Hop Drying Ratio

[Tony]

hey hop growers

Im wondering what the optimal dryimg percentage is for hop flowers.

I want to get them to about the same moisture level as comercial hops.

If i have 100g of wet hops....... what should they weigh when dry to give me the same results as comercial hops?

any help apreciated

Tony

 

[Lecterfan]

Most of my frantic googling last year indicated that they need to end up at about %10 moisture. I was impatient with some of mine (both picked early and not dried sufficiently) and the end result was green vegetal mush... Use fresh or dry properly before storage!

 

[kalbarluke]

In my experience it is roughly a third. For example, I picked 75g of Chinook and ended up with 27g dry. But I have only dried a few batches in a dehydrator overnight so I am not a master.

 

[Malted]

Probably nothing solid to contribute but some more thoughts to consider?
Perhaps it depends on how you dry them? From what I have read they are optimaly dried when the stalk of the cone is dry enough to snap and if rubbed the wrong way the petals/leafy bits of the cone will come off easily. However, I have not had any commercial whole cones or plugs do this. Perhaps that dry may be too dry?

I just spread my hops out on a flyscreen pulled off a window and leave them in my shed away from direct light. I have the sreen supported on the ends such that it allows airflow though it. I turn them daily and depending upon ambient conditions they dry in about 2-3 days or more. This is a simple and easy method and I don't think use of a drying oven is needed. If you had a large soil drying oven or something like that maybe it would be worth trying but I am very skeptical of using a food dehydrator given the small volume you can put in it. Perhaps drying quickly could reduce moisture content but leave them less brittle? Dry seems to be good for storage but brittle doesn't seem to be such a good thing during the brewing process since they appear to break up too easily?

The main thing is not to harvest them too early. Some cones mature at a small size and some at a very much larger size so going by weight might not be as precise as a certain moisture percentage? It seems to be more about the lupulin maturity.

I suppose the important elements might be: moisture content in them may not contribute to flavour since it is the lupulin that is responsible for this, so too much moisture may not be a bad thing (fresh hops aren't neccessarily 'grassy') but perhaps too dry may make them more likely to break up into smaller particles and clog up everything? On the flip side too wet and they may rot or go mushy when stored in the freezer?

 

[goid]

I have read that hops start at 80% then dried till approx 8%. They also add do not exceed 60C when drying.

REF: "Small Scale and Organic Hops Production" by Rebecca Keen

 

[Tony]

dehydrator running at high air. low temp (middle setting) is sitting at 47 deg

I only picked hops that were early sets on the plant, that were starting to brown off and felt pappery

100% agree that the hops need to be ready to pick and letting them sit is better than picking them early. I learnt that lesson last year.



Now running on the 80% to 8%...... that would be a reduction in moisture by 72%

200 x 28% = 56g

time to go weigh.

 

[kymba]

fark, i never thought about this...the last batch i dried were in the dehydrator for about 3 days, no heat just the fan

they are mummified and have about 0.068% residual moisture...what have i done!?

 

[Tony]

:lol: PMSL

I fell asleep on the lounge last night and forgot to turn the dehydrator off. Found it this morning still humming away.

The hops are quite dry but still green and smell great. Weighed in at 44g dry.

Thats a 78% reduction as aposed to the 72 i was after.

All good. I gave them the honor or being the first run in the new vacuum sealer and it worked a treat

 

[kalbarluke]

I dehydrated mine on the low setting at about 35 deg overnight........maybe not enough time or heat?

 

[waggastew]

In my short experience (this and last years harvest) my air dried hops (on a flyscreen in the garage) seemed to stop losing weight after they got to 20% of their original weight. So 100g wet ended up about 20g dry, a 1:5 ratio

 

[drsmurto]

Copied and posted from another post of mine.

I've kept records of wet and dry for all my hops for the past few seasons.

They seem to be quite consistent for a given variety each season but differ between varieties.

My numbers indicate between 15-30% of original weight after drying but that will depend on how early you pick them as to how much moisture they still have.

Like working out the AA% it's a suck it and see experiment :icon_cheers:

 

[mmmyummybeer]

I use a food dehydrator but find I have to rotate the trays a few time to get them to dry evenly. I don't worry about only fitting a smaller amount in as I pick the hops as they mature and not all in one hit. I then vacuum seal them and they last so much longer. I use to use them wet but found them to be too grassy, am getting better results with them dried. I am probable picking them more at their peak now too.

