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JESTER® AVAILABLE IN A NEW FORMAT!
Jester® available in T45
We have been busy here at Charles Faram. Alongside breeding and selecting new varieties, we explored old and new delivery methods. These methods aim to give even more potency to your brews.
Jester® is one of our flagship hops and remains an eternal favourite here. We are also looking closely at other products on the market. This year, we have already scheduled several exciting trials. The first trial batch has just returned from processing. We asked for Jester® to be processed into T45 pellets. Some of you may already know what these are. For those who don’t, we’re here to explain.
What are T45 pellets?
Type 45 pellets are by no means a new invention. To explain the difference, we should begin with how Type 90 pellets are made. Whole hops are chopped into a fine powder, homogenised (mixed) to ensure consistency within the batch and then pressed through a die. These pellets will have had some material removed (leaf and stem) and the moisture content may be slightly lower than the whole hops before processing, so the 90 in Type 90 or T90 stands for 90%. Originally processors would expect 90% of the weight of the whole hops returned as pellets.
Today the process is more efficient and the return is higher than that but the name for the process has remained the same.
Lupulin enriched T45 Pellets
Type 45 pellets differ from Type 90 because producers first freeze whole hops at –20°C and then chop them. Freezing makes the lupulin less sticky, allowing producers to sieve out some plant material. They discard about half of this material and then recombine the rest with the lupulin, pressing it through a die similar to Type 90. In practice, producers can vary the amount of plant material they use, so these pellets are often standardised to an alpha value. As a result, they usually weigh 50–80% of the original hops rather than exactly 45%. Brewers call these lupulin-enriched pellets.
Clean and juicy
So, what was the goal of this project? There are some obvious advantages to Type 45 pellets. The product weight is reduced so shipping is less costly. When dry hopping in the fermentation or conditioning vessel, beer losses are significantly reduced. There are also some less obvious advantages; potentially a cleaner aroma and flavour profile, and the ability to increase dry hopping rates with more juicy characteristics and less funkiness.
Interested in T45 Pellets
When they arrived in Newland these pellets caused a huge stir in the office. We will be trialling them on our own pilot brewery and will conduct sensory analysis alongside the same beer but made with conventional Jester® T90 pellets. We would be delighted for you to try them so please do not hesitate to get in touch with your relevant Charles Faram Sales Representative if you would like to see what they can do for you and your brewery.
