Horse trailer Oast??

Hi gang

I want to run this past the group for some feedback before I start construction. I have an unused horse trailer, about 18' with screened windows and many doors. It's never had a horse in it, just used for equipment, it's clean. My thought is to use large window/door screens laid out on racks, and remove one of the small doors on the side, install a decent size furnace fan PULLING air out of the trailer, pulling in outside air, to keep from disturbing the hops and blowing them around. We are in a pretty sunny warm area of BC and RH is usually 35-50% most days. Temps are now around 25-30C days and 10-15 nights. I was thinking of putting a timer on the fan to be just pulling air during the warm days, let it stay quiet at night. I am hoping the humidity would stay low at night with no air movement, but I have no experience with this.

Your thoughts? Improvements?

Cheers

Without drawings...just guessing...but yeah, it should.

First, make sure the screens seal around the entire trailer. If air can find any way around the hops instead of through them, it will. Air is lazy and will do what it can to take the easy path.

Next, make sure the fan isn't too close to the hops or it will suck them up as they get close to the end of the cycle.

Then you hope for the best weather possible to finish the drying cycle. Otherwise, close all the windows, seal it up and put a dwhumidfier in it to finish the drying process.

Hey Dan,

Thanks for the quick reply. Well, what my thought was is to build screens/frames, free to sit on saw horses or whatever inside the trailer, but spread out, not stacked and actually use the trailer as the oast, and pull air out of the trailer, but through the window screens of the trailer, not the screens the hops are sitting on. I wouldn't be pulling air through the hop screens, just evacuating the trailer, which will be warm in the summer sun, and hopefully pull the moisture out of the hops. It's more of creating an environment in which the hops can dry naturally, in moderate, say 80-90F temps, but lowish 35-50% humidity. If need be, I can always add a heater in the trailer to boost the temps if it gets cool outside, or even kick them on at night to keep everything rolling. As I have 100 plants now, 65 first year, I have a decent amount to dry, and have 5' wide bulk screen material to build the trays. I was planning on maybe 5'X6' or 5'X7'.

Hope this makes sense.

Again, your comments are welcome.

Cheers

First, if air doesn't contact the hops, they won't dry. So if you aren't forcing the air through the hops, then they have to be essentially 1/2" deep...in other words 1 cone so the air can contact both sides.

Second, 100 plants at 1 lb/plant dry (actual harvest at maturity will be higher) will give you about 77 cubic feet of hops. Let's just say you harvest 1/2 of that at any time, that is 38.5 cu ft. At 1/2" deep, you need almost 1,000 sq ft of drying space. 20' x 50'-ish.

Other than space, your idea is fine.

Thanks Dan,

For this year, I should be fine as 65 plants are new and not much production, and 8 different varieties all ripening at different times...and FYI, today it is 21C outside, but the trailer is 31C and 16% humidity, with nothing inside yet. That's encouraging.

Cheers

The blower is installed and tested, it's a direct drive 3 speed fan which moves a lot of air. When I power it up and close up the trailer, with just the opposite side windows open, it creates a pretty good breeze inside the trailer. Will keep you posted when harvest time gets here, but first impressions are good. The trailer is sitting east/west and the fan is mounted on the northern side...I am going to add a black heavy duty tarp to the south side, anchored at the top of the trailer and then staked to the ground about 10-15' feet away, to create a very warm air zone so that the fan is pulling in heated air (assuming sunshine) and if not I can heat with baseboard heaters inside.

Now, to clean out the rest of the "crap" stored in there.

Cheers