Today in 1969, US Patent 3441416 A was issued, an invention of Wilhelm Depmer, for his “Method of Pelleting Hops and Then Solvent Extracting.” There’s no Abstract, but the description states that the invention involves a “method of processing hops [that] includes conveying a mass of previously untreated hops to a compressing station, mechanically compressing the mass of hops, and simultaneously converting it into at least one rod, and thereupon subdividing the rod into individual sections or pellets of desired size which are subsequently subjected to solvent extraction.”
Don’t know diddly about the chemistry/mechanics of the processes involved in pelletizing hops to comment intelligently, but the word “solvent” implies to me something toxic. Someone please enlighten me on what goes on.