (as I suspect it may be true) it hasn't been so blindingly obvious in my case that I've reduced the hops by much if anything. Though I do think the pellets may impart their flavours better/faster than whole hops when it comes to the later additions.

Cheers
kev