Making your own beer at home is the same as making gin or any other spirit. For it, you’ll need to stock on the right essentials, and when talking about beer brewing essentials, hops are among the most basic ingredients you need to have.
What Are Hops?
Hops are flowers of a climbing vine that’s native to Europe, North America and Asia. The most interesting thing is that this plant has male and female bines out of which only the female ones have a pine-cone shape and are used for beer brewing. The main reason why hops are among the most important beer brewing supplies is that they give bitterness which is essential for balancing the malt sugars’ sweetness. Hops are also great for balancing the overall flavours and aromas, and without them, beer wouldn’t be the same.
Hop Pellets as a Type of Hope
Speaking of hops, there are different types out of which hop pellets are among the most commonly used among homebrewers. The first thing you should know about hops is that in their core they have three important ingredients for beer making: a-acids, b-acids and essential oils.
Unfortunately, these three important assets will fade with age which is also strongly related to the way hops are stored, as well as the amount of air presence there is. Being small, easy to store, vacuum and pack, it seems that hop pellets are the ideal type of hops that can preserve all of its assets even if stored for quite long.
Hop pellets are made by shredding, compressing and extruding the dried cone-shaped hops. They also make it easier to get them out of the fermenter which is not the case with whole cones. What you need to know is that the quality of the hop pellets is closely related to the temperature and grinding speed throughout the process.
If they’re milled too fast, they’ll discolour, scorch, and oxidise after a while. That’s why they need to be milled at lower speeds and after that, they need to be left to cool and harden. Once cool, they can be properly packed, vacuumed, sealed, and stored.
Some Other Benefits of Using Hop Pellets
Besides their amazing properties and ability to keep them for as long as possible without spoiling, hop pellets are among the most favoured beer brewing supplies by homebrewers as well. Firstly, homebrewers say that hop pellets are extremely easy to be removed from the wort (in those cases when using a whirlpool separator), and secondly, they can take up less storage space which makes it easier to keep them cold even if stocked with a lot. When compared to the whole hops and plugs, the pellet form is more available all year round.
It’s also said that pellet hops are pulverised, so that they could have more surface area contact to them, which, on the other hand, can also increase utilisation. Those of you who love drinking foamy beer will also benefit from using hop pellets in the beer-making process instead of whole hops. Since pellets have a larger surface area, this promotes the occurrence of CO2 which is left from the fermentation process.
Since hops have a-acids, with the use of crucial beer brewing supplies like hop pellets these aids can be used better and more because pellet hops should be pulverised and crushed up during the process. This means that the alpha-acids will be used better which will lead to getting more bitterness out of the hops, and in turn this will balance the malt’s sugar.
Given the fact that wort contains sugar, which is essential for the alcohol content, you can have peace of mind that hop pellets won’t soak up the wort. This will result in obtaining a beer with a standard and not less alcohol concentration.
As you can see, pellets indeed are irreplaceable home brew supplies that are essential for keeping the balance between the beer’s sweetness and bitterness. And although there are many other brewing beer supplies that are of utmost importance for beer production, paying attention to the used ingredient like hops is paramount.
Regarding the most common concern beginner home beer brewers have ‘Is It Cheaper to Brew Your Own Beer or not?’, don’t let the amount go supplies and ingredients fool you. Truth be told, home brewing is way cheaper than spending money on the ready-made types. In fact, it’s said that this fun hobby of making your own you can save around 50% or even more as opposed to when you buy in the local pubs and stores.
All it takes is stocking on the right supplies that won’t compromise on quality as well. Otherwise, your first brewing attempt could be a failure. If not sure that you can do it on your own, you can always ask for help from a friend who has more experience in this.
