Yellow Power on Hops?

[Gman2]

My dad is growing hops and he gave me some this fall to throw in a batch of beer. They are Cascade hops. He gave me a regular ziplock sandwich bag full of cones. I put them in the freezer for about a month before used them in my beer.

When I pulled them out the other day there was yellow powder in the bottom of the bag and on the edges of the leaves. I was told at the LHBS this is oxidation and will decrease the power of the hops.

Has anyone seen/experienced this? I threw in the entire bag ad 60 min (slightly crushed up first) and strained out the leaves when I racked into the fermenter. I tasted the beer once fermentation slowed and took a hydromiter reading (.012)and it was not hopy but had a sweet after taste.

I guess my my question is if anyone has seen this in hops and what results (if any) I should expect.

Thanks for the help.

 

[BigB]

Sounds like the lupulin glands/grains. It won't hurt anything.

 

[nikkormat]

yellow=good, orange=oxidized lupulin IIRC

 

[BendBrewer]

I was told at the LHBS this is oxidation and will decrease the power of the hops.

They must not like you. As mentioned, they are just lose lupulin glands.

 

[carrotmalt]

They must not like you. As mentioned, they are just lose lupulin glands.

They probably like you. They'd just like you more if you discarded your homegrown hops and bought more from them.

I dry hopped with some whole Cascades from Hopsdirect just last night and had quite a bit of yellow powder in the bag. You're fine.

 

[Gman2]

Great. Thanks everyone. I have never used whole hops before and always had pellets, so I didnt know what to expect. Hopefully it will produce a great flavor.

Carrotmalt, how much hops did you use? I had no way to gauge the weight so I tossed in the entire sandwich bag and hopped for the best.

 

[carrotmalt]

Carrotmalt, how much hops did you use? I had no way to gauge the weight so I tossed in the entire sandwich bag and hopped for the best.

I used 2oz. I'm pretty new to dry hopping, but I'm following the recipe here (other than I'm not using pellets).

 

[stevo155]

It's really tough using homegrown hops as bittering additions since you really don't know what the AA% is. You can guestimate a range and take the middle. What was the starting gravity of your beer, and how many ounces would you say it was? A sandwich bag I'm guessing wouldn't be anymore than an ounce or two.

Since you added them at 60, you're not going to get a lot of flavor or aroma out of them, especially with Cascade. I'd guess the beer is not bitter enough to balance it out which is why it is a little sweet. Try dry hopping with some pellets to give a little flavor and aroma.

 

[Gman2]

Great, thanks for th advice. I dont think I had an accurate OG reading because I didnt stir up the wort with the top off water. I believe it was 1.04.

Stevo155, you bring up 2 questions for me. At what point do hop additions impart the most flavor? Im guessing I boiled off a lot of the flavor by putting them in too early.

Also, how important is a 2nd fermentation for dry hoping? Can I just toss some aroma hops in the primary without transfering the beer?

 

[stevo155]

Typically ( but not always ) you flavor additions go in about 20 minutes left in the boil and aroma additions later at knockout or 1 minute left.

I've never transferred to secondary to dry hop ( or for any other reason ). I just drop the pellets right in the primary, usually when it's about 90% done. This way it the fermentation doesn't drive off the aroma but is still active enough to enhance the dry hop.

 

[Gman2]

Thanks! This helps a ton.

 

[Sardoman]

As a point of reference: Once a guy gave me some whole homegrown hops -- three sandwich baggies full and all together they added up to about an ounce of total weight.

 

[FishinDave07]

Finding yellow powder on hops is like finding an extra 15 gallons of homebrew you forgot about...it's GREAT!

 

[Gman2]

Awesome. Sounds like I need to get a few more bags of hops from my dad next time.

 

[Yooper]

Awesome. Sounds like I need to get a few more bags of hops from my dad next time.

After he picks them, next time dry them before freezing. Undried hops are not commonly frozen and used. It's mostly because they weigh about 6X more when "wet", so you need to use 6 times as much and that takes up a lot of space in the freezer, and the brew!