Drying Hops

Hello Gardeners Corner,

We have a hops bush growing as an ornamental and felt we should use it. Wasnt sure when to pick them so waited till they were smelly.

I tried drying them in an oven at 50c but they just kinda, wilted, became soft and gross, losing all their flavour. Had to go back for unharvested stuff to replace it

Just spent half the day brewing some beer, its our first all-grain beer and we are using 50% malted wheat 50% vienna malt with a wiesbier yeast. Came out as 1.056 sg so hopefully a nice 5% beer in a few weeks. Cant wait!
We used the hops and the aroma is lovely but gosh are those flowers lightweight, ended up using 150g which was two big bowls worth. Still a kilo left over!

Half a Sainsburies bag worth.


Any idea on how to properly dry the rest so they keep their flavour and aroma?
Thanks!

 

Buy an oast house.

I assume they are dried very slowly with just warm air wafting up through them,but not sure how you can do that in an oven.

 

I think oast houses provided some heat from a kiln at the bottom, which was then drawn up through the hops on the floors above and out of the roof which was turned so the wind drew the warm air out, this was important as the moisture was drawn from the hops and out.
I've seen lavender and herbs dried by hanging over the Aga (or similar) so they have good air circulation. So either hang your hops in the airing cupboard, if that's warm, or over the Aga, if you have one. Failing this I would put them on a wire rack in the oven at about 50°C and leave the door slightly open to allow the damp air to escape.

 

@Adam I
Only just seen this.
Clearly too late for last year but its a perfect excuse to pop in to Hogsback brewery (Tongham) for a chat. They are (very) friendly.....

 

I ended up hanging them in a basket and they did dry but clearly lost lots of their initial aroma. Maybe compressing them into blocks and freezing them is the way

Ill have to check out the tongham equipment though I dont think I need THAT many hops!

 

I used my dehydrator on its lowest setting, then vac packed and it worked very well. Because I had so much I picked the bines over about a week for each variety and the varieties matured in different weeks too, the hops tend to mature on each bine over a week or so so I was able to pick them at peak time . I also froze immediately and used them in wet hop beers and that also worked ok, took up a lot of freezer space though. I grew hallertauer mittelfruh, Chinook and first gold. It's a fair bit of work though, I'd suggest trying to be free to brew heavily hopped wet hop beers mainly for ease and dehydrate some more for future use.

I used to be very into home brewing but have pretty much stopped drinking unfortunately

Here's an old picture of one of the plants

 

I suspect that exploration of hedgrows in your area would provide a good supply of escapees from the previous widescale growth of English hops; one I 'liberated'from the fence of a top security establishment somewhere close to the A30 has thrived on a fence here and produces bountifully each year; but sadly I no longer home-brew.

 

I have seen them in the hedgerows but never thought to pick them. Might experiment with it! I remember the cultivated one having a stronger smell, but maybe thats because it is pampered.

Thanks for the info you two!

I saw them hung up dried in a few pubs west of us as decor, also a good use!

 

We inherited some hops at the back of the garden. They are rampant thugs and I’ve given up trying to eradicate them. I wouldn’t mind so much but we never seem to get any flowers

 

There are male and female ones, maybe yours is male.

 

Or maybe identifies as a fuggle !

 

Can confirm they are tough to remove. This is the crown of a hallertauer one that I dug out. Not all of it, now my allotment neighbours have hop plants. I also had to repeatedly remove shoots for a year or so. Some of the roots were as thick as my arm