Drying unorthodox-ed

So I harvested and had way more than I was expecting. I planned two brews to use them wet, but a ton more were collected. So I wasn't planning on drying, and had to come up with something fast. This is what I did, can anyone tell me if it's acceptable, and what to do next?

I used a home dehumidifier (the one from my basement), and put the hops in brown paper bags (about 3-4 oz thick), and laid them out in front of the exhaust for the dehumidifier. I left it over night and checked them in the morning, and they felt mostly dry to the touch -not crumbly yet but quite dry.
I then rotated the bags and fluffed up the bottoms, and left it for the rest of the day while I went to work. They are now really dry to the touch, kinda crumbly, and fluffed open a bit. They appear to have dropped about 60% of their weight, if not a touch more.
The smell has changed quite a bit, from a grassy to an actual hoppy smell.

The question is, are they done, and if so, now what?
pics to come in next post

Pics

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Seems to me your method will work fine. Laying them out on a screen works great, too. When they are dry, it's usually closer to 20% of the weight at harvest. Packaging them when they're not completely dry kills their shelf life, so you might want to give them some more time to dry out if you feel they're not there yet.

As for packaging, vacuum-sealed bags in the freezer works well and cuts down on space requirements if you have a big harvest and limited freezer space. Weight them out in advance and label the bags well. If you don't have a vacuum-sealer, then stuff them in a ziplock or airtight container, remove as much O2, and keep them as cold as possible. Congrats on your harvest! Be warned--it's a slippery slope from here on. What started as two rhizomes for me years ago has resulted in hops completely surrounding my home.

Like cram said, keep going until they are 20% to 25% of the original weight.

It will go faster if you rip the bags open and spread them out. The more air contact, the faster they will dry. In a bag like that, there is a good chance the hops on the bottom will rot, but if you don't smell anything at this point you are probably safe.

The transition from the grassy to hoppy smell is the Farnesene oil evaporating. It has a grassy smell. this is fine because most people don't like that flavor.

GVH_Dan said:

Like cram said, keep going until they are 20% to 25% of the original weight.

It will go faster if you rip the bags open and spread them out. The more air contact, the faster they will dry. In a bag like that, there is a good chance the hops on the bottom will rot, but if you don't smell anything at this point you are probably safe.

The transition from the grassy to hoppy smell is the Farnesene oil evaporating. It has a grassy smell. this is fine because most people don't like that flavor.

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They seem so darn dry, and I feel lots of powder coming off on my hands when I put them in the bag to check the moisture. Would a little too much moisture cause too big a problem as long as I brew with them in say the next 2 -3 months?

I wish I could tell you the number of times someone brought me a pile of rotten, moldy hops that were composting...but still said, "But they felt dry." Touch you arm. Feel dry? Well, you are 80% water...get where I'm going?

Ok, You are thinking correctly. If you freeze them now and and use them in the next 2-3 month, they should be fine. The caveat I will give you is use them late in the boil for aroma or as dry hop because it will be almost impossible to get the proper amount of Alpha's. If you recipe calls for 2 oz, that 2 oz dry. You are using something that has 2 to 4 times more water weight than what the recipe assumes. You would have to throw in a lot more hops but you don't know how much more.

Also, throw them in frozen. If they thaw, it will look like a big pile of cooked spinach.

My goal will be to throw them in at the 10 - 0 min range with hopstands or to dry hop with them.
Final count was approx 72 oz wet into 12 oz dry. I vacuum sealed and froze them today.

Like this

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I built a box to hold some of my brewing supplies and made a screen top/lid for it. For a couple weeks a year, it doubles as my oast. Has a opening on the side that I put against the discharge of the humidifier. Hops will fully dry after sitting on it overnight. My only mistake was not making it larger. I can only dry about 3oz(dry weight) at a time and it doesn't come close to holding all my supplies any more

Methose said:

Like this

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So those bags in the top picture were 4.5 lbs wet and .75 lbs dry?

Your dehumidifier got them down to 16.7% of their wet weight?

beernutz said:

So those bags in the top picture were 4.5 lbs wet and .75 lbs dry?

Your dehumidifier got them down to 16.7% of their wet weight?

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The total of all those bags was 72 oz wet and it dehydrated down into 12 oz dry

I put them into 1oz bags.

So did I dry them too much, or is that right?

That's fine...

Cheers!

I've been using this basic method for a couple of years and really like it. Hops come out "crunchy" and retain most of their color. I put them in a thin paper bag after weighing the empty bag, doing about 200 grams per bag. I fold over the top of the bag and place them ~ 2 to 3 feet in front of the dehumidifier. Each day I check and record the weight on the bag and give them a little shake to re-distribute and fluff them up. When the weight loss slows to ~ 5 grams or less, usually 4 to 5 days, they are done. They are usually about one-fifth their original weight. Then vacuum seal and freeze.

B-Hoppy explained it to me really well a few weeks ago....if you can break the stig (stem) of the hop, they are dry and ready to bag. If they are still flexible, when you bag them and freeze, the moisture in the stem comes back out into the petals and re moisturizes them. There is probably a fine line where the stem is still flexible but they are dry enough to bag without problems, but I haven't been doing this long enough to know when.

Cheers

Just did round two, my second harvest this same way, and had pretty decent results. Looks like only about 25% weight loss, but they feel dry as a bone, so I'm calling them done and will package them up tonight.