Oven drying?

It's about time to bring some in. There are two distinct groups - some came out early, and are now ready, and a second flowering is rapidly maturing but has a ways to go.

I've looked around and searched but have had no luck in finding a thread on oven drying. I don't have a hot garage and I won't have enough to make it worth the trouble to make my own jerry rigged drier.

I feel sure I read about using an oven for drying - I seem to recall drying for a while at about 110F. Does anyone use this method? Can you give me specifics?

Thanks.

I use the garage method, but the commercial dryers use 140F until the desired moisture content is reached. I call them done when the weight is 20% of the pick weight.

how do you do that. Just weigh them every few hours?

Once an hour. The simplest approach is to weight out 100 grams and dry them in a separate container. That makes it easy to re-weight them. Put them in a sieve or a box made out of screening.

Steve, don't bother with your oven. You won't get enough air flow to remove the moisture. You'll just end up baking them.

The simplest drier is an old screen window or door. Just lay them out in a thin layer and prop the screen up on a couple of chairs. If you really want to ramp up the drying rate, point a fan at them.

If you don't have a screen, use cheese cloth or something else porous that you can stretch out into a hops hammock.

david_42 said:

I use the garage method, but the commercial dryers use 140F until the desired moisture content is reached. I call them done when the weight is 20% of the pick weight.

Click to expand...

That's a great idea! thanks

My garage is about 110F if I have the back garage door open, upwards of 130F if that is closed up for the day. How long does it usually take to dry?

This may sound like a silly question, but has anyone tried drying their hops using dessicant instead of heat? I'm thinking a sealed box with a few screen trays above a solid tray that holds a layer of dessicant. In theory, you could also install a small casefan inside to move air. No heat, just dried hops. You could also put a few oxygen absorber packets in there to ward off any oxidation. Think such a setup would result in a better end product, or is there a reason this would not be a good idea? Regards, GF

Make sure the desiccant you use is "food grade". The silica gel you find in the little packets in your shoes isn't, I believe.

GVH_Dan said:

The simplest drier is an old screen window or door. Just lay them out in a thin layer and prop the screen up on a couple of chairs. If you really want to ramp up the drying rate, point a fan at them.

Click to expand...

this is the method (with fan) i used last year to dry the hops i picked, it's extremely simple and effective. you can set aside a small sample to weigh as the process proceeds, but i found you pretty much know when they've dried enough just by touch/feel.

I ended up doing the oven method. just sit a cookie tray on the floor of the oven of the pilot light heat them slowly for a few days.

mctc said:

I ended up doing the oven method. just sit a cookie tray on the floor of the oven of the pilot light heat them slowly for a few days.

Click to expand...

I used a multi-level food dehydrator. I already had it. I have 14 hops plants and I can dry one plant's harvest (~1.5 lbs dry) in about 12 hours at 110 degrees. Harder to use it for mass picking/drying though.

I may have to invest in that if I get a good harvest next year.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FFVIWY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

This is the one I have and works like a charm. I have a pretty extensive garden, so I also use it for herbs, peppers, fruit, etc. Digital temp control.

Best feature is that the fan is on top and blows downwards, preventing junk from "falling into the fan and heating element".

But, that being said, with 14 plants in my hop garden, I may have to build something bigger. Have seen some interesting layered homebuilt oasts.

I could really use a dryer for herbs too. But $100 is alot for me with only three hops plants. still tempting....