How bad is it to pick hops early?

My hops weren't quite ready to pick, but I had to leave town so I picked them anyway, dried them as much as I could (not quite enough) and shoved them in the freezer as I was leaving for the airport. Is it really detrimental to use them? They smelled nice, but weren't quite papery when I picked them, I think they could have stayed on the bines for another week or so. Should I use them or dump them?

At the perfect time, the lupulin, AA and oil content supposedly reach their peaks. Picking early means those metrics are somewhere lower down their respective curves.

There's nothing "bad" about that - and in fact I'd wager most new home growers pick early by at least a week if not a whole lot more and still get a decent kick from their harvest.

So I'd definitely use them, and if you didn't get them down to around 20% of their wet weight and vacuum bag them, I'd use them sooner than later...

Cheers!

Thanks. I would hate to have to toss them.

They should be fine. As mentioned, their AA% and aromatic potential may not be quite at their peak, but if they still smelled nice enough while harvesting they should make good beer.

I picked some of mine early too. And I'm unsure that I would know precisely when to pick anyway. But on Monday I used them in an APA, all late additions. My bittering was from tested commercial hop pellets. The 10, 5, and 0 minute hops are homegrown. If you are really concerned, do a small test batch. But I'm not worried about mine.