Using fresh Nugget hops

[evoo4u]

One of my neighbours here in SE Qld (on the range - 2000 ft elevation) has some Nugget hops looking as though they're about ready for the kettle. From the photo, can you tell if they're ready to pick?

THEN - how to use them in a recipe. Pellets are usually around 13%AA, and used for bittering, I understand. So how do you use fresh Nugget hops in say, an IPA? Can you use them for flavour and aroma as well, or are they best used in conjunction with other hops (pellets)?

In summary:
1) Are they ready to harvest?
2) When harvested, what needs to be done to them to use them - drying?
2) What AA% would be safe to assume?
3) Bittering only, or BF&A?
4) Recipe recommendations (AG)?

Thanks guys - I had a perusal of the HOPS section, but couldn't find all the answers.

 

[manticle]

Unless you get them analysed, you won't know aa%.
You can do a number of things.
1. Use late only, paired with known aa% bittering hops.
2. Take a punt.
3. If you have enough, brew same recipe a few times starting with 1 but replacing pellets bit by bit with cones and comparing. Rough palate analysis basically.

As for being ready to pick - they should feel dry and papery but with sticky yellow lupulin apparent within the cone and on fingers when rubbed. They should not be brown.

There is a good guide in the article db on growing which includes harvesting.
While you can wet hop a beer, general practice is to dry them out first which will lose a lot of mass.