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desertbronze

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I harvested Cascade, Centennial, Magnum and Mt. Hood hops over the last three weeks. Yields were a little less than expected, but that's ok. Had the usual ants, earwigs and ladybugs along with the cones.

Started harvesting Chinook last Saturday and finished Sunday (yesterday). Noticed a few little white bugs as I was cutting off the hop clusters. This morning I had lots of these bugs on the edges of the drying boxes. They appear to be leaving the cones as they dry.

Ever seen this before? Do I need to do anything? I think the hops will still be usable for brewing.
 
Probably aphids, maybe spider mites?... Usually they're on the leaves. Can they get in the cones too?

If you break the cones open, can you see the lupulin oil? If so and they still smell like hops, I'd use them.
 
Talked to some other brewers today. Seems that these are mites of some sort. They will leave the hops as they dry. Packing the first round in the freezer tonight.
 
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