Need A Plan For A LARGE Hops Dryer....

I am thinking of something that can be broken down easily for storage, off-season. Something I can dry 25 bines worth of whole hops in. Something I can use materials, fans and heaters that I already have. Something to contain up to 10 different varieties of hops, and to keep them separate, while I dry them.

I've considered an enclosure of plywood sheets, and 1x4 boxes with screen bottoms, but I haven't pinned anything down yet.

Let's plan out a system, so that it's modular, and everyone can adapt it to their required size.

I have been thinking about this also. something that can be broken down to store for 11.5 months out of the year.

Where you thinking about something like a DIY Portable Storage Shed with screen shelves inside and fans. Or individual drying boxes connected by ventilation system.

My plan is just to set up some screens or furnace filters in the attic (hot) and have a fan run over the whole setup.

Clonefarmer said:

Where you thinking about something like a DIY Portable Storage Shed with screen shelves inside and fans. Or individual drying boxes connected by ventilation system.

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Probably home made screen shelves big enough to hold 3-5 pounds each, surrounded by a plywood uncut-sheet box, with a small ceramic space heater inside and a medium fan to exhaust.

But I am open and soliciting other ideas....

Scroll down a bit on here. There is a photo and dimensions for exaclty what you just described.

Are all 25 plants harvesting at the same time?

With my 13 I find that I harvest half and it's about a week or two before the other half is ready to harvest. I use a simple 2x2 screened bottom stackable "tray" (made of 1x3's) and a bag type hair dryer (bag removed). I currently use 6 trays but can easily add more when needed.

Each tray can hold 3 pounds before the screening starts to pull.

On the low setting I reach temps of 104*F and on high I get up to 112*F.

I have dried up to 6 wet pounds within 4 hours with this method. Between seasons, I store the Oast in my attic.

I've got 6 bines this year. Here's a crazy idea...Loosely filling a large nylon mesh laundry bag with cones and putting it in the clothes dryer on low heat tumble for awhile? Wonder if that'd work or just get me divorced.

I had seen that, but I'm thinking 25 bines x 3 pounds per bine, I may need a bit more of foot print.

TheFlyingSparge said:

I've got 6 bines this year. Here's a crazy idea...Loosely filling a large nylon mesh laundry bag with cones and putting it in the clothes dryer on low heat tumble for awhile? Wonder if that'd work or just get me divorced.

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It would knock off a lot the little sticky sacks that contain the active ingredients. And make a sticky mess in the dryer.

TheFlyingSparge said:

I've got 6 bines this year. Here's a crazy idea...Loosely filling a large nylon mesh laundry bag with cones and putting it in the clothes dryer on low heat tumble for awhile? Wonder if that'd work or just get me divorced.

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Do you have one of those screens/shelves that sits in the dryer without moving (for drying things flat)? If your SWMBO is anthing like mine, she's not going to like cleaning out hop debris from the lint trap.

TheFlyingSparge said:

I've got 6 bines this year. Here's a crazy idea...Loosely filling a large nylon mesh laundry bag with cones and putting it in the clothes dryer on low heat tumble for awhile? Wonder if that'd work or just get me divorced.

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Epic Fail. Too turbulent, By time the hops are dry you'd have rattled out all the resin.

It's amazing how much resin loss there is even with the gentlest of handling.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Are all 25 plants harvesting at the same time?

With my 13 I find that I harvest half and it's about a week or two before the other half is ready to harvest. I use a simple 2x2 screened bottom stackable "tray" (made of 1x3's) and a bag type hair dryer (bag removed). I currently use 6 trays but can easily add more when needed.

Each tray can hold 3 pounds before the screening starts to pull.

On the low setting I reach temps of 104*F and on high I get up to 112*F.

I have dried up to 6 wet pounds within 4 hours with this method. Between seasons, I store the Oast in my attic.

Click to expand...

Got any pics? Is this contained in a box? What is a bag-type hairdryer?

Henry Hill - Try making oast out of a cheap dresser. Check out a garage sale or hit a Salvation Army Store. Another Idea - Offer SWMBO a new bedroom set!!

I made this rather quickly. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/easy-hop-drying-oast-35117/

The drawers are pretty deep. I can get 5" deep with hops in each drawer. Therefore you can pack alot in them.

If you go this route. Buy a 120v PC fan from Radioshack. You can wire a dimmer if you want too. Its a quick cheap way to mount a fan to this. I don't add a heat source. They dry fast almost 50-75% overnight.

I just put a box fan in back and it dries my hops in 1-2 days.

Henry Hill said:

Got any pics? Is this contained in a box? What is a bag-type hairdryer?

