Pelletizing homegrown Hops?

[GlacierBrewing]

Howdy all,
Has anyone had any luck with drying and pelletizing their homegrown hops? I'm thinking about trying this with mine and would like to avoid any mistakes others have made.
Thanks
Dave

[brewbonghm]

Why pelletize?
Why not just make plugs?
Pelletizing requires hammer-milling, and that is difficult to do w/o exposing all of your volatile oils to O2. If you dry to correct weight and use a hydraulic press you can squeeze out the O2 and reduce surface area. Subsequently cold storage is more effective. Morris Hanbury used to make plugs that, in my estimation, were the bomb-digity.

[GlacierBrewing]

Hi Brewbong,
Thanks for the feedback. Good point on plugs vs. pellets. Do you know of a "build in your garage" method of a plug-maker?
Dave

[billvelek]

Making plugs from 'home grown hops'

Hi Brewbong,
Thanks for the feedback. Good point on plugs vs. pellets. Do you know of a "build in your garage" method of a plug-maker?
Dave

First, let me say that I am very appreciative of the opportunity to post on this forum and obtain very valuable advice for the purpose of trying to start our own brew-pub. In that respect, I am reluctant to furnish a link to another forum ... but since I think it will be a beneficial answer to you and others, I will do so.

Last year I formed the 'Grow-Hops' Yahoo group which now has 2,363 members -- most of whom grow their own hops. The group is exclusively about growing and processing ingredients for beer -- but primarily hops. There have been several, if not many, discussions about precisely this topic -- making plugs out of homegrown hops -- so if you don't find satisfactory answers here, I suggest that you take a look at our group, including the message archives. Again, I'm not trying to steal any members from this group, so please forgive me if this is considered improper. Besides the "Yahoo" group, we have our own 'grow-hops.com' website where we are in the process of developing a 'Wiki'.

For more info, please visit: http://www.tinyurl.com/29zr8r

Cheers.

Bill Velek