BeerBorg

I harvested two 5 gallon pails of hops today. I barely made a dent in the vines, sat all afternoon picking them. Man, does my garage smell awesome!! This is the first year they went nuts and gave me tons of cones. Funny thing, or not, with them going nuts this year, the rest of my garden cwap'd out big time, very late wet stormy spring, much wind and hail many times, garden... may it rest in peace before it got started. What started out finally, got killed 2 nights ago with 30 degree temps.. lol, and through all this, the hops went nuts, go figure. O-well, not much to do for canning, but sure got alot of fresh hops to brew, which I desperately need to do!!


Anywayz, has anyone used wet hops in brewing, ie not dried out? I have 5 gallon pail each of Cascade and Nugget. I think I will do a quick SMASH to see where they come in at. I need to get it started pretty soon as I'm going to be spending a lot of time in Seattle the next couple months. Any suggestions? I have around 40 lbs of pale malt on hand for a smash, maybe only do up 2 gallon batch. I want to hops to shine but not overpower, a balanced brew leaning towards taste from the hops, not the malt.

Use 'em quick! They'll start to dry out after a day or two and at that point you might as well dry 'em completely and freeze 'em.
Wet hops rule of thumb is to use about 4-6X as much as you would for dried whole leaf hops, because a lot of the weight when they're fresh is water.

I would use any proven recipe for pale ale and convert for fresh hops.
I would not dry hop with them for fear of infection.

Just curious on how you use them. Do you just chuck them in whole, or do you cut them in half or chop them up a bit to expose all the hoppy goodness inside of them?

I'm very jealous. Well, not the picking part but the amount of hops part!

BlackDuck wrote:Just curious on how you use them. Do you just chuck them in whole, or do you cut them in half or chop them up a bit to expose all the hoppy goodness inside of them?

Good question! Do I throw them in whole or chop-chop? Maybe throw them in a processor for quick spin? Inquiring minds need to know!

How does this look? If alright, I'm warming up the EBiab to do in a few minutes. I will weigh out twice the amount of hops, give them a quick chop and into the boil.

Cascade Test
American Pale Ale (18 B)
Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 2.50 gal
Boil Size: 4.39 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 3.39 gal
Final Bottling Vol: 2.13 gal
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage
Date: 02 Oct 2018
Brewer: John
Asst Brewer:
Equipment: Cajun Turkey Fryer
Efficiency: 68.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 88.4 %
Taste Rating: 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 100.0 %
0.9 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 2 21.7 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 3 18.1 IBUs
Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color
Est Original Gravity: 1.049 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.2 %
Bitterness: 39.8 IBUs
Est Color: 3.2 SRM
Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %
Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Mash Profile
Mash Name: BIAB, Light Body
Sparge Water: 0.00 gal
Sparge Temperature: 168.1 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE
Est Mash PH: 5.72
Measured Mash PH: 5.20
Total Grain Weight: 5 lbs
Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Tun Temperature: 72.0 F
Target Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Acid Addition:
Sparge Acid Addition:
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Saccharification Add 19.01 qt of water at 155.0 F 147.9 F 90 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 7 min 168.0 F 10 min

Sparge: If steeping, remove grains, and prepare to boil wort
Mash Notes: Brew in a bag method where the full boil volume is mashed within the boil vessel and then the grains are withdrawn at the end of the mash. No active sparging is required. This is a light body beer profile.
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Keg
Pressure/Weight: 12.54 PSI
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 45.0 F
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage
Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Carbonation Used: Keg with 12.54 PSI
Age for: 30.00 days
Storage Temperature: 65.0 F

Unless you have them laying around too long, hops are antimicrobial and also a preservative so you can safely dry hop with them. But if you decide not to dry them and use them 'wet', the longer you wait, the more you need. I'm not sure about the ratio but you can google that but I think I read it's like 5 or 6 to 1 compared to pellet hops.

As soon as I get this going, I'm going to bring out my dehydrator and start drying hops. I'm thinking 3 hours on medium should dry enough?

Beer-lord wrote:Unless you have them laying around too long, hops are antimicrobial and also a preservative so you can safely dry hop with them. But if you decide not to dry them and use them 'wet', the longer you wait, the more you need. I'm not sure about the ratio but you can google that but I think I read it's like 5 or 6 to 1 compared to pellet hops.

I think I have read that the last couple days somewhere. I'll times it by 5 for this batch. It will be fun to see where the pucker factor leads on this one!

5 to 1 is considered a conservative ratio.

Yes, they start to degrade immediately, and quickly. And immediately means in minutes. Hop growers pick the hops and immediately dry them and make them into pellets as fast as they can.

Oh, and they're hop bines, not hop vines. Use that knowledge to become the life of the party over the holidays. Should go over big in the Dakotas!

A vine plant climbs using tendrils that grow out of its stem whereas a bine climbs by wrapping the stem itself around what it is growing on.

Vine example:



Bine example:

I don't know what temperature medium is on your dehydrator, but i usually set mine to about 90 or 95 and let out go all night. If you dry at a high heat, you can damage the hop acids.

Closer to 8 or 9 hours at the heat bpgreen suggested.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/2013/09/0 ... t-results/

To start with FIT, I thought you said you couldn't grow hops up where you are? Looks like a great harvest to me. I guess each dehydrator is different but takes me about 10 hours at 90 - 95 to get them dried down to where I want without cooking them.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016090 ... c418e5.jpg

Welp, I was kinda surprised as to how well they took off myself. First round, 3 hours at 135 and they are like paper so I bagged those. This round is going at 3 hours at about 100. If I have to dry them at 90 degrees for 10 hours.. LOL, the amount I have will take til next year. Sure hope they come out ok as I did it. I'll get it done I guess. I would love to dry them outside on a screen but I don't think it would go well with our nights below 30 now. It got cold quick, caught me with my... garden down. I barely got my camper winterized before it hit, literally by hours.