Difference Between Hop Plugs And Pellets.

[spudfarmerboy]

Hello,
could anyone tell me the difference between hop pellets and plugs. Are they made differently, do plugs taste and smell better? If a recpie calls for plugs and you only have pellets, how do you adjust the recipe? Also, I have seen on overseas brewing sites that hop flowers are used alot but I have not seen them onsale here. Does anyone use hop flowers and are they better?
Thank You

 

[Maple]

the difference between pellets and plugs is that plugs are essentially pressed flowers, where pellets are ground up and mechanically pelletized flowers. The difference is the utilization (amount of AA) you will get between the 2. I know Promash has default utilization for each, I would expect other s/w would have the same. Pellets are more 'bang for your buck" in these terms. There are advantages to both. flowers tned to soak up more of your liquid than pellets, but can also provide a "filter" for all the break material in your kettle. some argue that flowers are fresher and give a slightly different taste in that regard, but I will fence-sit on this.

you can get flowers here, check out the LHBS or the links to those who support this forum (top of page). I don't believe you can get imported flowers (quarantine etc), but the local flowers (NZ included) are fantastic.

Are they better, you'll likely start a healthy debate here about that. I suggest brew something the same twice, try each, and see what you think.

 

[felten]

Beersmith says utilisation is -10% for flowers, -8% for plugs

 

[proudscum]

I use plugs and flowers exclusively and you do lose some of the wort but the clarity of the wort that i get with using flowers is really bright.Down side is you are a little limited to the flowers you can get.

You just need to grow your own hops is all....four different varieties would cover most bases being Goldings/Cascade/Saaz and maybe P.O.R for bittering,that is my end goal with the addition of other strains as they come to hand .

Hop flowers great to load into your hopback as well!!!!

 

[Bribie G]

AFAIK all plugs are made in the UK for a very good reason, they came into existence because they are used to dry hop real ales in the cask and are designed to fit neatly through the spile hole of a cask (the big hole in the side of the cask) where they break up in the beer and sink to the bottom of the cask while it is in the pub cellar, conditioning. Lying on its side. About 18 months ago a member here posted a picture taken on a brewery tour in the UK and it shows them dry hopping casks using plugs.



Fine for Goldings, Fuggles, Northdown etc. The fact that you can now get the likes of German Hallertau and Tettnang in plugs is probably a value added usage of the plugging machinery to produce plugs for micros and home brew usage as the hop plugs definitely store, transport and keep better than loose flowers and I understand they lose less Alpha Acids than loose hops. So it's value adding the product. However it does mean that by the time you get your Hallertau plug in Victoria or QLD it's already been sent from Germany to the UK to be turned into a plug, then transported to an Australian Hop Merchant then to your LHBS or a sponsor at the top of this page. I tend to go more for UK plugs if I am going to use them.

For other nationalities of hop (apart from NZ of course) I go for the pellets. The reason we can get plugs not flowers is presumably because they have been squeezed under huge pressure and there won't be any exotic bugs left alive in them. NZ has no hop pests or diseases so we can get their flowers.