Growing Hops 2008
Again referring to "The Homebrewer's Garden", since I haven't actually used this puppy yet.
It should dry several pounds in 24 hours at 110F - 160F. I plan to dry around 95F - 105F, the temp in the greenhouse, and rotate the bins from bottom to top every 8-10 hours. Not that I'm going to have "pounds" of hops. But I will someday.
Two methods of air drying are discussed-
1. In paper bags- Place a small amount of hops in each bag, put in a warm, dry place, shake bags to rearrange hops every few days. Should take a few days to a week.
2. On an old window screen- Same senario as above, but a single layer, in the dark, with good air circulation, cover with cheesecloth if in a dusty area.
You might check with your local library. The book is written by Joe & Dennis Fisher
Mine dried out in two days in my shed on a window screen......ended up with a liitle more than 8 ozs..........
Well, now that we've been watering, trimming, & watching over our hops, it looks like it's getting close to time to harvest, dry, package, & BREW. Ha Ha 
A question that has probably been addressed already- How do we guesstimate our AA%? I was thinking about doing something "green/fresh hopped". Do you just use them for aroma, or put them in the primary, or secondary.
Any hints from experts?? Or, advice so as to not do stupid things.
Most use them for flavoring and aroma because the AA% is a guess.......but I'm going to make a Pale Ale out of the the Cascades I grew......it will either be a highly hopped or low hopped Pale Ale......I really don't care one way or the other...........
Somewhere I heard mention of brewing a small "hop tea" using a known %AA & then compare to a tea with the homegrown. But all that would do is tell you that it's higher or lower, but not by how much.
WTF, it's all beer, it's all good.
I'm pretty sure I'm close to picking. Does anyone have some pics of mature, ready to go, hops.
I'd like something to compare mine to.
Thanks
Brewski wrote:
I'm pretty sure I'm close to picking. Does anyone have some pics of mature, ready to go, hops.
I'd like something to compare mine to.
Here's a good pic from a Charlie Papazian article. http://www.examiner.com/x-241-Beer-Exam … Hops-Essay
I've been doing a lot of research trying to find out when to pick my first year plants. I've heard that because they are first year plants, the lupulin glands might not reach that darker yellow/gold color and will remain a lighter yellow. Another thing to look for is the papery feeling the hops will have when they're ready to be picked. They'll make a crunchy sound when you squeeze them and will decompress and bounce back to their original shape after you let go.
Well, I'm not seeing a lot of lupin, but some of the cones are 2" long.
Here are a few that I picked yesterday morning & dryed overnight. 
I am just curious if first year hops have low lupin production.
Maybe I just need to pick & dry, and then just use a buttload when I brew & see what happens.
I think first year plants are going to have a low lupulin production and that's why the glands don't fully mature and why they can't really be used as a bittering hop. One thing I forgot to mention before was to look for browning of the edges of leaves. That's another sign for when they're nearing harvest time. I picked some last night and I'm holding out on the rest of them hoping they'll mature some more in the next week. I think the colder weather and less daylight are slowing down their growth.
Some of them are getting a little brown around the edges. So, I guess I'll go out this afternoon & pick everything that looks or feels close to mature.
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