Dryin' em

[normanh]

I was given a small quantity of fresh hops yesterday by a friendly brewshop in Aldershot, I am currently drying them in an old pillow case rattling around in an old tumble dryer we have - seems to be working well so far and its filled the house with a nice aroma, trying for 30 mins to start with.

Norman

[Blackaddler]

If the cones break up with that method, I think that you'll probably lose a lot of the lupulin to the pillow case.

[normanh]

just finished after a 40 min cycle and there doesnt seen to be too much degredation. based on experience in drying other vegtable material a tumble dryer is a pretty gentle form - i worked for 13 years in tobacco specializing in leaf tobacco processing.

Norman

[Mr. Dripping]

just finished after a 40 min cycle and there doesnt seen to be too much degredation. based on experience in drying other vegtable material a tumble dryer is a pretty gentle form - i worked for 13 years in tobacco specializing in leaf tobacco processing.

Norman

The lupulin glands are inside and between the leaves....the action of the tumbler will dry them and shake the powdered lupulin out of the cone. So although cosmetically the cone looks good, there is a fair chance some/all of the lupulin is gone.
I would also beware of the dryer temperature; some of the aromatic hop oils that you are trying to preserve have flash points of around 40 deg C IIRC......that's why your house smells so good. ATB

[normanh]

The temperature inside didnt seem to rise that much as I kept checking, I cant see it being that much more that having a big sodding fire underneath burning some sulphur as in a traditional oast house of years gone by.

Anyhow they cost nothing so nothing lost.

Norman

[keith1664]

As mentioned earlier, my hair dryer powered mini oast house making it's annual return from the loft.

[bigchris]

I use my BIAB bag. Put the hops in that and lay it flat in the airing cupboard (towels have to go elsewhere for a few days). I turn it over a few times per day and they're dry after two days. then vacuum pack them. I bought an Andrew James vacuum sealer off e-bay for around 40 quid, does the job just great. 8 bags packed and in the freezer. Did one brew (stout) using the green hops for bittering and aroma. Should be putting that into the keg later today, ready for Bonfire night, hopefully real good for Christmas.

[hophit]

I just dried my first ever harvest from my cascade plant and got 200g dried. Who said hops don't produce in their first year?!

I spread them out on sheets of newspaper on the fan oven shelves. Set the temp to 40
celcius which I think is about the temp of an oast house and left the door open about an inch for air exchange. Took about 4 hrs to get them to 1/5 their original weight.

I stuck 'em in placcy bags in the freezer and can't wait to use them next weekend. I really hope they are better than bought ones because it has taken most of the day to pick and dry them and so not at all economical when it only costs a few quid to buy that many!

I noticed that even using this method quite a lot of the yellow lupulin fell out during hadling/bagging. I'd imagne therefore that the tumble drier method will lose most of it!

[Padalac]

i've finally picked mine and got it drying on cardboard sheets laid on a clothes horse/

[Blackaddler]

Don't forget to cover the hops with a sheet or two of newspaper. Hops degrade very quickly in daylight.

[Padalac]

ahh i didn't think of putting newspaper over them, but i have them in the darkest area of the house, out of any direct light.. i hope this is enough. i'll cover them in paper tonight perhaps.

they are getting fairly dry, nad fell quite dry now, but the stems are still bending, rather than breaking.. i rubbed one and a couple of petals came off, but i wouldnt say they were falling off easily. whats interesting is that the aroma from them (challenger) seems far better and more pungent than the challenger hops i've bought from the internet.. are the english hops we're getting in 100g bags crap quality??

[IronBlue]

I used two mesh net drawstring bags (Speedo swimming bags). Hung them from the shed roof and put a desk fan right against the side of each bag. Took 2 days to get them bone dry - I moved them around in the bags a few times a day. 30 litres volume of hop cones (Cascade) came down to 860g dried.

[bluezephyr]

Growers of a certain herbal plants have driers that hang up, made of mesh and a few tiers of shelves.

East to search for on google.

[domejunky]

I've been doing a fair bit of research into this. I was underwhelmed by air drying last year. Driving past an oast house in Selling at dusk I was struck by the massive gas burner - lighting up the sky.

I found these papers from Wye college:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10 ... bcd4df9c23

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10 ... b192dbe3ab

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10 ... 45e02b0919

What piqued my interest was the temperature and the use of sulphur, and a suggestion that the sulphur might have an effect on the oils in the hops. So I've been trying to replicate in my fan oven.

My Cascades I think I overdid it, but my Bramling Cross I think I nailed.

My technique is a cardboard box the same size as the fan oven, with as many holes as you can be bothered with. Oven set to 50 degrees celcius. Then 2 campden tablets in a jam jar lid covered with water, which I replenish after 2 hours. 4 hours total seems to get them dry enough for me. I freeze them after this so I'm not that concerned with getting them too dry.

Pete

[Padalac]

anyone get these links to work - didnt work for me?