Drying out hops

I'm having a hard time drying out my hops.

I harvested my Zeus hops last week and air dried them for 3 days along with a blow dryer. They felt light as a feather and super crispy. I figured it was ok to seal them, wrong. I opened them up the other day and got a smell that was nothing like how hops should smell. They felt moist as well, this really confused me.

I put my mt. hood in the oven at 170 degrees for a couple hours. This didn't dry them out all the way and darkened them. Smell was off as well.

It seems I can't win.

Does anyone have an effective way to dry out hops, including the stem/spine?

Usually you'll want to dry without heat, although a little might not hurt. Use a fan with the hops on a screen to get them as dry as you can for a couple/few days. Build an air tight box with a suspended screen in the middle of it like a tray to put your hops on. In the bottom of the box, lay out a layer of 'damp rid'. Be sure the hops don't touch the granular moisture absorber. They should be cracker dry after a couple days in this drying box. Put them in Tupperware and freeze them.

Take a box fan and some new furnace filters. Lay the fan down and place a filter on the suction side, spread your hops on it in a single layer. Place another filter on it. wrap a couple bungee cords around the filters and fan. Set upright and turn on the fan. they should be dry in a day or so. You can stack as many layers of filters and hops as you want as long as you are getting airflow through them. Bonus- your house smells like hops while drying!

I wish I lived in a hop growing area to try another method that I've been thinking of. The principle works on the fact that water boils(evaporates) at lower temps when placed in a vacuum. Place the hops in an air tight container and hook a vacuum pump to it. In theory you could put the container in the freezer to maintain low temps and the vacuum would remove the moisture very quickly. I would use a vacuum pump that is made for sucking down an AC system prior to refill. These produce about 30" of vacuum and can dry out an AC system in about 30-45 min.

Some attics this time of the year are hot enough to
air dry them on paper plates. I just did a little cascade,
and it was done in 3 days with everycone flaking to dust!

I just laid them all out on a window screen in the garage with a fan gently blowing the air around and they dried out in 48 hours. If they don't smell like hops when dry, you picked too early.

when i picked the hops they were chunchy, not wet, and i got lupulin powder on my hands no problem. the spines broke as well.

i took a couple samples a few weeks ago before i picked all of the cones. those sample cones are totally dry/crumbling and smell great.

Air circulation is the key to hop drying. The temperature shouldn't be over 140F, but lots of air movement is a must. The big driers blow warm air up through bins.

I use the patio door screen on a couple sawhorses in my garage along with a small fan.

All I do is lay the hops out on screens for a few days in an air conditioned environment. The low humidity allows the cones to dry without a fan.

I got a new setup using a big fan blowing through the screen. after 24hrs the zeus hops are much better.

i'm still confused how the chinook hops can feel so dry, but after being sealed for a day they feel moist. all i can figure is that water from the spine spread out to the rest of the hop.

i've been checking the humidity and its been high for the past few weeks. right now its 82%. even my cigar humidor hasn't needed the humidifier for the past week. this might account for something. if only i lived in arizona where you need 2 humidifiers going in a room to get it up to 35%.

Here is how I dry mine: The ol' fashioned way... Hop oast with balloon hairdryer.

Hi this is more as a sugestion than by experiance. There are appliences that allow for fruit to be dried. They consist of layers of plastic layers in a container that is plugged in to power. They are designed to dry fruit so I would say they would dry hops.

Terry08 said:

Hi this is more as a sugestion than by experiance. There are appliences that allow for fruit to be dried. They consist of layers of plastic layers in a container that is plugged in to power. They are designed to dry fruit so I would say they would dry hops.

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But do they dry out large quantities and whats the cost? I know the ones I've seen are small and expensive.

Terry08 and DeadDoc, some of those produce to much heat, some don't. the fan and furnace filter trick is the same approach without heat and will hold much larger quantities.

beerthirty said:

Terry08 and DeadDoc, some of those produce to much heat, some don't. the fan and furnace filter trick is the same approach without heat and will hold much larger quantities.

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ya some will do lowest at 90 I've seen but most don't say temp. I'm going to be using box fan n filters.

So I've let the Chinook hop harvest dry out some more in my new setup for over 2 days. These things are super dry, any more dry and they will start to crumble.

So I went ahead and sealed them. The initial weight of the hops was 27 oz. After drying them out some more they now weight 20 oz. There was a lot of water still in those things.

I think the key is the spine of the hop. Before the spine still seemed wet, it could not be pulled apart and the leaves had to be pulled off. Once dried out the spine has white fuzz and no longer appears green. The smell of the hop is much better as well.

Here's how I dry mine: Homebrew Junkie: Harvesting Home Grown Hops for Home Brewing.

Pretty simple and effective.

would putting them in a paper bag work? I read in BYO that putting them in a paper bag was an option for drying hops.

Mine are in the attic w/ a fan blowing over them. It is suppose to get to 90's around here this week so they should dry very quickly. My attic can get to 120s. Charlie

So far this thing works awesome for me and it's only $30.

AgingHopster said:

So far this thing works awesome for me and it's only $30.

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What is it and where did you find it? That looks like an excellent way to dry them cones!:rockin:

nickwc5 said:

would putting them in a paper bag work? I read in BYO that putting them in a paper bag was an option for drying hops.

