# Definition of hop plugs?



## RobH (26/1/15)

I have always used dried hop pellets, but I have seen a few people talking about hop plugs. Is that fresh hops, or full dried hop flowers/cones?


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## goomboogo (26/1/15)

They're hop flowers that are compressed into a cylindrical shape. Supposedly, they were originally made the size and shape they are, in order to fit in the spile hole of a keg. My preference is breaking them up before use although some people use them in the compressed state.


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## Bribie G (26/1/15)

They are also a mechanism for importing hop flowers into Australia. Loose flowers can only be imported from NZ but plugs are allowed in from anywhere as the compression process is deemed to have destroyed any grubs or insects.


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## Pistolpete01 (26/1/15)

Bribie G said:


> "but plugs are allowed in from anywhere"


Interesting........


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## ekul (26/1/15)

plugs are a giant pellet


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## Bribie G (26/1/15)

In a sense..but a lot of pellets nowadays are made from the better bits of the flower before grinding and pelleting. Called T3 grade IIRC. 

Plugs by their nature consist of the whole flower with all the woody bits as well.
Compared to pellets you get less green sludge in the kettle if using a hop bag as there's little or no dust.

On the other point I've used Uk, German, Czech and American varieties of plugs. But I wouldn't be surprised if they all got manufactured in the UK for casking of real ales. As posted at #2. And we pick up the benefits over here.


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## Mardoo (26/1/15)

I heard something interesting in a Brewing Network podcast, I think it was the Hop School one but I'm not positive. Take this for what it's worth. I still use them from time to time. 

One of the growers said that plugs can be a bit problematic, insofar as they are less popular than pellets. Consequently plug makers have to wait until enough hops of a given variety are submitted before they can make the plugs. So the hops in plugs MAY have aged a bit.


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## MartinOC (26/1/15)

Coulda sworn I posted on this earlier, but anyway..

Plugs are produced from freshly dried hops, then compressed into 1/2 oz (14g), 1oz (28g) & 2oz (56g) "plugs" with the intent of being used for dry-hoping of real ale casks (hence, they're small enough to fit through the bung-hole of a cask).

I've never seen anything other than the 1/2oz plugs over here, but that doesn't mean they're not available.

Expect the 1/2 oz plugs to be about 12-13g by the time they get here. Draw your own conclusions..


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