wild hops with pollen on them

Hey guys I was just given a large quantity of wild hops and they are covered in what looks like pollen. How do you suggest I take care of this so that pollen is not floating in my beer. Thanks!

It's lupulin and it's good. Brew on.

That "pollen" is the stuff from the hops that you want. You can remove it by boiling the hops in some wort...

First, you in Australia? New Zealand? Otherwise I'm calling BS.

Assuming you are, what do you mean by "pollen"? Hop pollen is a very, very fine powder that can travel a mile or so. Unless the male is sitting right next to it, its doubtful it would be covered. (BTW, males have pea sized flowers that grow in bunches.)

If it is pollen, then the cones will be unpredictable. You can wash them off, dry them and look for seeds to fall out.

If it is something else, I suppose you should still wash them.

It's most likely lupulin, you can usually see it on the outside of the cone, but cones can get pollen on them too. The bees around here are attacted to my hops and some of them get covered in pollen from the bees. It kind of sucks because when they get wet after that they mold.

Dan I actually live in Washington state. Not down under, not sure why you'd think that. Thanks to everyone else, I didn't know lupulin dried into a powder. But that would make sense. I've just never seen it on commercial bought hops. BSo you think it will just dissolve in the wort?

KnotHeadGrady said:

Dan I actually live in Washington state. Not down under, not sure why you'd think that. Thanks to everyone else, I didn't know lupulin dried into a powder. But that would make sense. I've just never seen it on commercial bought hops. BSo you think it will just dissolve in the wort?

Click to expand...

thats what it does
brew them cones

My misread...I thought you said you just picked them.

Can you post pics? Most likely they were dried to 7% or less and the lupulin fell out into the packaging. Yep, just brew.

Sure I can try to get a pic up. naw these were picked in Eastern WA in September then sun dried. They are very dry. I'll post a pic.

Here's a shot of the bag

Upon close examination it seems that the powder, lupulin is all associated with the central vein inside the cone where I know the glands are.

Yeah, that just the good stuff coming out of the hops. Brew away.

Agreed...throw it all in the pot and give it a little shake the magic dust in.

Otherwise, when you dump out the hops, throw some bread crumbs in the bag and coat some chicken. I did that once and it was....different. Not the best chicken ever, but no one could guess the secret ingredient. Just serve it with an IPA so they have a bitter flavor in their mouth to begin with.

Lupulin chicken huh!? Sounds interesting! Cool thanks all for the help