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?

[Dougal]

Do it.

I tried Ballast Point Schooner Wet Hop beer at the festival the other week- amazing beer, caught lots of the ephemeral flavours that must be lost in drying. I see there's a new Jamil Show podcast up on wet hopping. Haven't listened but as it's not exactly rocket science to put fresh hops in beer, I'm not sure what they'll add to the subject. I did a wet hop saison with Smoothcone and 3711 last year and it was interesting... mostly in a good way.

[Christian]

Here you go - 1 Kg of wet Cascade:

[Chad Keven]

nice one, ive got hops comin out my ears gonna dry on a square frame with curtain net stappled to it should work if it doesnt rain

[mattd2]

NIice, is that hops in the mash? Very intreging!

Whats up with the 2 returns on the MLT as well?

Cheers.

[Christian]

We used the mash tun as a hop back (pumped the majority of the wort onto the hops, steeped for 10 mins and then pumped back into kettle for cooling). This is Dale's (Dale's Brewing Co.) gear - think he's played round with a few different set-ups thus the two returns.

[Glynn cleaver]

Mine are in there first year and are only starting to form buds could be our crap year our tomatos are only starting to turn red out here Kirwee might not be prime hop growing area

[David Upex]

Mine are the same in Christchurch city still forming, I picked one flower and it did not have much aroma, not any of the sign of yellow (lupulin) inside does the aroma come on as they reach maturity? Is the aroma a good indicator of when to pick? Do you get male and female hop flowers?

[Sam Nelson]

I have a bit of a situation, my hops are getting there.. smelling amazing and the lupulin glands are starting to yellow up now... were green a few days ago but some seem to be going yellow.

The problem is I get married this weekend and will be going out of town for over a week... so I either pick the hops early... and throw them in my makeshift drying room for the 10 days we are away... or leave them on the vine and pick them when I return.

My drying rig is in the garage and consists of saw horses with net curtain material stapled across them this will allow for good airflow all the way around.

under the rack I will place the dehumidifier, this should aid in the drying out process for a few days but will fill up with water unless emptied so it wont dry them out too much.

I wont be able to turn the hops after they start drying out but figure with the good ventilation all round this shouldn't matter too much?

Once we return from holiday I will use the vacuum sealer so the hops are airtight then throw them in the freezer till they are needed for brewing.

how does this sound? or should i leave them on the vine till i get back?

[Chad Keven]

i got the soloution= dont get married

and if you cave; just leave them till you get back some of my hops have opened and gone brown but i have just picked mt way around them i just chucked away a few that were past it

[Ralph]

I picked mine last night and put them straight into a brew. My first wet hopped brew! I live in Sydenham in Chch, but the hops are growing on a sunny veranda which is reasonably sheltered. The plant is also in a pot and so might be warmer than one in the ground.

There was definitely yellow lupulin in most of the cones. It will be interesting to see how the beer turns out. I used the wet hop as a flavour addition right near the end of the boil...

[Sam Nelson]

did you weigh how much you managed to get off the vine wet?

[Ralph]

I only got a couple of hundred grams off mine. This will mostly be because I trimmed it back to being only 2 vines so as not to overload the pot and so that it could be kept nicely along 2 eaves of the house.

I really only grew the hop as a bit of an experiment to see how to grow them, and whether I could do it in a pot on the front porch etc. It is a smoothcone and having tried smoothcone in a brew before it is not something I particularly would use much of. Next year I should have hold of cascade, which is something I do like to use in my brewing...