Brown Hops

[superhero]

Hello Everyone,

I have a situation where my home grown hops have turned from the traditional green to a very crispy brown on the bine. I am not sure if the warm Autumn we had earlier on had anything to do with it but it seems the hops turned from green to brown in a very short time. What do you do with brown crispy hops I hear you ask? Well the simple answer is to use them as flavour/aroma hops. This I got from the magical Internet but it does make some sense. The brown hops are a lot drier than the green ones and have probably lost some of their bitterness so the less time these "abnormal" hops have in contact with the wort the better.

Now, I haven't brewed for quite a long time because I'm waiting to a new brewery to magically appear. Should this happen soon I'll let you know how a test batch with the brown hops goes otherwise it'll be quite a while before I have an answer .... hint, hint maybe someone already has an answer (subtlety have never been one of my strong points).

May your hops not turn brown on you.

Cheers

superhero

(I thought this signoff was supposed to appear automatically, maybe it does)

 

[waggastew]

Hmmm, pick em, dry em, and let us know how you go......BUT next year, pick em and dry em when they are green, fat and juicy

Main thing with brown hops is to dry them well so you don't get weird dry/decomposing flavors. I am sure they will be OK.