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Amazon.com: Conair SB1X Soft Bonnet Hair Dryer: Health & Personal Care

The dryer looks similar to this.

No pics of the box. It's stored now and a PITA to move. It's a really simple self-contained design tho'. Imagine Milk crates stacked atop each other to get a hint of the modularity of the design.

This is what I did last year:

Purchased rolls of steel screen (same as window screen but made of steel)

Cut the screen into tray size plus 3 inches per side (If your tray is 24 x 24 your screen size would be 30 x 30)

using a 1x4 as a guide, bend the sides (three inches) up by 90 deg, folding the corners and using a small wire to pin it folded over.

This gives you a "basket" tray that's made of just the screen. Then after the drying is done, "unfold" the sides, stack the screens, and poll them up into one little roll. Works great especially if you are stacking them inside of a dryer box.

TheFlyingSparge said:

I've got 6 bines this year. Here's a crazy idea...Loosely filling a large nylon mesh laundry bag with cones and putting it in the clothes dryer on low heat tumble for awhile? Wonder if that'd work or just get me divorced.

Click to expand...

If your dryer has one of those trays where you can put delicate items so they don't get tumbled around, I don't see why it wouldn't work as long as you could keep the temperature low enough.

TheFlyingSparge said:

I've got 6 bines this year. Here's a crazy idea...Loosely filling a large nylon mesh laundry bag with cones and putting it in the clothes dryer on low heat tumble for awhile? Wonder if that'd work or just get me divorced.

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Well there's only one way to find out! Make sure to post pics when your done, especially shots of SWMBO's face when you show her for the first time!

are you really still trying to talk yourself into putting your hops in your laundry dryer? I can imagine a scenario where that could end well...just my two cents

Try a tent with a dehumidifier in it. I know someone who uses this method to dry other hop-like material with great success

hop like material....classic

Just go here and under "look inside this book" type in "oast".

I have 17 hills, with even more bines once harvest time is here so I need something better than what I had last year. The design in the book is simple can easily be modified. I'm just going to make the dimensions 24"x24" because that is the size of the galvanized steel mesh at OSH.

I'm going to use a flat fan that is 21"x21" and lay it on top. I'll then make an enclosure around it to get better directional airflow.

Henry Hill said:

It would knock off a lot the little sticky sacks that contain the active ingredients. And make a sticky mess in the dryer.

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And seriously pi$$-off SWMBO in the process.

What if you used PVC pipe. Two straight pieces with the screen stretched between them. Two more straight pieces and 4 corners to make a square. The PVC would be thick enough that you could stack them and have space between.

At the end of the season, you pull the side pieces off, roll the screen up on the two attached pieces and the whole thing goes in the closet or shed.

Now, I haven't grown or dried hops myself, so I could be totally off base, but just me $.02

For the money, the dresser-oast is easy as hell and doubles as storage 11 out of 12 months during the year.

You can see a little of my dryer in this u tube My pictures are to big to post is there a way to make them smaller

Schlenkerla said:

For the money, the dresser-oast is easy as hell and doubles as storage 11 out of 12 months during the year.

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Having decided to go the modular way, and build trays and all that, I found a still sturdy tall dresser with fairly deep drawers standing on (4) 10" legs at a garage sale for $7.50, that had easily 65 cents in change inside. I noted it and went about my day.

The next day I went by the sale and found other times that had not been offered the day before, but still nothing to my fancy. But the dresser was still there. I looked thru it again, and the change was still there, so I figured no one had even looked in it. I offered the retiree $5 and he helped me load it in my beater, and he stooped to pick up a dime that had fallen out of it in the process.

I giggled to myself about the dime and I jumped back into the car, with visions of a hole in the bottom for a hair dryer hose, and a mental hole pattern of holes in the drawer bottoms.

Cost me $5.10, though, with an instant rebate of 76 cents.

Good Score!!!! :rockin:

Don't fergit to show us some pics when you are all done converting it for oast duties.

I'll be going Schlenkerla's dresser method too. I already have the dresser. In fact, I had recently moved it to become a part of my brew area. I was planning on using the top two drawers for brew equipment and the others for tools.......Well, sod the tools, I'll leave themout in the rain somewhere until they get so messed up I won't have to use them again. Darn home improvements trying to get in the way of beer improvements.

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

I'll be going Schlenkerla's dresser method too. I already have the dresser. In fact, I had recently moved it to become a part of my brew area. I was planning on using the top two drawers for brew equipment and the others for tools.......Well, sod the tools, I'll leave themout in the rain somewhere until they get so messed up I won't have to use them again. Darn home improvements trying to get in the way of beer improvements.

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LGI - Show us some pictures too.