Hey gang,
I know in a batch of beer we lose liquid to many culprits. There is grain absorption, evaporation rate, trub, etc. I know I lose alot to hop absorption as well. Anyone have any ballpark estimate on how much you lose to hop absorption per ounce of pellet hops?
After a little more research I am seeing that Denny is finding around 12oz of wort being absorbed per ounce of whole hops. On top of that, Jeff is saying that pellet hops and whole hops are dehydrated the same amount, making the absorption rate the same regardless of hop form. is this still the good word? Anybody see different results?
no you are wayyyy off. I’d guesstimate that pellets absorb maybe 1/5 of what whole does. That is one of the added benefits of pellets - less absorption loss.
They are dried the same, and will absorb the same. Whole cones will trap a lot more. Some big breweries have hop presses to squeeze out the wort.
sorry - I should have stated that its the ‘nooks and crannies’ of whole hops that cause the much greater absorption, not the dehydration/rehydration.
You didn’t say how you handle the hops. In the boil, I keep them in paint filter bags. Once the boil is done and the wort is mostly cooled, I pull the socks out and put them on my immersion cooler to drain. These hops probably don’t retain much wort relative to free floating whole hops.