How they make hop pellets at Oregon's first hop pellet plant
Friday, March 5 2010
A visit this week to the Indie Hops hop pellet plant, Oregon's first, showed the fascinating process of converting hop flower clusters into the small, greenish pellets most brewers use.
First, grab a 200-pound bale of hops from the giant walk-in refrigerator and take it over to the shredder. From there, a complex automated process begins:
The shredded hops make their way over to a screening system that pulls out most of the seeds and other stray materials that make their way into a bale. Then it's on to the hammer mill, which grinds the shredded hops into dust and releases their oils.
The dust gets sucked up a duct and down a cyclone where it mixes with the pulverized hops, and the mixture falls into a bin. An elevator takes the mixture up to a pellet mill, which presses the mixture through a die to form small pellets.
Because the pellet die creates a lot of heat that could affect the hop flavor, the pellets are quickly dropped into a cooler. Another elevator takes them up into a bin.
The pellets then drop through into a bag, which gets sealed, refrigerated and shipped to your local brewery. Hop pellets are easier to store than whole hops, not to mention easier to measure and clean up.
In the end, even the perfect hop pellets only go so far. Brewing a good IPA is still an complicated, beautiful art.
Credit: Justin Carinci
