Picking my hops. When and then what to do?

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Permalink Reply by Sam Nelson on March 3, 2012 at 10:17am

I too am in this situation, my hops look a little different though... 

im also worried, what effect will this current rain have on the hop crops?

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Permalink Reply by Ralph on March 3, 2012 at 10:38am

Nice hops! Mine are only old smoothcone but it was interesting to see how to grow them. Will get hold of something I actually use to grow next year. What are yours?

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Permalink Reply by Sam Nelson on March 3, 2012 at 10:48am

GAH whats with the photos coming out sideways!

Mine are also smoothcone. 
Has the weather hit you hard?  

This is my first year too so ive got no idea when to harvest, from what people say its when they have a papery feel and the luplin (sp) powder falls out when squeezed. also that when they hold their shape after being squeezed.

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Permalink Reply by Grant R Baker on March 3, 2012 at 10:55am

I haven't done this myself but these to sites recommend dry the hops immediately if you are not brewing straight away.

Link1

link2

Link3

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Permalink Reply by Sam Nelson on March 3, 2012 at 12:07pm

Thanks for those Grant.
based on that mine might be ready now?

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Permalink Reply by Grant R Baker on March 3, 2012 at 2:37pm

Yeah... they look we developed.

I can't quite tell from the photo but the pods inside should be yellowish..

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Permalink Reply by Paul Fraser on March 3, 2012 at 2:38pm

My hops are looking pretty much identical to yours. I have cut them in half and rubbed them in my hands to get an aroma from them and i think they are not too far away but maybe not quite ready just yet. There was some yellow lupulin in there but not as much as i was expecting and there wasn't a huge hop aroma after rubbing them. I've got a lot of young cones too so should get two harvests from the plants i reckon. My pic was taken a week ago.

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Permalink Reply by Dougal on March 3, 2012 at 3:00pm

I read up before picking last year and found the best indicator was the lupulin glands changing from greenish yellow to a sort of warning sign yellow (the US site I was reading said "schoolbus yellow"). Not orange, but all of the green had gone. The hops were lighter and more papery, and more aromatic too. You could smell them when you were working around them. 

Apparently later picked hops have more of that dank, resinous quality, and less citrus and sharp fruit. Must depend on variety though.  

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Permalink Reply by Paul Fraser on March 3, 2012 at 5:41pm

And what method did you use to dry them?? I was thinking maybe on a screen in the attic (away from kids and nice and warm). Had thought about the oven method but one of the links Grant shared advised against this.

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Permalink Reply by Dougal on March 3, 2012 at 10:04pm

I strung up some windbreak over some saw horses in the garage and stuck a fan on the ground blowing across them. Seemed to work pretty well. You want to go until they're quite dry but not so dry that the centre stems are brittle.

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Permalink Reply by Ralph on March 3, 2012 at 10:08pm

I am now thinking that I might just do a brew and throw them in as a fresh hop addition... I probably only have enough for about a brew and so this seems like the easiest solution as then there is no drying required!

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Permalink Reply by Matt Smith on March 4, 2012 at 11:45am

I did this the other day, my harvest was only 170g wet, so I guess that translates to around 34g of dried hops. I just threw it all into a Saison at 5 minutes. I'm pumped on the idea of homegrown hops in a farmhouse ale

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