Picking my hops. When and then what to do?

[Ralph]

So I have a few hops growing on my front porch. 

They look like this

So... they look like they are ready to pick to me. Is there any optimum time to pick them?

Once picked should I then dry them somehow? What is the best way to do this?

[Sam Nelson]

Im also keen to try a few different styles next year, the hard part is locating them!

[Tilt]

Ralph, thats interesting - I'm keen to know what Smoothcone brings to a beer in the end.  Can you describe more about the characteristics of its bitterness and flavour? I've got limited space for hops at my place and want to know where to put my efforst for a hop I'll look forward to using. Cheers

[Ralph]

Smoothcone seems to have been used to breed a bunch of other hops like Super Alpha, Sauvin, Pacific Gem, Sticklebract and Green Bullet and was grown commercially in New Zealand in the 1960's and 1970's, but it is not grown commercially any more.

I think it would be fine as a bittering hop, but from my experience I would not bother using it as a flavour addition. If you can I would find another type of hop to pop into your garden. Sorry I cant be more descriptive. I tried it in a beer about 6 months ago, and the brewer had used it as both bittering and flavour hop. While the beer was ok, the hop flavours were not anything that had me thinking I specifically wanted to use smoothcone.

Dougal may be able to add a bit more in the way of descriptors of the smoothcone, as it was his hops that were used in the brew I tried?

[Tilt]

Cheers Ralph - useful info.  Sounds like my hop garden might be better dedicated to the Danscade and Mystery German cuttings I have in pots sitting next to the veggie patch. 

[Hutch]

Just picked and dried some smoothcone. To me it smells like grapefruit and passionfruit, less intense than NS and slightly citrusy... not sure how it goes in a beer though, will find out.

[Tilt]

That makes them sound pretty tasty Hutch.  Do you plan to make a Smoothcone single hop beer or to mix them in with others?  Get back to us on how they taste - definitely keen to know.

[Hutch]

Not sure where they fit in my brewing schedule, so it will probably be a while. Single hop sounds like a plan, I've only got 50g dry so it'll be a one-off.

Mystery German picking up next.

[Sam Nelson]

I finally got around to picking last night, ive picked around 1/2 the crop on my smoothcone plant and have filled a banana box already, quite a large amount but they weigh next to nothing... about 900gms total.

Im going to dry them slightly then put them in a vacuum bag and freeze them as i wont be using them for a few weeks or months

[Sam Nelson]

and this is what said 900gms looks like drying out

so 900gms wet at the moment and will re-measure after 3 days on this rack before i vacuum bag them

[MrC]

They look like they're a good color.  I bet they smell great.

My hops were pathetic.  This year I got one less hop than last year.  last year I got one hop :(

[Sam Nelson]

Bummer about the crop, have you worked out where you are going wrong?

My entire garage smells AMAZING!

[Pilgrim]

I would make sure they are well dried or they will rot, mine did last year. I thought I had dried them enough and vacuum sealed them but they all rotted except for the ones I used green.

This year I picked 1.82 Kilos (weight off the bine). I used 200g green and the rest 1.62 Kilos I dried and ended up with 350g. I think they will fair much better this year, although I will use them pretty quickly. Some I dried in the sun, some in a dehydrator and some on racks in the airing cupboard. I think the airing cupboard will be my choice next year.

I wonder if anyone has tried pelletising them through a mincer, hmmmm, must Google that.