I've never used pellets

vacant · Post by **vacant** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 8:35 am

What are the pros and cons of pellets for someone brewing session to best bitters? No rush, I don't need to place my next six month order until November.

The best source of info on pellets I've found so far is this video

bazza · Post by **bazza** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 1:25 pm

I primarily use pellets because they are much more common here in the US.

Pros:
They are easier to weigh out and handle. They take up less space in the freezer for storage.

Cons:
They leave a "sludge" in the bottom of the brew kettle. I whirlpool so that helps collect it in the center of the kettle but I still will transfer some into the FV. Dry hopping with them is also messy. Some settle to the bottom of the secondary while some still float on top. If you are transferring into the bottling bucket or keg from there, you need to filter that mess out.

Overall, I guess I'm just used to working with them and I like the variety I can get in pellet form.

towser · Post by **towser** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 1:50 pm

I use pellets as well as leaf.

You need marginally less pellets in a brew, by weight.

They have a tendency to clog the strainer though. I changed to a home-made stainless-steel mesh filter to get around this with great success.

Blackaddler · Post by **Blackaddler** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 2:33 pm

I've only used them in the kettle once, and they clogged up my stainless braided hose in no time.

vacant · Post by **vacant** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 4:56 pm

Thanks for the info. I have various spare bits (voile, army-surplus laundry bag, braid etc). I already have a vivarium mesh filter on my boiler so I'll stick with that when the time comes for the first attempt and I'll try to improve my whirlpool technique.

GrowlingDogBeer · Post by **GrowlingDogBeer** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 9:43 pm

I use leaf in the kettle as I find pellets clog my filter, I always dry hop with pellets though as they drop out nicely and don't end up in the keg.

scuppeteer · Post by **scuppeteer** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 9:56 pm

I find they don't last as long as leaf once opened due to the extra processing. Great for dry hopping as Steve said, but if you want to use them in the copper and your filters aren't up to scratch it's best to add with leaf as this acts as a further filter. You can use up to 10% pellets with the leaf.

EccentricDyslexic · Post by **EccentricDyslexic** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 10:08 pm

vacant wrote:Thanks for the info. I have various spare bits (voile, army-surplus laundry bag, braid etc). I already have a vivarium mesh filter on my boiler so I'll stick with that when the time comes for the first attempt and I'll try to improve my whirlpool technique.

Whirlpool technique, does anyone in the UK do this? Know it is talked about a lot in the us forums where most use pellets, but in the UK? I am not sure, I never tried it.

Steve

zgoda · Post by **zgoda** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 7:15 am

I'm not in UK currently but I'm doing it all the time. Just stir the wort after boil with paddle, wait some 20 mins to settle and siphon the wort from above the trub cone. Then you can transfer the trub into tall containers, wait further 30 mins and decant clear wort, boil it and you get free 1.5 ltr of wort for starters or kraeusen priming, or you can add it to main fv. This is how they do it in US of A and we learned from them.

My wort is not as clear as when leaf and strainer is used, but it clears eventually post fermentation after all. Only 1.5 ltr of wort is lost to trub and hops post boil, pellets take much less storage space and I get better utilization.

fisherman · Post by **fisherman** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 10:30 am

I have used pellets in my last 7 brews . I did make a hop spider with a very fine hop bag attached which is perfect size for the boiler. ( Bought from the homebrew shop ). the hop spider keeps the bag open and suspended in the boil and you can add any pellets at any time. No hop particles get into the brew.
I think pellets are so much better than leaf, no brown old patchy leaf. I use T90 pellets.One consideration is I leave the brew at least 5 to 7 hours to settle after removing the hop spider for the trub to settle out and drain slowly to leave the trub behind. I do use 10 grm of leaf in the 50 litre brew just to help catch the trub.

Post by **Aleman** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 10:42 am

fisherman wrote:I think pellets are so much better than leaf, no brown old patchy leaf.

How would you know???

fisherman · Post by **fisherman** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 11:02 am

Please explain.

Post by **Aleman** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 11:14 am

Well, after the old brown patch leaves have been pelletised how would you know if the pellets were from nice new green hops or old brown hops.

fisherman · Post by **fisherman** » Thu Sep 19, 2013 2:57 pm

I would have thought the bright green colour would be a good guide. Also the colour of the hop residue found in the spiders bag. I have bought English hop varieties nearly all look old and stale, the worst hop of all was Australian Galaxy from Simply hops at least 50 percent were rubbish. In my opinion ( only mine ) I don't use English. leaf hops . The only leaf hop I have bought this year is Brewers gold.

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