Hey BeerAdvocate Community! I recently started getting into home brewing and looking at ways to purchase hops besides from my local shop. Is there a few websites that you would recommend for this and possibly ways to purchase directly from boutique farmers? Thanks!
If you're just getting into home brewing...buying from boutique hop farmers probably t'ain't the best way to go. Boutique hop farmers...such as they are...offer only whole leaf hops. IMNSHO...noobrewers should stick with pellets which means your LHBS is the best way to go for the time being.
I've had success with http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/hops/ and they have a fair amount of other stuff that you can add to a hop order. I don't think they go over on their quantities like some places. Does hopsdirect still give you 20 oz for a purchased pound?
Depends on varietal. Citra and Amarillo that they don't grow is real close and last year I was shorted on Citra and got a bunch of dust. The stuff they grow usually comes in slightly heavy. 18-22 seem to be ball parks.
I like hops direct. Farmhouse and have had good luck with Yakima Valley hops as well. I brew with a lot of whole leaf so I like freshops as well. Prices are the best but some of the best quality hops of the bunch I think.
Not to jump on the bandwagon, but I usually get my bulk hops from Hops Direct. (I am in Washington State btw.) I usually buy aged hops from Fresh Hops, ironically.
[QUOTE="HerbMeowing, post: 2812957, member: 524034"noobrewers should stick with pellets[/QUOTE] Wondering why?
I was just the opposite. I went from leaf as a beginner to almost exclusively pellets (leaf now solely in the hopback and in the keg). Leaf are easier to strain out with a funnel and course filter, have lower utilization (how many new brewers over bitter their beer... I know I did), etc. so I'm puzzled as well (maybe poor storage??).
my advice is to read up on AA%. it not overly complex but knowing your AA% is required. if your supplier can give you some idea of what you are working with then great. otherwise plan to have your beers all over the place. i am all for local but mystery AA% is just not negotiable. you simply can not brew with anything approaching consistency or even drinkable without knowing the AA% of the hops you are using. this is not negotiable and is also a major obstacle for ma+pa farmers. so get some local hops wherever you can, just know that they are very often an unknown ingredient. Cheers.
I'm not sure why billandsuz brought this up, but it's spot on. I have relatively recent experience where the two biggest homebrew suppliers (AFIK) in the country (not ma + pa) had no idea about the specs on the hops they were selling. I hope they fixed that, but I moved on to other suppliers.
If you're talking about NB and MW, I also stopped using them because they stopped vacuum sealing or nitrogen flushing the hops that they re-package from bulk. At least MW had, and since they have merged... I guess that isn't entirely pertinent to the original discussion, but it may be something to consider.
HerbMeowing said: ↑ If you're just getting into home brewing...buying from boutique hop farmers probably t'ain't the best way to go. Boutique hop farmers...such as they are...offer only whole leaf hops. The only way it's not true is if a 700 acre hop farm can considered a boutique operation.
Yeah, but I believe it was you that changed my mind about that fact when a Midwest employee told me the same thing. Odd that they'd be packaging differently. I really don't understand the business relationship those two companies have.
Yep, several months ago they told me they stopped doing it, now they tell me they are. Perhaps they changed? My understanding is that they are basically just different store fronts of the same company. They share the same warehouse and they supply the same things.
