Can hops be picked too late?

Hey guys, earlier this spring my wife and I bought a house so I decided to take a stab at growing hops in my backyard so I planted 4 cascade hop plants. I know hops are usually harvested in sept but since the weather here in Northern California has been warm I already have hops that are fully
Grown but I can't tell properly if when I pinch them that they spring back, I do know that theleaves closets to the stem are kind of curling,I guess my question is, how long can I leave the hops before harvesting them and will it damage them?
Thanks
Charlie

From what I've read, if you leave cones on the bines too long they'll start developing oniony/garlicky notes, and if you really let 'em rot they'll smell nasty. Definitely not something I'm interested in...

Cheers!

When you think they're ripe, go out and pick one. Rub, sniff and try to remember what it smelled like and felt like. The next day, do the same. Keep doing this for successive days until they smell like they're going down hill and the bracts shatter from the strig. At this point, they're getting over ripe. It takes a few years and each year is different so there's a pretty big learning curve, especially if you train the first shoots that come up in the Spring as some will mature a lot quicker than others so you're left with a bunch of hops in various stages of maturity. Not gonna touch the 'curling' leaves due to the fact that there's a ton of things that can cause that. Rub-n-sniff, rub-n-sniff!

Rub n sniff! I'm good at that lol. Thanks for the help. I don't expect to yield great results as these were just planted this year. Thanks a bunch for the reponses

Here's the indicators I use: ripe hops feel dry to the touch, unripe ones feel a little wet. ripe hops feel the same temperature as the air, unripe ones feel a little cooler. Pick any hop that is developing brown spots they are OK to use, use your good judgement and throw away hops that look too brown.

Here is a hop I pulled. It doesn't smell like anything but green but the outside is dry while the inside is moist

I'd say they still need some time.

That's kinda what I was thinking.how brown should they be?

I don't think you want them brown. But you do want a decent amount of hop dust to burst out when you crack those suckers open. I picked some about 2 weeks too early last year and didn't get the full pop that I should have. My other plant ripened about 2 weeks after that. Huge difference in smell and hoppyness.

roastquake said:

Here's the indicators I use: ripe hops feel dry to the touch, unripe ones feel a little wet. ripe hops feel the same temperature as the air, unripe ones feel a little cooler. Pick any hop that is developing brown spots they are OK to use, use your good judgement and throw away hops that look too brown.

Click to expand...

I should re-phrase, don't just let them turn brown. use the other indicators, and in the process, if you see any that are starting to turn brown pick them immediately.

I've got a first year cascade that I've picked a small amount that, by all indicators I've learned from reading, was ready to be harvested. Now a few weeks later I have another round that appears to be getting close. These are on average much larger than the first round I picked and already have more hop aroma. Is this normal for every year or could it just be that because this is a first year plant and it is maturing more as the season progresses and therefore producing better quality hops?

That's prettycool,sounds like it basically matured quick, is your location hot and dry?

I'm in east Texas. It's hot but its been unseasonably wet. I have irrigation setup to keep it watered though.

The first pic is the first round of hops before I picked them. The last two are what's on the bines now. They still aren't ready to be harvested.

My 2nd year cascades are acting just like that, some of the new cones feel really tight. I've already brewed a one gallon SMaSH IPA with my early harvest to test against commercial cascades. Those look great btw.