Brewing Master

Question:

First of all, does an ounce of whole hops equal an ounce of pellet hops for purposes of both bittering and flavor?

I use both and don’t adjust my recipes whether I’m using whole or pelletized hops.  Having said that, I’ve read that utilization for pelletized hops is actually about 10% greater than whole hops since the lupulin glands are already burst.  I haven’t been able confirm this in my own brewing.  Also, I’ve read that you can lose from utilization (maybe about 10% again) if you put your hops in a hop bag rather than let them float loose in the kettle.  I don’t use hop bags so I can’t comment on this at all.     – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -Second, a question about conditioning and force-carbonating: I have yet to use Corny kegs, and therefore have never force-carbonated my beer. But, just recently, a friend of mine, new to brewing, made a batch and kegged his beer. Since he wanted to drink it right away, we talked about force-carbonating the beer, as described by Papazian in "New Joy". It sounds good, but I wonder if it will taste right. At bottling time for me, I’ve always tasted a sample, and it always tastes sweet. (This is, of course, after I’ve added the 3/4 cup priming sugar–although I can’t imagine that makes much of a taste-dent in five gallons of beer.) So, if you don’t add sugar, and if you force-carbonate your beer and drink it a couple days after kegging, will it taste sweet or will it taste the way it should? If force-carbonated, does the beer still need to "condition" for a couple weeks before it’s ready. What exactly does it mean to "condition" anyway? Is conditioning only pertinent if you add priming sugar?

I’ve started kegging within the last year.  Yup, force carbonation works.  You can drink it as soon as you want to, assuming that you’re talking about a light-to-medium gravity ale that wouldn’t normally benefit from some extended aging.  For brews like lagers or higher gravity ales, you may want to condition them over some period anyway.  No, they shouldn’t taste sweet.  If fermentation is complete, any sugars that should have been fermented out by the yeast are now gone.  Any residual sweetness due to unfermented (or unfermentable sugars) will still be there after priming/carbonation regardless of whether you use sugar or force carbonate. Scott

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Second, a question about conditioning and force-carbonating: I have yet to use Corny kegs, and therefore have never force-carbonated my beer. But, just recently, a friend of mine, new to brewing, made a batch and kegged his beer. Since he wanted to drink it right away, we talked about force-carbonating the beer, as described by Papazian in "New Joy". It sounds good, but I wonder if it will taste right. At bottling time for me, I’ve always tasted a sample, and it always tastes sweet. (This is, of course, after I’ve added the 3/4 cup priming sugar–although I can’t imagine that makes much of a taste-dent in five gallons of beer.)

Depending on force carbonation method you may have to wait several hours to several days for the beer to be ready.  If you chill the beer well, apply 20-30 psi of CO2, and shake/roll the keg back and forth for 5-10 minutes, the beer will carbonate but will need to settle for a couple hours or yu’ll get lots ‘o’ foam.  If you chill the beer, apply CO2 but do NOT shake the keg, it will take several days to fully carbonate while the CO2 goes into solution. Shaking the keg provides more surface area for the CO2 to contact which thus enters solution more quickly. There’s been talk of a down-side to shaking of less stable bubbles but I have not personally experienced this (my pils comes out just like in a German pub). That being said,  I always try to wait a week or two minimum before I consider the beer *ready* for drinking (samples don’t count).  IMHO, even the lightest of beers will improve with this time. heubs

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Isn’t this something like asking which weighs more, a pound of rocks or a pound of feathers?  Since hops are measured by weight, not volume, it shouldn’t matter except for the doscussion about the lupulin glands which someone already mentioned.

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First of all, does an ounce of whole hops equal an ounce of pellet hops for purposes of both bittering and flavor?

It seems to me that the pellets are "slightly" less potent than an equal weight of whole hops.   Second, a question about conditioning and force-carbonating: I have yet to use Corny kegs, and therefore have never force-carbonated my beer. But, just recently, a friend of mine, new to brewing, made a batch and kegged his beer. Since he wanted to drink it right away, we talked about force-carbonating the beer, as described by Papazian in "New Joy". It sounds good, but I wonder if it will taste right. At bottling time for me, I’ve always tasted a sample, and it always tastes sweet. (This is, of course, after I’ve added the 3/4 cup priming sugar–although I can’t imagine that makes much of a taste-dent in five gallons of beer.)

The unfermented priming sugar does add a discernable sweetness to the beer in the situation you describe. I usually force carbonate my brews quickly.  From racking to the keg to pouring my first pint is usually a matter of 15 minutes or so. I do not add any priming sugar unless I am bottling.  My friends and I all rave at the freshly kegged/carbed beer,  but I do notice that there is an improvement in flavors over the course of a few days in the keg.  I can’t say how much the beer would improve in,  say 2 weeks, cause a keg never ever lasts that long around here. Robert — All in a days Wort —- Due to high numbers of JUNK MAIL I have been forced to change my "reply too" address.

