Fresh Hops Or Better Dried

[Franko]

Evening Brewers,
I've just harvested a heap of goldings from my hop bush and was wanting to know if I would be better off freezing them fresh or drying them out as I would like to use them as an aroma hop in an upcoming brew.

Beers
Franko

 

[Stuster]

Don't freeze them wet I'd say (even though I've never tried it and there has been some discussion about it recently suggesting it may be ok). If it's not too long till the brew day, keep them in a tupperware or something until then out of the freezer. It's certainly worth trying wet hopping IMO. When are you brewing?

 

[kabooby]

I put all of mine in the freezer after being freshly picked and I am going to use them as a fresh hop. I think I left mine on the bine a bit long as most of them seamed on the dry side already.

Let us know how you go

Kabooby

 

[Franko]

Pumpy and I are thinking of doing a chiswick bitter,I might just freeze them and pull em out on brewday

 

[kabooby]

I can't see a problem with freezing them as they are, I guess I will know for sure in a few weeks.

Kabooby

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Dont freeze fresh hops ! you will burst the lupulin glands and the will oxidise more quickly.Dry them if you want to use them later and store them at refrigeration temps. They will last a lot longer! Only freeze pellets.Use the fresh picked hops as you want.
GB

 

[kabooby]

What happens to the lupulin glands when the hops get pelletized? Surely they get broken in that process.

Kabooby

 

[matti]

Dont freeze fresh hops ! you will burst the lupulin glands and the will oxidise more quickly.Dry them if you want to use them later and store them at refrigeration temps. They will last a lot longer! Only freeze pellets.Use the fresh picked hops as you want.
GB

What about freezing opened vacuum bag of plugs?

 

[Mantis]

I will try to remember this for next year. My 8 cones went into an amber ale last weekend straight off the vine.
Hoping to get some decent yields next year for drying.

 

[matti]

linky

 

[Franko]

The previous pickings about 2 weeks ago I dried on a rack made with flyscreen mesh and noticed a lot of the yellow luplin had drop thru the screen and the finished result was that the hops had lost most of there aroma.Is this normal?

I've just packed the freshies from todays pickings and put them into the freezer

Franko

 

[Franko]

linky

Great link Matti

cheers
Franko

 

[Mantis]

That sure is a great link matti
trouble is, its making my brain hurt :blink:

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Dont freeze fresh hops ! you will burst the lupulin glands and the will oxidise more quickly.Dry them if you want to use them later and store them at refrigeration temps. They will last a lot longer! Only freeze pellets.Use the fresh picked hops as you want.
GB

The above information about whole hops was given by a large hop wholesaler, so I think he knows his stuff.Pellets I believe do suffer some damage during processing but because they are so tightly formed there is less oxidisation.I have stored cones now in the cool room for 2 years and they are fine.So who knows more the hop wholesaler who depends on his knowledge to stay in business or the author of and article in a brew magazine?
I will leave it to you to decide.
GB

 

[Bizier]

I recently listened to the Brewing Network Sunday Session archive where Vinnie Cilurzo from Russian River Brewing was speaking about using homegrown hops. He suggested freezing to preserve volatiles that would otherwise be lost in the drying process. Though I would assume that you would bitter with pellets for uniformity and less vegetal flavours.

Link

ED:

To qualify somewhat, this is in the interests of flavours that do not come from dried hops, and not about long term bittering and or flavour stability. Dried vacum-packed and frozen is definitely best for storage AFAIK.

 

[A3k]

Hey fellas,
what were your results with freash hops put in the freezer.

I just got some Rhizomes (Hallertau and Chinook) and am curious to find out for next year while the topic is fresh on everyone's mind.

Also, how do you estimate the %AA of a hop?

Cheers,
Al

 

[HoppingMad]

Hmmm. Freezing them just seems odd and contradicts everything I've read and been told by experienced people I know.

Guess that's the beauty of brewing - everyone has a different take on it.

Spoken to some really experienced backyard grower/brewers who say dried is best - pretty much what they've told me supports what Gryphon say above.

Some of them have tried brewing with 'wet hops'/undried and say the result is not as good in terms of solid flavour. Both people I spoke to are award winning homebrewers in Melbourne (one just cleaned up in the Westgate Stout Extravaganza) so I'll let you guys make up your mind on this, but when my flowers come out, I'm getting out the screen and drying them up based on what they've said.

Hopper.