Some hops dried and stored

Well this year I have quite a few hop vines going, so I thought I should experiment with one vine before committing to taking them all down.

So i picked one vine and put them in a mesh colander inside the oven and turned it to warm with the door open and a fan blowing on them, I left them in there for 6 hours, then overnight I put the mesh colander on top of the fan and let the air blow over them for the whole night, by the time the morning came the hops were very dry and I bagged them up. I filled a one quart freezer bag to the top and had to smash the last few hops in to get it to close. I then took the little pump and sucked the air out of the freezer bags and wound up with some hops in my freezer.

After drying some of the hops still had a grassy smell, but much less pronounced than when I had origionally picked them. I am going to brew with some fresh off the vine hops next weekend... and store the rest, should be a good time.

I dry mine for 12 hours at 120*F to 140*F (dependent on the air temp in the garage). Usually start them at night and package the following night.

I have noticed that by morning the garage has a very prominant grassy aroma but by the afternoon it has abated and the hops inside are dry but can still be handled without disintegrating and there color has little to no change. At that stage the aroma is there but muted. Once they all get packed into the bag the aroma will just about knock you down and I start drooling.

I agree completely with the grassy smell of homegrown hops. I recently brewed a 10 gallon batch that I split between 2 6.5 gallon carboys. I used 1 oz Centennial to dry hop one batch and an oz Cascade for the other. I did not notice the smell when I opened the hop bags and there is no trace in the finished beer. I guess the point I am trying to make is that the grassy smell disappeared somewhere between sealing and freezing them and using them.