How much extra volume will fresh hops take up in my kettle?

Northern Brewer General
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Hi everyone, I’m brewing my first fresh hops beer today. I plan on brewing an IPA with my own home grown hops! My question is how much extra volume will all this plant matter take up? It’s a big pile of hops (3lbs). I was planning on lots of late additions but I don’t want to run out of space in the kettle. I brew 5 gallon batches and my pot is usually pretty full during the boil. Will the fresh hops take up a lot more room than dry hops? If so how much more?

Thanks

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Well, if your almost full with a 5-er, adding 3 lbs of cones will add volume I don’t think your kettle will handle. When you ask about fresh hops to dry hops, are you still referring to cones or pellets? Sneezles61

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Hi Sneezles, I’m referring to pellet hops vs fresh cones. I’m happy to start of with a lower pre boil volume, I’m just trying to figure out how much extra volume do I need to account for - assuming that the fresh cones will break down once added to the boil.

Thanks

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My very specific answer- a lot. Three pounds of hop cones is a big pile…

Are they fresh fresh, or dried cones? Did you just freeze them wet at harvest time? I guess I only deal in dried cones, but still, I’m picturing something like a paper grocery bag half full of hops. That’s not insignificant.

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So, would you do a more concentrated wort, hop as best your kettle will allow, then top up in the fermenter? Any thoughts to dry hopping, after fermentation is complete? There are some variables you could try, but, I am trying to reflect back to when I processed my hops… Like, a 1 gallon bag size, for a pound of food saver-ed hops? Sneezles61

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Thanks for your specific response Uberculture! Yup - it’s a big pile of fresh hops!
Sneezles - I could go either way - either do a concentrated batch or split it between 2 kettles. I’d prefer to do it all in the same kettle.

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You could add enough fresh hops to reach the “almost too much in the kettle” point, then make up for the excess fresh hops with pellet hops. The problem with that idea is that you have to have an idea of the IBU contribution from the fresh hops.

Good luck, and let us know how your beer works out.

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