Interesting Hops Situation...need advice/guidance

[el beero]

Hi board-
Recently a co-worker told me that her friend has a batch of hops growing in his backyard that are mine if I want them. Of course I told her I wanted them...needless to say! What I did also tell her was to wait until I could gather more information about what to look for to decide when they are ready to harvest. Any advice to pass along? I dont think that I will be able to look at them myself, so if there are general guidelines that would be great.

The second part of the question is what to do with them after I get them. I have a vacuum sealer..should I take any steps to try to dehydrate them first? Do I break them up when I put them on a tray in a low oven to do this? Or should I just stick em in the bag and store them until I am ready to use them.

I also have no insight into what kind of hop they may be let alone their strength regarding AAs...any thoughts on determining this or suggestions for their use?

Looking forward to hearing what you all have to say!! Thanks in advance.

[iahebert]

As far as determining the AA%'s etc, i don't have an answer, but my understanding is you can google hops, and then you should be able to determine what type of hop it is by comparing it to the hop. If they're green and starting to brown a bit on the tips, i think that's a good sign they are ripe and ready.

Regarding the storage, drying, etc. I had a similar situation a few weeks back. We turned the oven on to 200 and basically put the hops on any cookie sheet we could find, and dried them in the oven for about 10 mins. After that, I set them on a table with a fan blowing on them overnight and they were dry the next day. I weighed them out, slapped them into ziploc freezer bags and was good to go. I didn't worry about breaking them up. Just separate the cone from the leaves/branches, and that should be all.

This was my first time harvesting and drying hops, and it looked like it went ok.

hope that helps!

[emmjr]

check out the "hop harvest" thread in the "how to" forum. there is some good info on what to look for when harvesting.

[HopsHerder]

Here in the PNW, mid August to mid September is time to harvest depending on the variety. Weather has a lot to do with the times as well.

Personally I harvest Hops only when the cone is dry and the yellow powdery Lupulin falls freely and is sticky.

Never apply heat to Hops (except in wort), if you dehydrate do not use a heat source, just air movement.

Dry cones will freeze for months, once thawed, I do not recommend re-freeze.

Just my experience…
hh

[el beero]

Thanks all-
I gave the info from the other forum to my friend and am curious what will come of it (I have no idea as to how much or whatr variety etc).

[el beero]

So...I got the hops from my co-worker and was able to successfully dry them and freeze them (6 oz) for future use (as in, as soon as I can get my but to the HBS!). They certainly smelled 'right' however there were no yellow lupulins to speak of...so I guess I am preparing myself for the possibility of some really bad beer? I was thinking of making a cream ale, or something else VERY mild so that I can try to really highlight the flavor of the hops that I was given. Any suggestions? Thoughts on what Ive got? Other than the lupulins, the cones looked great and dried very easily.

[Otis_The_Drunk]

When you open the flower is there any king of powerey yellow looking substance toward the center?

[emmjr]

When you crush the cone in your hand, does it smell like hops and do you get a sticky substance on your hands?

[markaberrant]

I picked Cascades for 3 hours last night. My fingers were quite yellow when finished.

[el beero]

not so much, mostly leafy...it definitely smells like hops, but not much (if any) yellow powder....

[Mill Rat]

There are some ornamental hop varieties (don't ask me why), and those might be selected and bred for pretty leaves or some such nonsense rather than great flavor and lots of lupulin. Does your coworker know the variety of their hops?

[Mad Scientist]

Determining AA% is a liquid chromatography analysis method. I do not know any labs who do it, and it is probably not cheap (but not too expensive either).