Whole hops question (I need a scale!)

My wife's aunt has a decent amount of hops growing at her place, and I picked a bunch of them yesterday, but I have no idea how much it is. I don't have a kitchen scale; is there some method I can use to determine how much I have? I'd like to try making an IPA with them, but I don't know what kind they are and I don't know how much I have!

ayrton said:

My wife's aunt has a decent amount of hops growing at her place, and I picked a bunch of them yesterday, but I have no idea how much it is. I don't have a kitchen scale; is there some method I can use to determine how much I have? I'd like to try making an IPA with them, but I don't know what kind they are and I don't know how much I have!

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without a scale, there is no way to tell. You could rig a simple balance scale and put known weights on one end and hang a nag of hops on the other, but.... you need a scale of some sort.

I think, for this recipe, I'll buy a known quantity of whole-leaf hops and estimate what I have based on that.

Irritating irony: my wife and I received a kitchen scale as a wedding gift (I got married this past June), but we didn't think we'd really have a use for it, so we returned it. This, of course, was before I thought about getting fresh hops. Dammit.

Even if you did have a scale, you wouldn't know the AA% of the hops. I've got the same issue right now with some hops I picked over the weekend. Therefore, don't use them for bittering, just for flavoring and aroma.

A decent digital scale is a good investment. If you can find it, there was a USB scale available at Radio Shack for less than $10, measures in 0.1 oz increments, I know Dude has it hooked up to an old laptop in his shop. That's the cheapest I have seen, I spent probably $20 or $30 at Target (mine's a little more precise, measures in 0.05oz incremients).

QUESTION FOR THE EXPERTS: The wild hops I picked do not have a terribly pungent aroma - not really much at all, nowhere even close to what I get sniffin' packs of pellets I get from the HBS. Can I assume then that they are relatively low AA%, and that therefore I might err on the side of using a little more than I would otherwise (still only using them for flavoring and aroma?) Can I make any assumptions based on how they smell fresh?

FWIW- (file under cheap and dirty)- I picked up a cheap $10 scale from the supermarket Kitchen aisle. This does the trick in lieu of a nicer scale that I plan on asking Santa for.

Yeah, that's one of the few things that I wouldn't brew without. Get yerself a digital scale from Bed Bath and Beyond, use one their ubiquitous 20% off coupons, and consider it a very good investment. If you really want to go cheap and use an analog, just make damned sure that it can measure down to AT LEAST the half-ounce unit. Quarter-ounce would be even better, because a quarter ounce of hops makes a difference depending on the beer and the hops.

Evan! said:

Yeah, that's one of the few things that I wouldn't brew without. Get yerself a digital scale from Bed Bath and Beyond, use one their ubiquitous 20% off coupons, and consider it a very good investment. If you really want to go cheap and use an analog, just make damned sure that it can measure down to AT LEAST the half-ounce unit. Quarter-ounce would be even better, because a quarter ounce of hops makes a difference depending on the beer and the hops.

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The unit we returned was *from* Bed Bath and Beyond.

the_bird said:

QUESTION FOR THE EXPERTS: The wild hops I picked do not have a terribly pungent aroma - not really much at all, nowhere even close to what I get sniffin' packs of pellets I get from the HBS. Can I assume then that they are relatively low AA%, and that therefore I might err on the side of using a little more than I would otherwise (still only using them for flavoring and aroma?) Can I make any assumptions based on how they smell fresh?

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Note: Not an expert. However, using "wet" hops, from what I've read, you have to use something like half-again as much to equal the same weight of dry hops or pellets. So, at least 150% as much.

It's hard to tell just how much water-weight is in your hops compared to the equivalent dry weight, and as you mention, you'll never know the AA% (though I would suppose that the AA% by weight is about the same for your hops as for commercial versions of the same variety, once you subtract the water weight from your hops), but I guess if you use the same stuff a few times, you'll start to get a feel for them.

Me, I'm not a big fan of hop-heavy beers. I'd go light to start and then increase the "dosage" after a few tries. If you're a hop-head like a lot of homebrewers and beer "snobs" are, then maybe you should try starting heavy and easing up as needed...

*shrug* just my two shillings. consider it advice, or consider it a *bump*, either way... :fro:

Check Ebay, if I may suggest such a thing. Sometimes you can find really accurate ($$$) scales for a steal, if you look long enough.

I had to weigh out several hop additions of .625 ounces or so (based on AAU's and the AA% of the hops I was using) for my last brew. I was able to weigh my hops very precisely because I have an Acculab VI-400 scale that is accurate to one tenth of a gram. There aren't any kitchen scales with that kind of accuracy.

On the other hand, come to think of it, I didn't measure my water to the milliliter, so it probably doesn't matter... ah screw it. Any kitchen scale would do.

But, if you can find one for a decent price, having an accurate scale will come in handy for anything that requires you to weigh out small and accurate amounts of substances.