Pellets Or Flowers?

[Tony]

Who likes hop flowers and who likes hop pellets.

Who hates hop flowers and Who hated hop pellets.

And why?

Im interested

all the best brewes i have made have been with hop flowers.

I have tried POR pellets and flowers and the flowers were definatly better.

I have been making some hoppy beers recently with lots of pellets. like 500g in a 50 liter brew lots and they arnt that great.

I have just made one with 90g of NZ Nelson sauvin whole fowers and i can smell the hops comming out of the airlock. It smells great.

And with the hop flower basket i made its easier to use them than pellets as i get a better flow through the hops with the open SS mesh rather than the hop sock.

only my opinion but i m after other peoples as well.

cheers and shoot me down if its been done before

cheers

PS. here is my hop basket with hops after the boil.

 

[Ash in Perth]

I mostly use pellets because of the different varieties and imports but usually when ive used flowers (NZ cascade and Aus Goldings) they have been a bit better.

 

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

I've been using my hop basket/immersion chiller for a while now Tony, with good results.
Who could shoot down anyone with an avatar like that, that is you is'nt it?

 

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

pic

 

[T.D.]

I've been using mainly pellets, just because the range is better. Every now and then I get tempted to try flowers but rarely do. I have tried POR flowers which were fine, but I couldn't see any real difference to pellets in the flavour. The big disappointment for me was the NZ Cascade flowers. They were nothing like the US Cascade pellets. I put 50g in at flameout and basically could't detect them at all. 50g of the US pellets would have been quite prominant from experience.

But on the flip-side, I tried an English Bitter that a mate made using NZ Styrian Goldings flowers. I was tentative about them because of my experience with the cascade, but this beer was one of the best bitters I have tasted - and I think those hops had a lot to do with it. So now I am totally confused! :lol:

I may try some flowers at some stage in the future, but on average my experiences with pellets have been excellent so I see no point in changing.

Also, given I have a freezer FULL of pellets already I hate to think how I would go storing the same quantity of flowers!

 

[Aussie Claret]

Hi Tony,
Like you I've only ever used the Nelson Sauvin Flowers, I haven't tried any other flowers nor have done a comparison with Nelson Sauvin pellets. The aroma and flavour of Nelson Sauvin flowers are absolutely fantastic.

I'm so impressed that I'll be trying other flowers in the near future for aroma and flavour.

AC

 

[Ross]

For bittering/flavour additions I have no preference. I must admit though I prefer flowers whenever possible for dry hopping most beers, the aromatics imparted just have something about them that's hard to put into words, they seem to blend with the beer better, lacking the harshness/astrigency that some pellets can give.
The only time I prefer pellets is in an upfront American Ale where you want full on aromatics, Cascade pellets for instance out strip the USA Cascade Plugs in the aromatic stakes...

The most important aspect of either though is freshness - a manufactures bag that's been opened & then simply resealed by rolling up with a bit of tape, before putting back in the fridge/freezer, just doesn't cut the mustard - They need to be kept airtight. If your local hop supplier isn't looking after them properly, hound him to do so & everyone will benefit.

Cheers Ross

 

[warrenlw63]

I have to confess to slowly having my head turned around to late hopping with plugs. Having tried a couple of nice beers by other brewers that had them. There's a freshness/herbal leafiness that doesn't seem to be apparent in most pellets. :beerbang:

Pellets can't be beaten for bittering though.

Warren -

 

[tangent]

pellets are certainly great for ease of use but there's nothing like getting a new bag of leaf hops like the latest Nugget bulk buy. Man they smell good!

 

[Kai]

A few plugs in the boil are useful for filtering out the trub in my experience.