How do you extract the lulipin and oils from hops - Any ideas.

[Calder]

I grow a lot of hops, and usually end up tossing a lot of them because I have too many of a certain type and no freezer space to store them. So I thought ... Is there any way of extracting the valuable oils from the hops so that I didn't have to use up a lot of freezer space.

How are hop oils made?

Does alcohol dissolve the oils?

What would you do if you had several lbs of hops that you couldn't store. The choice was tossing them out or doing something to extract the valuable oils?

I just hate tossing several lbs of hops in the compost every year. I spend the time to grow, pick, and dry them, but then throw half of my harvest away.

 

[Amadeo38]

Pellet mills are expensive, but would be a way to condense a lot of hops down into smaller space. The cheaper option would be a vacuum sealer.

Subbed to hear others advice for extracting oils. I know I’ve made extracts of other herbs with long soaks in everclear/vodka but not sure if it’s that simple with hops.

 

[Loud Brewing]

Brew more beer! J/k

The pros use supercritical co2, the rest of us use grain alcohol. Crush the pellets/whole hops and wash them with the alcohol, strain the plant matter and reduce the liquid to oil in a rice cooker or on electric stove top. Suck oil up into a wide needle syringe and throw into fridge until use.
This works better with high AA hops and used as a bittering charge, but some flavor and aroma can be expressed in the oil from other varietals.
This is the same method used to produce rick Simpson oil, there are tons of YouTube videos on this process. Cheers

 

[CodeSection]

I grow a lot of hops, and usually end up tossing a lot of them because I have too many of a certain type and no freezer space to store them. So I thought ... Is there any way of extracting the valuable oils from the hops so that I didn't have to use up a lot of freezer space.

How are hop oils made?

Does alcohol dissolve the oils?

What would you do if you had several lbs of hops that you couldn't store. The choice was tossing them out or doing something to extract the valuable oils?

I just hate tossing several lbs of hops in the compost every year. I spend the time to grow, pick, and dry them, but then throw half of my harvest away.

If you do not go the "oil" route, how about sharing with others? If you haven't joined a local club and have been interested, perhaps now is the time. What a great ice breaker..."I grow <variety> hops and have more than enough for my use and rather than throwing them away in the compost, would you like some?"

I bet you will meet interesting people and make new friends.....

 

[vtipsy]

1. Weigh out your desired whole leaf hops
2. Mix with liquid nitrogen in a safe container.
3. Muddle the hops to thoroughly mix and lightly crush the hops
4. Strain the hops from the LN.
5. Pulverize the hops with a food processor into hop dust
6. Pass the dust through a sieve to remove the less friable plant matter
7. Add the resulting lupulin dust to the boil

https://www.experimentalbrew.com/blogs/drew/new-zealand-brewers-liquid-nitrogen-luplin-extract-ipa

 

[IslandLizard]

I've heard of using liquid CO2 to extract lupulin. They're suspended in alcohol for storage, it looks bright yellow. It may be a little easier to handle than liquid N2. But still not easy to do in your general kitchen lab.

Vacuum sealing compacts them nicely, while protecting them from oxidation (air). But freezer storage is still essential for the long haul. Get a larger freezer.
But if you harvest more than you can use in a year, brew more or share with friends or a brew club, as already suggested by @CodeSection.

 

[Vale71]

Comprehensive guide to essential oil extraction.

I'm assuming that you intend to extract the oils for aroma. If you actually meant bittering then it's the resins that you need to extract.

 

[Bobby_M]

The two ideas I have are mixing with water and distilling out the oils in a pot still or agitating the crushed cones in a bath of grain alcohol with crushed dry ice. The latter is kind of interesting because the alcohol dissolves out the oil and the dry ice keeps it cold enough to reduce extraction from the plant matter. The problem is that it's too expensive. Cryo hops and extracts are cheaper to buy.