Author: Greg Foster

I’ve always been interested in the differences between pellet and whole cone hops. Clearly both can be used successfully– Sierra Nevada makes world famous beers utilizing only whole cone hops, while the majority of commercial breweries tend to stick with pellets.

As a homebrewer with fairly easy access to pellet and whole cone hops, I use both regularly. It seems to me that most brewers’ decision whether to go with pellets or whole cone generally has to do with storage and filtering considerations, with pellet hops requiring less space to store and cone hops providing better filtration. However, for me an even more important question remained: which one makes the best beer?

| PURPOSE |

To evaluate the impact of dry hopping a split-batch of the same beer with either pellet hops or whole cone hops.

| METHOD |

I knew before getting started that an important aspect of this investigation would be finding the right hops, primarily because they are a highly variable agricultural product, meaning what one distributor offers is often completely different than what can be purchased from another distributor. To minimize these differences as much as possible, I purchased a pound each of 2014 Centennial pellet and cone hops from Hops Direct as soon as they became available. My thinking here was that sourcing the hops from a farm that grows and processes their own crop would increase the odds that both versions would be of similar quality and chemical makeup (i.e, AA%, oil levels, etc.). Moreover, I decided to stick with a single hop variety to keep things simple and not muddy the waters. Upon arrival, I gave the hops a quick smell test.

I picked up a surprisingly strong lemon aroma from these hops with some subtle yet noticeable floral notes. They smell great– pungent and delicious! The aroma from the pellet hops was significantly more subdued compared to the whole cone, which smelled much stronger, brighter, and sweeter. The differences were fairly obvious, one that I definitely was not expecting since these hops came from the same exact source. It was time to get brewing!

I settled on a Bell’s Two Hearted IPA clone based roughly on the recipe provided by scientifically minded blogger, Sean Terrill.

Two Hearted (f)Ale Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM OG FG ABV 8 gal 75 min ~54 IBU 11 SRM 1.079 SG 1.013 SG 8.6 % Fermentables Name Amount % Domestic 2-Row 18 lbs 85.71 Munich Light 2.25 lbs 10.71 Crystal 40 12 oz 3.57 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Centennial 38 g 75 min Boil Pellet 8.9 Centennial 28 g 20 min Boil Pellet 8.9 Centennial 28 g 10 min Boil Pellet 8.9 Centennial 50 g F/O – 20 min stand at 202°F Steep Pellet 8.9 Centennial 28 g 10 min stand, added at 180°F Steep Pellet 8.9 Centennial 60 g/keg Dry Hop – 1 week Aroma Pellet/Cone 8.9 Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature SafAle US-04 English Ale (x 2) Fermentis 72% – 75% 59°F – 75°F

This ended up becoming one of those lovely brew days where everything went perfectly… wrong. I really wanted to nail this recipe but it seemed the beer gods had it out for me. I undershot my mash temp by 4°F, milled my grain fine enough to reduce the recirculating wort to a trickle, clogged my kettle hop filter while recirulating during the hop stand, spilled a bunch of wort, burnt my arm, overshot my OG by .017 points… I’m venting. It was at this point I poured myself a nice big glass of my version of Kate the Great Imperial Stout. Things began to look up.

I eventually chilled the wort to about 85°F, transferred it to my corny keg fermentation vessel, and placed it in my chest freezer to finish chilling. It reached my target pitching temp a couple hours later, at which point I proceeded to oxygenate the wort, pitch my yeast, then turn on Netflix in an attempt to forget what had just happened.

The beer was fully attenuated by the following week, dropping to the expected FG of about 1.013.

It was finally time to start the exBEERiment! The finished beer would be evenly split between 2 “secondary” kegs and dry hopped separately. I wanted the hops to float freely in the keg and not be hindered by a hop bag, as I figured this would provide the best conditions for the hop oils to mix with the beer and ultimately optimize aroma. I repurposed two stainless mesh dry hoppers I had lying around to serve as keg hop blockers by drilling a hole in the top and attaching them to the end of each dip tube.

After sanitizing each keg, I measured out 60 grams each of cone and pellet hops, adding them to their respective kegs.

I then repeatedly pressurized and purged the empty kegs, a process intended to rid the keg of all oxygen, which I believe is crucial for IPA (xBmt?). Next, approximately 2.5 gallons of beer was transferred to each keg using a closed transfer system, which is as simple as pressurizing the primary keg then using a “jumper” to connect and push the beer to another keg.

I allowed both beers to rest on the dry hop additions at room temperature for a week, leaving them attached to the CO2 to carbonate. When the time came, I sanitized two more empty kegs and transferred the finished beer to them, putting my makeshift blockers to the test for the first time.

They worked perfect! I immediately put the beers on tap and excitedly pulled a couple test samples to compare. The pellet dry hopped beer was significantly more hazy upon first sample, while the beer dry hopped with whole cone was looking pretty good.

