wild hops harvest - noob questions /with pics/

ok people, today I went to pick some hops that grew near the small stream. I noticed them some time ago, but didn't have time to go and check it out....

Today it was raining, and all the cones were quite dirty from different things falling with the water from the trees and bigger bushes. I tried to pick those that looked completely ripe and healthy....


here are some pictures:





I have couple of questions. First of all I'd like to say that my kitchen smells like heaven . This is the most intense and the freshest hop smell I have ever experience, oh my god! :rockin: They have very strong citrus aroma, something like lime and lemon mix.....

But, as you can see I spread them on top of my kitchen element on the paper sheet, so I think they should be fine drying. I'm afraid a little bit because they are really wet from the rain, that they might turn brown and rotten, if you know what I mean....Do you think I should be worried about it?

Next thing I wanted to ask is how much weight loss should I expect after they dry? Now I have exactly 560 grams (but they are fresh and wet from the rain). How much can I expect after drying?

And of course, is there a good old fashion way to determine AA%? I've read here, some guy posted a procedure,but for me it was very confusing.....

Thank you all!

Nice find! I just harvested my first set of hops and someone made a suggestion for figuring out the AA%:

samc said:

4x-5x is the oft quoted ratio for fresh to dried hops. However you really don't know the AA% and a lot of brewers go in-between the range of AA% that is quoted commercially.

If you have some commercial hops of the same variety with known numbers you can make a simple tea of a few hops and compare them by taste. Not super scientific but should ball park it for you.

Click to expand...