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First of all, does an ounce of whole hops equal an ounce of pellet hops for purposes of both bittering and flavor? Second, a question about conditioning and force-carbonating: Thanks for any help! You don’t say if your brewing by extract or Full Mash grain brewing, but

assuming the latter then; 1, Hop pellets can be used  as a direct substitute for whole hops (and Vice versa) however getting rid of the hop pellet debris after the boil has reduced them to a slush can be a problem. ( Here in the UK most commercial brewers use hop pellets but have a whirlpool system to lose the debris) 2, I’m not sure which part of your question to answer first as your taste in high carbonated beers are different from the average UK homebrewers but here goes!!         Conditioning of the ale is not just the process of waiting for the beer to naturally carbonate, but gives it time to mature in the cask/bottle,this will add flavour, to drop bright (with or without the use of finnings)and hopefully produce a better beer.You should expect to wait at least a week for low gravity beers (S.G.1030-40) and several weeks for stronger ales (or as long as your patience lasts!)Commercially though (I am by profession a brewer for a brewpub chain) we seldom have the facilities to wait for the ales to mature for more than a week or two.   Adding  priming sugar reactivates the yeast cells present in the Green beer (newly bottled/casked) and they in turn consume the sugar giving off the conditioning CO2 gas which helps the ale clear down and keeps out any  air which would oxidise the ale sending it off.   You don’t say the amount of ale you are adding the 3/4 cup of priming sugar to, but usually here we would only add about 100g per 5 gall (UK)or about 2.5ml per pint bottle. As sugar is virtually 100% fermentable it should leave no discernable sweetness to any beers at whatever stage it is added, the sweetness of the beer comes from the malts/adjuncts used in the brewing process. The sweetness can be added if desired by the use of Lactose or indeed by just adding sacharin tablets at the primary ferm. process. finally, you can "force carbonate" a beer by injecting Co2 from a canister but you would still have to wait a while for the beer to absorb the gas. If you truly what a high carbonated ale then you should bottle it and sit back and wait for a few months (some barley wines can improve in this way for up to 25years!!)  hope this is of some use to you,         Steve C.

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First of all, does an ounce of whole hops equal an ounce of pellet hops for purposes of both bittering and flavor? Second, a question about conditioning and force-carbonating: I have yet to use Corny kegs, and therefore have never force-carbonated my beer. But, just recently, a friend of mine, new to brewing, made a batch and kegged his beer. Since he wanted to drink it right away, we talked about force-carbonating the beer, as described by Papazian in "New Joy". It sounds good, but I wonder if it will taste right. At bottling time for me, I’ve always tasted a sample, and it always tastes sweet. (This is, of course, after I’ve added the 3/4 cup priming sugar–although I can’t imagine that makes much of a taste-dent in five gallons of beer.) So, if you don’t add sugar, and if you force-carbonate your beer and drink it a couple days after kegging, will it taste sweet or will it taste the way it should? If force-carbonated, does the beer still need to "condition" for a couple weeks before it’s ready. What exactly does it mean to "condition" anyway? Is conditioning only pertinent if you add priming sugar? Thanks for any help! — Gwen Scherer Northwestern University

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First of all, does an ounce of whole hops equal an ounce of pellet hops for purposes of both bittering and flavor?

Pellets will contribute more bitterness, since the lupulin [sp?] glands have been burst by the pelletizing process. Not sure about flavor; some people claim that whole hops have better flavor, but this may be offset by the fact that pellets store better. Second, a question about conditioning and force-carbonating: I have yet to use Corny kegs, and therefore have never force-carbonated my beer. But, just recently, a friend of mine, new to brewing, made a batch and kegged his beer. Since he wanted to drink it right away, we talked about force-carbonating the beer, as described by Papazian in "New Joy". It sounds good, but I wonder if it will taste right. At bottling time for me, I’ve always tasted a sample, and it always tastes sweet. (This is, of course, after I’ve added the 3/4 cup priming sugar–although I can’t imagine that makes much of a taste-dent in five gallons of beer.)

It *does* make a difference. I usually take a hydrometer sample before adding the priming sugar, which I drink after taking my reading. I also drink the dregs left in the bottling bucket. The beer with the priming sugar added is noticably sweeter than the beer without. So, if you don’t add sugar, and if you force-carbonate your beer and drink it a couple days after kegging, will it taste sweet or will it taste the way it should?

Well, not having ever force-carbonated a batch, I don’t really feel qualified to answer this… but, as a guess, I’d say yes. As long as it was done fermenting, and most of the yeast had settled out. If force-carbonated, does the beer still need to "condition" for a couple weeks before it’s ready. What exactly does it mean to "condition" anyway? Is conditioning only pertinent if you add priming sugar?

Part of "conditioning" is allowing suspended yeast (and other particulates?) to settle out, which applies whether you’ve added priming sugar or not. There are other (harder to quantify) things going on as well… I’ve had some batches that had weird smells and/or tastes at bottling time, which were fine after several weeks in the bottle. —

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