Hop Pellets Vs Hop Flowers

[enoch1973]

Hi all,
I'm still doing extract brews which is is fine for me at the moment.
I'm just wondering about hop flowers and how you would use them (if at all...) in an extract brew.
I've been using pellets for my past few brews which has been fine.
My question is... Do you use hop flowers in the same way as pellets?
E.g. do you add them to the boil at 60min's... etc...
Or should you only use them toward the end of the boil or even at flame out.
Just curious as I want to expend my knowledge of brewing
Thanks
Pete

 

[Frank]

Pellets and flowers are used exactly the same.

 

[flattop]

A good hop bag is recommended as the flowers can lead to blocked taps

 

[boobiedazzler]

Exactly the same ? I thought the cones would have a much higher water content, therefore a greater weight needs to be used in order to get the same out of them as pellets per weight.

If this is not the case, I have just waaaaaay overloaded an American Pale with fresh aroma hopping. Probably 100grams worth.

 

[A3k]

hop cones are dried, so as far as i know they'll have the same amount (similar) of water in them.
If anything, they'll have more aroma due to less oils lost due to processing. But i don't know how significant this is.

100gms is alot of just aroma hops in a 21litre batch. How did you use them and what hop?
Sure it'll b nice though

Cheers,
Al

 

[boobiedazzler]

ah it was cascade, and fresh off the vine into the freezer until i used them last week, so not dried at all. They were added to the fermenter post-krausen. A wet dry hopping I suppose you would say.

 

[manticle]

What I've read suggests using around 10% more of the flowers (dried) by weight. However AA ratings differ from crop to crop so this is only relevant if your flowers and pellets have the same AA and are being used for bittering or flavour hops.

Wet hops would need much more.

Method is the same though - bittering, flavour, aroma, dry hop, french press etc.

However a lot of people recommend using homegrown hops as flavour and aroma additions as you don't know the bitterness (aa) level. You could experiemnt with a few brews and work out what your tastebuds like and thus not worry too much.

 

[enoch1973]

Thanks for the responses guys... What about the hops flowers from somewhere like CraftBrewer?
They are obviously not like fresh ones from the vine... should they be treated in the same way as freshly picked vine ones?

 

[hoohaaman]

Pete,I think you are getting confused with"flowers being freshly picked" and hop flowers.Flowers,plugs or pellets can be used equally as well.

As Manticle said,rule of thumb is add 10% more flowers for similar ibu,compared to pellets.I think most software has flowers/plugs/pellets built in,does it not?

Flowers need drying,so are not added fresh directly to the boil

 

[manticle]

Thanks for the responses guys... What about the hops flowers from somewhere like CraftBrewer?
They are obviously not like fresh ones from the vine... should they be treated in the same way as freshly picked vine ones?

Those flowers should have an aa rating (and will be dried) so as suggested aprox. 10 % by weight more and use exactly the same way.

 

[enoch1973]

I have no doubt that I am...
I can see on the CraftBrewer site that they sell hops in a flower variety and a pellet variety...
I'm just wondering if they can be used the same way or should they be used only for aroma or flavour etc...

 

[hoohaaman]

Flowers can be used for bittering,flavour and aroma,They can be used by themselves for any single purpose or all three.If using flowers many brewers report a softer more smooth bitterness

 

[manticle]

I have no doubt that I am...
I can see on the CraftBrewer site that they sell hops in a flower variety and a pellet variety...
I'm just wondering if they can be used the same way or should they be used only for aroma or flavour etc...

Hi pete repeat, just to repeat because you seem to have missed it the two times I posted - use the same way IF you know the alpha acid percentage of the flowers but increase the amounts by around 10%.

 

[felten]

You can't buy fresh cones (are you growing them?), the hops you buy from LHBS are all dried. They pick them, dry them, then some are kept whole as cones; and some are grinded down and pelletized. They're the same product just in different forms.

As for fresh hops (un-dried), the bloke from freshops suggested using 6x more hops than the normal recipe would call for, fresh being ~70% water, dried being <10%.

Also what manticle said ^

 

[enoch1973]

I think we posted at the same time causing at least one repeat...

Hi pete repeat, just to repeat because you seem to have missed it the two times I posted - use the same way IF you know the alpha acid percentage of the flowers but increase the amounts by around 10%.