 

[Tony]

OK

All the POR has been harvested, and dried in 6 seperate batches.

The figures of 80% moisture down to 8% moisture were preety much spot on. I got 1495g of wet hops and dried them down to 418.5g.
418.5 / 1495 = 0.28 or 28% residual weight.

But...........

the drying process was uncontroled and each batch ended up different, with residual weights ranging from 22% to 38.3%

154g - 45g = 0.292 or 29.2%
154g - 45.6g = 0.296 or 29.6%
200g - 44g = 0.22 or 22%
357g - 108g = 0.302 or 30.2%
480g - 118.4g = 0.246 or 24.6%
150g - 57.5g = 0.383 or 38.3%

The issue i have with this, is i want consistancy. I cant know exactly what the AA% of the hops is but i can have a good guess and say 8%..... a bit less than comercial. I will brew a regular beer (aussie pale ale) with them at this number and if its too bitter, i will up the AA%, too sweet i will drop it.

but...........

How do i know how much hops to use. We add hops by weight, and with inconsistant moisture levels, that can mean im adding a lot more or less hops due to moisture levels difference (weight).

today i brewed with the 44g of 0.22 ratio hops. They were as dry as dry. They were the ones i left in the dehydrator overnight, and were much drier than comercial whole hops. kind of like the dry crispy wings of a dead moth thats been sitting in the windowcill for a while. The 38% ones feel quite soft and suple in the vac sealled bag.

So running with this 0.28 ratio figure, i have done some maths to give me an equivelent amount, given the wet and dry weights are known.
Take the dry hop amount, devide by its dry/wet ratio and multipy by my 0.28 ratio i want to give a moisture compensated equivelent amount of hops.

44g / 0.22 x 0.28 = 56g equivelent
57.5g / 0.383 x 0.28 = 42g equivelent

the difference between 44g and 56g was 7 IBU in a 35 liter brew of Aussie Ale.

So the first brew will be a suck it and see run to find how close i got with the AA%, but once i know that...... i can acurately calculate how much weight of hops to use no mater what their residual moisture level.



Yes i know...... severe case of beer geekdom

 

[kelbygreen]

haha thats a good idea. I just threw in what I thought with no waight before and after hops got dried, they felt dryer then comercial bought so used few grams more. but this sounds a bit more scientific lol

 

[Doubleplugga]

makes me wonder. i ended up with 2.8kg wet from my first year cascade. the flowers were dried for a week just on a towel on the pool table. total end weight was 578 grams from 2.8kg wet. i actually thoght i would get more weight dried

 

[Feldon]

"you can expect a 6 to 1 weight ratio from green/wet/fresh hops to dried hops (at least that's what I've found) one pound (16 oz) of green hops = approx 2 oz of dried hops"

Found this at :
http://www.nonconfermist.com/2009/08/how-t...ps-at-home.html

 

[Tony]

makes me wonder. i ended up with 2.8kg wet from my first year cascade. the flowers were dried for a week just on a towel on the pool table. total end weight was 578 grams from 2.8kg wet. i actually thoght i would get more weight dried

thats 20.6% residual weight. Interesting!

Its quite possible that your hops were a bit more moisture rich when you picked them. This could be affected by climate, variety, etc etc.

I was only picking the hops that felt dry and papery each time.

If you picked them all at once in one big batch...... you dont really need to worry about this.....

"you can expect a 6 to 1 weight ratio from green/wet/fresh hops to dried hops (at least that's what I've found) one pound (16 oz) of green hops = approx 2 oz of dried hops"

Found this at :
http://www.nonconfermist.com/2009/08/how-t...ps-at-home.html

Thats 56.7 / 453.6 = 12.5%

now either they picked the hops very dry or they have dried them to a bees dick of dust

 

[Doubleplugga]

fair call Tony. MOST of the hops I picked were ripe, papery dry etc. but there was obviously a few that snuck through as i harvested in two batches. I was worried that the ones left on the vine would dry out so i picked them to. first year growing so i will learn from this year and maybe leave them just that little bit longer next year.

 

[Tony]

Ahhhhh no i wasnt saying you picked your hops before they were ready.... more saying that your hops may have been holding a higher moisture content than mine, this the larger loss in weight once dried.

its almost 1am and this maths stuff is doing my head in... time for bed

 

[milob40]

just curious, how do you work out your aa for home grown hops or do you just take an known average from
bought ones?