Both beers cleared up rather nicely a few days later and looked essentially identical by data collection time.

| RESULTS |

In August 2015, we began utilizing a 1-tailed binomial proportions test, a more appropriate and slightly more liberal statistic than the the 2-tailed test. Following this change, we reran all of our prior xBmt data to test for changes in significant results. This xBmt was identified as being significant (p=0.029) utilizing the new statistic when previously we said it had failed to achieve significance.

In all, 14 people participated on the tasting panel, all of whom were provided no information about the nature of the xBmt. Each participant received 3 samples of beer, 2 of which were dry hopped with pellets and 1 that was dry hopped with whole cone hops. The tasting panel included 3 homebrewers, 4 BJCP Certified judges, and a BJCP Provisional judge; all participants regularly enjoy drinking and evaluating craft beer.

Given the sample size, statistical significance would be achieved if 9 or more of the participants accurately distinguished the beer dry hopped with cone from the 2 dry hopped with pellets. Of the 14 people on the tasting panel, 8 (57%) correctly selected the different beer sample. From a purely statistical standpoint, this does not conclusively prove there is a strong perceptible difference between a beer dry hopped with pellets compared to one dry hopped with whole cone hops.

After making their triangle test selection, each taster was then asked about how confident they were in their selection. The responses here yielded interesting results:

– Of 2 participants indicating they were not very confident, neither were correct

– Of 6 participants indicating they were somewhat confident, 4 were correct (67%)

– Of 5 participants indicating they were very confident, 4 were correct (80%)

– Of 1 participant indicating they were absolutely certain, 0 were correct

Extrapolating from this data, we can at the very least conclude that confidence is to some degree correlated with selection accuracy, which I find to be rather interesting.

There was nearly unanimous agreement among the 8 correct participants that the beer dry hopped with whole cone hops had a fresher, stronger, sweeter, and generally more pleasing aroma compared to the beer dry hopped with pellet hops; only one person described the aroma of the beer dry hopped with whole cone as being “less hoppy.” The pellet hop beer was described as having a smoother and milder flavor, with one person saying they experienced far less hop flavor in it compared to the whole cone beer. While 5 of the 8 tasters guessed this xBmt had something to do with hops or aroma in general, none specifically mentioned hop type (pellet vs. cone) or dry hopping as being the variable investigated. In terms of taster preference, it was split right down the middle.

My impressions: You just read the results of the tasting panel survey, that there are no statistically significant differences between these two beers. Well, my initial experience couldn’t have been more different! When I first triangle tested myself (served blindly by someone else), I perceived the beers as smelling strikingly different, making the correct choice obvious. In the introduction to this article, I described the fresh whole cone hops as having a stronger, sweeter, more lemony aroma that packed a bigger punch compared to the fresh pellet hops. This is exactly what I was getting from the finished beers upon my own evaluation.

I realized something interesting while analyzing the data that may provide a potential explanation for these results. The first 4 participants evaluated the beers within days of it being racked from the dry hop keg to the serving keg. They all chose correctly. That’s right, everyone in this first trial perceived the beers as being different. At the time, this xBmt seemed like an obvious slam dunk. Then life happened and I wasn’t able to administer the evaluation for about a week, during which the beers remained untouched in the kegerator. I finally cajoled a couple more beer drinking friends into participating and was stunned to discover they both selected the wrong beer. Out of curiousity, and for science of course, I sampled the beers side by side again. To my utter surprise, and despite my obvious bias, the perceived difference was nill.

What the hell? How could that unmistakably strong hop aroma fade so quickly?

Apparently, the nuances of dry hop aroma can fade far faster than I ever expected. I went on to collect additional data for this xBmt at the Pacific Gravity Homebrew Club meeting the following week.

Again, many had difficulty choosing which beer was different, and even those who chose correctly reported the differences as being very subtle. A couple tasters noted something interesting that I had previously missed– the head on the beer dry hopped with whole cone hops dissipated slightly quicker than that of the beer dry hopped with pellets.

This was a result I had not expected and makes me wonder to what extent the additional plant matter from the whole cone hops affects head retention.

| DISCUSSION |

The question I originally posed for this xBmt was simple: which is better for dry hopping, whole cone or pellet hops. Based on the statistical data alone, it seems both contribute similar aromatic qualities when used for dry hopping. So, take your pic, it probably doesn’t matter.

However, my takeaway is slightly different. Given the fact the first few participants were easily able to distinguish between the 2 beers, I’m comfortable accepting that beers dry hopped with whole cone hops will be noticeably more intense when fresh, the intensity fading over time, eventually dropping to a level similar to that of a pellet dry hopped beer. This will definitely impact my decisions when it comes time to design recipes in the future, perhaps it will yours as well.

Thanks for taking the time to read this article, it was a ton of fun for me! Cheers to Marshall for his invaluable help, to my friends who agreed to participate, and especially to Pacific Gravity Homebrew Club for graciously contributing some great test subjects. I’ve got a ton more exBEERiments planned so keep your eyes peeled. Until next time, cheers!

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