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No, this doesn't work. This gives you the perfect environment for composting, especially if you put it in a warm place.

The "Alton Brown" method of sandwiching between furnace filters and strapping to a box fan works, but isn't as effective as you might think. Its really made more for another material...something of a more "medicinal" quality.

Take it or leave it, but this is the best way you can dry your hops. The key here is don't think of them as corn, fruit, or jerky. Think of them as flowers. You have picked a rose. You not only want to preserve the physical specimen (the lupulin glands in this case) but you want to keep as much of the oils and aromas as possible. Using heat will boil those oils and aromas away.

Step 1: Get a screen large enough to lay out all the cones 1 cone deep. Don't pile them up.

Step 2: Put the screen in an area that is shaded (UV light degrades oils and alphas) and as dry as possible. I know not everyone's SWMBO will give up the kitchen table or allow the smell of hops in the house, so the garage often is good enough.

Step 3: Make sure there is a way for the moisture to leave the area. If it is in the garage, leave a window open or crack the door. If you want, have a box fan gently blowing across them but have it above blowing down. If it is blowing from the underside, you may shake them up too much. As the dry, they lose weight and could float off the screen. There is no magic behind the big guys blowing air up through the beds...they just do it because they don't know any better.

Step 4: When they get close to being dry, you will notice the bracts (leaves) will start to open like a pine cone dropping its seeds. At this point, you need to do something to lower the relative humidity to finish the drying. If you were one of the big guys, you would heat the air up to 140F to drop the RH so you can get the moisture out. DON'T DO THIS. That's fine for Bud, but not for you.

You are going to take your screen and beg SWMBO to bring them in the air conditioned house. This will finish the drying process. If you can't do that, set up a tent, clear out a closet, build a plastic tent in the garage...whatever you can do...and place the hops and a dehumidifier in there. If it is adjustable, set the dehumidifier at about 40% RH and they will finish off in a few hours. The strig (stem) won't be brittle but it won't feel moist or be very pliable.

OK, why did I pick 40%? The following picture is an isotherm for hops:


The key here is that if you want your hops dried in the range of 8 to 10% moisture content, it can't be done unless it is exposed to air that is less than 50% to 60% relative humidity. In my driers, I finish them off in 30% RH or less air but there is a danger of overdrying. If you sit at 40%, which is about the best most dehumidifiers can do, you could over dry but it would take several days. They really don't start falling apart until 5.3% or so in my experience.

If you really want to speed it up, put them in the tent with the dehumidifier the entire time. As long as there is enough air flow, you could be done in 24 hours or less.

Oh yeah, you are done drying when the final weight is between 1/4 and 1/5th the original weight of the cones. If you want, I can throw up the math but its posted elsewhere here.

Someone above described the most effective method for hops drying which is known as an oast. Basically its a box w/ screens laid out horizontally. It uses a fan to push air through and out of the box with a few dimmer controlled light bulbs underneath for mild/moderate heat, effectively drying out the hops in much less time than air drying.

"oast", "hop house", "hop kiln"...these are all just terms for a device that dries hops. Oast is a more traditional term from Kent. I hate "kiln" because it implies that heat must be used.

You certainly could build something. Would it speed up the process? Sure, especially if you are adding heat or dehumidification to reduce the relative humidity. Increased contact with air also speeds up the process. I'm all for that but why do you care how long it takes? Commercial growers care because we have only a limited amount of time we can spend drying before the next harvest comes in and I have to off load the dryer and load the next batch in. Your only limitation is how soon you need to put the screen door back on or when SWMBO's patience is reached because she's tired of seeing/smelling the hops. If you can spare the time, a simple screen is easier, cheaper and just as or even more effective at preserving the oils and aroma's you so terribly desire.

If you guys really want, I can share some of the prototype designs we have put together. The smallest though dries a 1/6 acre...the one I finished last night does about a 1/2 acre at a pop. The key to all of them is I never add heat, only use dehumidification. And at that, I do so sparingly because outside air can do so much for me if I just give it enough air flow.

Whoops, I did add heat last year. We were still harvesting in October and I was afraid the hops were going to freeze in the oast. But that was only to warm them up to 60F.

beerthirty said:

I wish I lived in a hop growing area to try another method that I've been thinking of. The principle works on the fact that water boils(evaporates) at lower temps when placed in a vacuum. Place the hops in an air tight container and hook a vacuum pump to it. In theory you could put the container in the freezer to maintain low temps and the vacuum would remove the moisture very quickly. I would use a vacuum pump that is made for sucking down an AC system prior to refill. These produce about 30" of vacuum and can dry out an AC system in about 30-45 min.

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Just a comment on this method as well...we call that vacuum cooling and its used on produce (lettuce, veggies) to rapidly cool them but the side effect is that it pulls out moisture. Its very close in concept to freeze drying.

Here's the problem, when you drop the pressure, it lowers the boiling point of water (good) so you can dry them but it also lowers the flash point of the oils and aromas (bad). I haven't calculated it out, but you end up loosing about the same amount as if you baked them.

You are better off freeze drying them. Freeze them as quickly as you can and then keep them frozen while pulling a vacuum. This will remove the water while still locking in the oils and aromas. Commercially, this isn't economically viable but when you are growing your own you aren't thinking $$'s. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm pretty sure it would work.