recipe building with homwgrown dried hops

Just wondering if anyone has any idea how much hops to use when your using homegrown hops harvested and dried. I seem to have lost a little more than half the weight in water

They lose a lot of wieight when you dry them that's normal. You want to go by dry weight when you formulate a batch. What I do is pick an average Alpha Acid value for what commercial hops are running at and use the home grown hops accordingly. If your beer comes out a little over or under bitter then make adjustments after the first batch. You should be pretty close though.

It seems I read that the ratio of wet to dry is 5:1 or so. In that case, when you bag/package them fresh, measure accordingly so you can determine how much to add when you brew.

B

Are you taking a preexisting recipe and trying to reproduce? That is going to be damn-near impossible.

1/5 to 1/6th is roughly the commercial Dry:Wet ratio so you can take a middle-ground 5.5 as a rough estimate of what "ideal" commercial leaf hops would be and scale that to whatever wet:dry ratio you achieved. As for alpha acids, the younger your crowns (before 4th year) the lower your AA% is likely to be vs the standard commercial range.

I have made harvest type ales or mixed some with commercial bittering for a rough estimate assuming right at the bottom of the bittering scale and they have turned out to be good beers. In general, though, you should probably stick to using them as late or dry hopping if you are using existing recipes or trying to stick to some sort of repeatable formula.

I was told that home grown, hand picked hops have more lupulin (so higher AA%) in them as they are handled less than commercial hops. I use the dry weights and falor to taste. I vacuum pack hops for storage in the freezer after they are good and dry.

I agree with Brent that homegrown hops tend to be a bit more potent. As for "reproducability" it seems to me that many people worry too much about exact IBU's. We're homebrewing not selling commercially. So maybe the beer comes out 5-10 IBU's different, who cares. I doubt you'll be able notice much difference in the beer. I've been brewing exclusively with homegrown hops for 3 years now (bittering and all) and I'll never buy hops again. My beer tastes great and my hops are grown without pesticides or any other chemicals other than some fertilizer. Besides, we all boil at different vigors and what not so when it comes down to it, even with known AA content, we are all making slightly different versions of the same recipe anyway.

I'm not trying to replicate any particular recipes, just want to figure out how best to use them and IBUs aren't too much of a concern though I do like making IPAs. My understanding is to not use homegrown hops for dry hopping cuz you might introduce bacteria into an environment ripe for infection. So I've been dry hopping with pellets. I guess I just wanted to get the ratios down so I can plan my next batch. Unfortunately I didn't weigh the hops prior to drying them so I'm left guessing how much water weight I lost. I plan to use them as 1 oz bittering and flavor additions so 60 min and 10 min and then just dry hop with pellets unless someone has an idea how I can pastuerized my homegrown?

I'm interested in the last post and not trying to be off topic. I made a cherry stout recently that went south, first batch in recent history. I had gone with a steam sanitize but it apparently didn’t work out. I talked to the fantastic woman at my HBS and she said that when dealing with fresh fruit in wine you should soak the cherries in potassium metabisulphite to kill any wild yeast or bad things on the fruit. After a soak, give them a very good rinse in clean water.

Would this work for homegrown hops for dry hopping? Maybe not since they could absorb too much of the PM & water. Does anyone have experience dry hopping with home grown hops?

I dry hop with homegrown all the time. I don't treat them in any way other than drying and have never had any problems. I certainly wouldn't soak them in potassium metabisulfite. I really don't understand what the concern is. Whether hops are grown at home or commercially, they are all grown outside and exposed to the same elements. Besides, hops are supposed to inhibit bacteria. That's how the IPA came about. The English heavily hopped beer that had long travel times to Indian colonies so that the beer would make the trip and not go bad. Infections just don't happen from hops. I suppose I would worry about a hop cone covered in bird poo or something, but I toss anything like that when I harvest.

BBL_Brewer said:

I dry hop with homegrown all the time. I don't treat them in any way other than drying and have never had any problems. I certainly wouldn't soak them in potassium metabisulfite. I really don't understand what the concern is. Whether hops are grown at home or commercially, they are all grown outside and exposed to the same elements. Besides, hops are supposed to inhibit bacteria. That's how the IPA came about. The English heavily hopped beer that had long travel times to African colonies so that the beer would make the trip and not go bad. Infections just don't happen from hops. I suppose I would worry about a hop cone covered in bird poo or something, but I toss anything like that when I harvest.

