Labels:text | black and white | font | screenshot | paper | number | document | printing OCR: Section KK - Hops PAGE 25 Whole Hops vs. Hop Pellets We buy some fresh whole Hops in the fall, when they are harvested, and keep them until about April. By that time, they are getting stale and we toss them out instead of selling them. This is in spite of freezing and packaging in oxygen-barrier bags. Mostly, we sell PELLETS, because they maintain their quality. New brewers (and a few old brewers) often think that whole Hops are fresh, pure, and real while Hop Pellets are some kind of artificial product. That's not so. Pellets are made by shredding freshly harvested hops and compressing the pieces. This causes natural hop resins to seal the surface of the pellet; which leaves the inside FRESH. Well packaged whole Hops, in a freezer, will lose 57% of their Alpha Acid (bitterness) and almost all of their Aromatic Oils (flavor) in a year. Hop Pellets under the same conditions lose less than 3% of each! When we receive our fresh whole Hops, about November, we brew a couple of batches with them because they smell so good (escaping aromatics)! Other than that, we use pellets Hop Varieties and the Boil - - Fach hop variety has a different flavor (Aromatic Oils) and bitterness level (Alpha and Beta Acids). The bitterness gets into the beer wort only by boiling (or by a long exposure time), but the flavor is very volatile and is easily boiled away. When those aromatle finishing hops smell so great boiling in the kitchen, you're losing It! If they're going into the air they're not in the beer. You can use any hop for bittering. By putting them in at the beginning of the boil, most all the flavor will be gone and only the bitterness will remain. Some varieties don't have pleasant aromatics, and are used exclusively for "bittering hops" at the start of the boil. Some varieties are bitter (high Alpha Acid) and have good flavor (aromatics). They can be used both ways. Some are not very bitter (low Alpha), so it is not economical to use them for bittering. They have great aromatic flavor, and are "finishing hops". Using a combination of hops adds greatly to the complexity of the beer. We usually start with a basic bittering hop at the beginning of the boil. Halfway through the boil, we often add a "combination hop" for more bitterness and some (but not much) flavor. A few minutes before the end of the boil, we will add a "finishing hop". Immediately upon turning off the heat, we will add another "finishing hop". By carefully designing our recipes in advance, we make some pretty good beer. Alpha Acids and "Homebrew Bittering Units" We require an Alpha Acid (bitterness) analysis from our suppliers, and we print the Alpha on the pack of hops. That's important, because the Alpha Acids can vary a great deal. Here's how to use them: A "Homebrew Bittering Unit" or "H.B.U." is the ounces used in a 5-gallon batch of beer times the Alpha Acid. Hops have to balance with malt, so an American Light beer would have about 8 H.B.U.s. A medium- bodied Pale Ale would have about 15 H.B.U.'s, and a very heavy Imperial Stout could have over 20. Using this simple system, the American Light could be made with 1 oz. of Cascade (1 x 5.5) and 1/2 oz. of Saaz for finishing (.5 x 4.4) for a total of 7.7 H.B.U.'s. This system can be applied to any other beer, and with any hops; but in complicated recipes try to take the length of the boil into account also. Special - A Mug full of Hops! Our Home Brewery Beer Mug ( #P-49 in this Catalog) is a pint Mason jar with a handle and the Home Brewery logo. The Mug will hold 16 oz. of beer or 8 oz. of Hop Pellets. If you order 8 oz. of the same variety Hop Pellets, we will package them in a Home multiplied by 4. Brewery Beer Mug. The price is the same as a 2 oz. container of the hop variety,
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