hops turned brown as they were drying - discard them?

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odoyle81

Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
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Location
Fort Collins, CO
We had a really mild winter in Colorado and my cascade hops matured early and some of them turned brown either on the vine, or as they were drying.
Should I pick these brown hops out and discard them?
I've googled around, and most people seem to say just use them, but some people say throw away the oxidized and brown hops....
What do you guys think?

Pictures below... you can see that the brown hops still have lots of lupulin glands that are dark yellow and look fine to me.

hops0001.jpg


hops0002.jpg
 
There are various reasons why they turn brown. It could be wind damage...rubbing/friction...but that's usually just on the outside bracts. It could be powdery/downey mildew, which is kind of what this looks like. In that case, throw out those that are over 50% brown or have really nasty looking spots.

It could be from your drying process. What temperature were you drying at? They will also dry with age. So if you were on the backside of the optimal picking time, you can get this.

Basically, you've got the right idea. They smell good and the lupulin looks good...go for it.
 
There are various reasons why they turn brown. It could be wind damage...rubbing/friction...but that's usually just on the outside bracts. It could be powdery/downey mildew, which is kind of what this looks like. In that case, throw out those that are over 50% brown or have really nasty looking spots.

It could be from your drying process. What temperature were you drying at? They will also dry with age. So if you were on the backside of the optimal picking time, you can get this.

Basically, you've got the right idea. They smell good and the lupulin looks good...go for it.
+1 on this. On my last harvest time got away from me and some of the hops were partially brown. I used them just the same as the green ones, and the ipa came out great.
 
+1 on this. On my last harvest time got away from me and some of the hops were partially brown. I used them just the same as the green ones, and the ipa came out great.

I have watched many commercial hop harvests. They cut down the bines and process all the hops at the same time in September. There is always a mix of Brown Hops with the green hops.......I need to find a photo.....
 
Check out the huge pile of hops behind yours truly.....see all the brown hops....

bobhopavatar.jpg


This is from Mike Goodings Hop farm near Wilder, Idaho......
 
Sorry I didn't reply back earlier - I wasn't getting emails that people replied.So I used the hops and they turned out fine... the IPA is
aging better each day!
btw, my drying conditions are to spread they out and let them dry with a fan on them... Colorado is super dry and it only takes a couple hours at room temp.

There are various reasons why they turn brown. It could be wind damage...rubbing/friction...but that's usually just on the outside bracts. It could be powdery/downey mildew, which is kind of what this looks like. In that case, throw out those that are over 50% brown or have really nasty looking spots.

It could be from your drying process. What temperature were you drying at? They will also dry with age. So if you were on the backside of the optimal picking time, you can get this.

Basically, you've got the right idea. They smell good and the lupulin looks good...go for it.
 
Sorry I didn't reply back earlier - I wasn't getting emails that people replied.So I used the hops and they turned out fine... the IPA is
aging better each day!
btw, my drying conditions are to spread they out and let them dry with a fan on them... Colorado is super dry and it only takes a couple hours at room temp.

Thanks for response, I found a guy on craigslist that let me pick all his hops for free and most of them are brown after drying. I am still going to use them as they still smell amazing and they got a ton of that yellow stuff.
 
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