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You're right about hops inhibiting bacterial growth. But as far as dry hopping goes, the difference is that you're not boiling the hops and isomerizing the alpha acids. I'm not sure, but I think this makes a difference.

As for the background on IPAs, I think it was India thus the I. Plus the heavily hopped beers prevented spoilage from the lengthy time the beers were in kegs. Previously, beers were brewed for pretty immediate consumption but couldn't make the trip around the world as they'd arrive already spoiled. Adding more hops to the boil and upping the isomerized alpha acids prevented spoilage. But the dry hop is all about floral aromas which you lose if you've boiled them. Adding the hops after primary fermentation allows for the release of the aromas but without isomereizing the alpha acids does nothing for preventing bacterial growth. That's my understanding at least.

Pascal said:

I'm interested in the last post and not trying to be off topic. I made a cherry stout recently that went south, first batch in recent history. I had gone with a steam sanitize but it apparently didn’t work out. I talked to the fantastic woman at my HBS and she said that when dealing with fresh fruit in wine you should soak the cherries in potassium metabisulphite to kill any wild yeast or bad things on the fruit. After a soak, give them a very good rinse in clean water.

Would this work for homegrown hops for dry hopping? Maybe not since they could absorb too much of the PM & water. Does anyone have experience dry hopping with home grown hops?

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Way overkill, IMO. Never had an issue in using home grown hops and highly doubt any bacterial infection could be due to the homegrown hops if used in a secondary (aka after primary fermentation is complete and alcohol is present in sufficient concentration)

Besides, people can and do buy and use leaf hops from the commercial growers. What process are you imagining in their packaging/handling that would prevent/kill bacteria any better than your homegrown and hand picked and dried process?

Hopleaf11 said:

You're right about hops inhibiting bacterial growth. But as far as dry hopping goes, the difference is that you're not boiling the hops and isomerizing the alpha acids. I'm not sure, but I think this makes a difference.

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In unfermented wort? Sure. MAYBE if dry hopping a very low alcohol beer that had no hops in the boil (why on Earth you would do this I have no idea).

Otherwise, I would have to see it with my own eyes to believe it. Even then, I would suspect a dozen other infection possibilities before I considered the hops.

Hopleaf11 said:

As for the background on IPAs, I think it was India thus the I. Plus the heavily hopped beers prevented spoilage from the lengthy time the beers were in kegs.

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Based on what I have seen documented, George Hodgson's (Bow Brewery) beers were shipped to India because he had the best "IN" with the East India tradesmen and he was conveniently located for them... The preservative qualities of the hops and the higher hopped beers (Something that indeed existed prior to trading with India but was seasonal or not a high volume product) was discovered empirically based on the demand and quality of the product upon arrival at the destination in the India colonies.

Hopleaf11 said:

I guess I just wanted to get the ratios down so I can plan my next batch. Unfortunately I didn't weigh the hops prior to drying them so I'm left guessing how much water weight I lost.

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Can you describe how dry they are? Do the leaves fall apart easily when handled? Does the strig snap easily or is it still pliable? Does the lupulin fall from the cone when disturbed?

Randar said:

Way overkill, IMO. Never had an issue in using home grown hops and highly doubt any bacterial infection could be due to the homegrown hops if used in a secondary (aka after primary fermentation is complete and alcohol is present in sufficient concentration)

Besides, people can and do buy and use leaf hops from the commercial growers. What process are you imagining in their packaging/handling that would prevent/kill bacteria any better than your homegrown and hand picked and dried process?

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+1. Adding fresh fruit to a wine or beer is completely different from dry hopping a fully fermented beer with whole hops. Wild yeasts actually live on fruit skin, not on hops. Unless you're mixing your hop cones with monkey poo, you're not going to get an infection from using them to dry hop.

Randar said:

Can you describe how dry they are? Do the leaves fall apart easily when handled? Does the strig snap easily or is it still pliable? Does the lupulin fall from the cone when disturbed?

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I'll have to check the strig but the lupulin doesn't necessarily fall from the cone, unless you count my 5 year old showing me yellow hands as he filled a small canning jar. I think he was a little rough with the cones though.