Hops

Some Good Information on Hops

Hops for homebrewing come in several forms. Whole hops are dried hops just as they come from the vine. Hop pellets and hop plugs are Whole Hops that have been chopped into tiny pieces and pressed into a mold. Hop extracts are hops that have been processed into a liquid emulsion. We don’t stock many Whole Hops because they don’t keep well. Resins seal the outside of Hop Pellets when they are pressed, leaving the interior fresh. That’s Why we prefer to use Hop Pellets, to insure the freshness of our product.

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. 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 bc made with 1 ox. 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.

We believe we offer the best packaging of Hop Pellets in the hobby. We package all our pellets in 2-ounce reclosable, airtight plastic tubes. Once the container is opened, it’s easy to reseal it and put the remaining hops in your refrigerator or freezer. Since we package in a see-through 2-ounce tube, it is easy to measure the hops you are using, even without a scale. If you are using 1 ounce, that’s half the container - 1/2 oz. is 1/4 of the bottle, etc.