Hop additions

[Hamish Jones]

just wondering as I am growing some hops as to how you go about working out the volume of hops to put into a brew based on previously using pellet hops,

I was going to biff some in a brew once they had dried but really not sure how to work out how much to chuck into a brew to get the same hopping as the pellets

[Smiffy]

I think the approach you take will depend on whether you want to use them in the boil for bittering or for dry hopping. Either way, you will have to do some small scale comparative experiments.

[Hamish Jones]

most likely use them in the boil for bittering and aroma at first then experiment with dry hopping once I have my figures worked out

[Smiffy]

In that case, what I suggest is boiling a small quantity , say 1 gram of your usual hop pellets in 1 litre of water for a measured time, and repeat with your home grown dried hops.

The resulting bitter water will not taste nice but you should be able to say if one tastes more bitter than the other, then dilute the more bitter one until they match, you will then have a comparative bitterness.

For example if you have to dilute your hop pellet "brew" by 3:1 (so its 1/4 strength) to make it match the home-grown "brew", then you would need 4 times the weight of the home-grow hops as you would have use pellets.

If both of the hop teas are too bitter to be able to tell the difference, dilute them both by the same amount before making the comparisons.

Better than experimenting with a brew.

[Hamish Jones]

Brilliant ideas thanks for that, some hop tea it is, maybe i'll get the mother in law to taste it and pretend it's some new kind of herbal tea,

cheers

[MrC]

When I use home grown hops I still use a commercial hop with a known AA% for bittering and then use my home grown hops for flavour & aroma.  If you use home grown hops for bittering you'll be guessing the AA% and it would probably take a few trials to get the bitterness right.

When using cones rather than pellets I increase the volumes by 20% as cones provide less flavour & aroma than pellets.