Drying hop cones

[SHRHOP]

Best Regards:

I am grateful who could help finding out which is the best way of storing cones of hop without drying. In these moments I do not have way of drying cone and to turn less of them pellets.

[Moonlight]

Freeze 'em.

[rudge75]

From Freshops

Drying can be done in a good dehydrator, custom made hop dryer, well vented oven, or they can be air dried. If you use heat, the temperature should not exceed 140 degrees F. Cooler temperatures take longer but a higher quality hop is obtained. Under dry weather conditions, I suggest taking a screen off of your house and setting it up in a wind protected area, elevated on each end.
Spread the hops as shallow as possible and fluff daily so moist inner cones are brought to the outside of the pile. If weather is dry and the pile is not too thick they will dry in about three days.

A high moisture content in the cones will adversely affect storability and recipe formulation. The hops are dry when the inner stem of the cone (strig) is brittle and breaks rather than bends. The strig takes much longer to dry than the bracts, so be patient. Pack the hops in an air tight container and store in a freezer until used.

I'd guess that just freezing them won't alleviate the expectation by a brewer that the hops have good storability and weigh correctly to formulate a decent recipe.

Are you talking about a whole crop or just a few plants worth?

[SHRHOP]

Drying hop cones

Initially they are 40 hop plants though the medium or long term idea will be a whole crop.

If the hop cones are dried it's necessary anyhow to freeze them ??
I must drying the hop cones first to store this in the freezer ??
how much temperature and dampness percentage must have the freezer ??
What happens with the hop cones if i store this whithout drying ??
How I can make an simple dryer oven ?? i will be very grateful if you guide me.

Million thanks for your help.

[rudge75]

Initially they are 40 hop plants though the medium or long term idea will be a whole crop.

1. If the hop cones are dried it's necessary anyhow to freeze them ??
2. I must drying the hop cones first to store this in the freezer ??
3. how much temperature and dampness percentage must have the freezer ??
4. What happens with the hop cones if i store this whithout drying ??
5. How I can make an simple dryer oven ?? i will be very grateful if you guide me.

Million thanks for your help.

Processing the hops should have been one of your first concerns, however, you're already into this so try to make the best of a bad situation.

1. Cold storage will extend the shelf life of the hops. If you purge the bags you store the hops in with Nitrogen, and vaccuum seal the bags, that would be ideal.
2. It would be a good idea - moisture left in the hops leads to shortened stability of the oils in hops.
3. I use a 22 cubic foot home freezer for my open boxes of hops. I'm no expert but it's probably -15C. with low humidity.
4. If you store the hops without drying, they won't be able to be weighed out correctly by the brewers that use them, they won't be consistent, and they won't be able to store for long periods without degrading. All of these will make the crop useless to brewers.
5. I'm not sure how to make a large dehumidifier. When I've grown hops before, I just set them out on a screen for a few days and then checked the inner strig by trying to snap it. You'd need a low humidity in a dark room for a number of days for the amount of plants you have.

One of my main concerns for you is: supposedly undried hops stored at room temperature or higher in bulk are self combustible (they can start a fire). Although I've never seen this myself, others may be able to attest to the claims. I guess as they decompose, they become quite hot.

Ralph from Hopunion - the moderator here - should be able to give you further advice. I'm wondering if he's just been busy in the fields.

[Moonlight]

If you don't dry the hops, they must be frozen or they will mold-any temp above freezing is not enough.
If you want to dry them, they can be kept very cool without freezing. There are standard ideal moisture contents for storageability that HopUnion will likely provide here. Combustion is a problem only with high alpha hops and improper moisture levels that, I believe, really are only relevant in compressed bales.
To check moisture, weigh a sample of hops with the most precise scale you have. Next, take this sample and dry in a kitchen oven on low heat until they are very brittle. After weighing a second time, the difference is the moisture, and the math should be easy. A triple beam scale is ideal for this. From here you can determine the equivalent amount of your "wet" hops to use as compared to normal-moisture (11?%) commercially prepared ones.
But I must ask, if you have fresh hops, why would you want to dry them and lose that incredible and irreplaceable fresh hop character?

[Gael]

Simple hop dryer

The first question for building the simplest hops dryer is the humidity of your air. If you are in a wet area, you'll need additional heat and air blowers. Those of us in dry areas can get away with ambient air.

Assuming Bogota is pretty humid, you need some sort of furnace with a hot air blower, pushing the hot dry air through the hops. A household furnace, grain dryer or some such thing would do the trick. Build it into the lower area of a building big enough to house the hops you plan on drying, so that the hot air can circulate. Add a passive turbine or vent at the other end of the building to vent moist air. As for the inside: massive hops dryers here put the furnace right underneath the hops, with a metal mesh floor covered with burlap sacking, on which you spread the wet hops. Hot dry air is pushed through the hops and vented out the top of the building. For smaller amounts, or less intensive buildings, a series of 4-6" deep "drawers" with mesh screening on the bottom, placed in racks with lots of airflow around them, will allow you to dry a lot of hops in a small space, with the added advantage that you can keep small amounts of different varieties separate, and can monitor each "drawer" separately.

And of course, if you are planning on increasing production, you will need some way to keep the hops dry and mold-free - vacuum sealing and freezing are standard.