De-hydrator for hops...

So as I now have the buggers in the ground I thought I'd look for a dehydrator.... maybe a sale as we are in a depressed market and the summer isn't here yet for the rush on these things.

What do you use?

What do you think of this?
VegiKILN 8 Tray Food Dehydrator at LivingRight.com

 

I just pull the screen off the patio door, lay it on two sawhorses in the garage and set a fan to blowing.

 

Me too... fan seems to work great if they are nicely spread out.

 

Take a 20" box fan, lay a 20"x20" HEPA filter on the output side and put your hops on that and then lay another filter over the top, repeat as necessary and then tape or bungee around two of the edges to hold it in place.

Works wells for beef jerky too.

 

Yep, box fan and some "weed control" mesh to make my HopHammock.
In the spare bedroom for 3 days with some turning and it worked out better than the food dehydrator(which I used the first year and sucked).


BTW, place some aluminum foil underneath to catch the luplin that falls during drying. It make a wonderful season for rib eyes!:rockin:

 

Hmm....

Not that I would know ANYTHING about this, but.. that looks very simular to the drying of another plant in the same family. lol

 

I don't drive down that road either, but a "plant in the same family" is very true:fro:

 

I'm a little surprised. I would think a food dehydrator would work best. Why was this method better? I planned on borrowing my 'rents food dehydrator for harvest time but now I might plan differently.

 

Perhaps sheer volume... I have 7 bines, 3 cascades... that is ALOT of hops to be putting in a food dehydrater. Sling them in my shop as above is much more efficient.

 

I see...in that case I should be fine using the dehydrator, especially the first year with only 2 plants. The dehydrator is pretty large, though. I think it has 6 round trays that are about 14" in diameter.

 

I had a hard time trying to find the magic time internals on the dehydrator.
And yes, volume is a huge thing. I was able to dry up to 24# wet each time on the HopHammock. I believe I dried around 110# wet giving me 25# dry last season.
Dehydrator will work for you this season, but growing hops is an addiction/obsession and next year you'll probably X4 your crop

 

There are some plans in an older edition of BYO (last year) on how to make an Oast (hop dryer). It looks suprisingly similar to that dehydrator.

I just used a similar method to what has been described here

I propped up a ladder horizontally about 3' off the ground in my garage. Laid the hops on furnace filters and used a portable heater and a couple of fans blowing upward to dry them out in about 2 days.

 

I wouldn't advise investing in a dehydrator for one year's use. Next year it won't be big enough. I planted six rhizomes three years ago. The first year, I dried my crop on a window screen. Last year I dried my crop on two door wall screens and ended up with over 2 pounds of dried hops. This year I expect three or four times that amount and will be building an industrial strength dryer. And to think I planted six more rhizomes last year.

Tom

 

I use an old dresser as a hop oast with a fan blowing through the back.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/easy-hop-drying-oast-35117/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/2008-iowa-hop-report-74054/#post774519