how dry is dry?

"Drying can be done in a good dehydrator, custom made hop dryer, well vented oven, or they can be air dried. If you use heat, the temperature should not exceed 140 degrees F. Cooler temperatures take longer but a higher quality hop is obtained. Under dry weather conditions, I suggest taking a screen off of your house and setting it up in a wind protected area, elevated on each end. Spread the hops as shallow as possible and fluff daily so moist inner cones are brought to the outside of the pile. If weather is dry and the pile is not too thick they will dry in about three days.

A high moisture content in the cones will adversely affect storability and recipe formulation. The hops are dry when the inner stem of the cone (strig) is brittle and breaks rather than bends. The strig takes much longer to dry than the bracts, so be patient. Pack the hops in an air tight container and store in a freezer until used."

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brewyourown4life said:

when drying hops how dry is dry enough?

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GVH_Dan said:

If you were growing them for commercial purposes and intend to pelletize them, you would need to get to 8 to 12% moisture content from an original 80%-ish. For your own purposes, it depends on how long you want to store them.

The first reason to dry them is to remove moisture that would otherwise oxidize/rot the cones and reduce shelf life. So if you intend to use them within 3 to 6 months, dry them down as best you can and freeze them.

Don't dry them down to the point where the stig breaks. At that point you are so dry, your lupulin is most likely falling out and you are left without the alpha acids you want for bittering. A 4 to 5 times reduction in weight is a pretty good rule of thumb.

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