Brewing with hop cones

[NJtarheel]

I am currently growing my own hops and have 2 questions: Do the cones need to be thoroughly dried out prior to brewing? How many ounces or pounds does one need to brew a 5 gallon moderately hopped IPA?

 

[m00ps]

Unless you can get a hold of someone at Sierra Nevada or another major brewery that has experience with wet hops, there doesnt seem to be too much knowledge. Its different enough that they are considering making it a separate category of beer entirely.

No ones really knows the moisture and oil content of their hops unless they have them tested. Even by the time results come back, the moisture content may be drastically different

My advice would be to use regular pellet hops for bittering and go nuts with your wet hops for a hopstand. This way you maximize the hop character from your homegrown hops you worked so hard for and you dont risk overdoing it by adding too much in the boil. IME you can never have too much post boil hops

 

[sandyeggoxj]

You can use the hops wet or dry. If you use them wet then you have to use them very fast after picking.

 

[bobeer]

What m00ps said... You wont know what the AA% is of your homegrown hops unless you have them tested. For APA and IPAs I usually toss in all my IBU's in a first wort hop (fwh) and then the rest after flameout. So use the homegrown hops as your flameout addition and store bought hops as your bittering addition.
I just got some fresh VA grown cascade hops from my brew club and I'm going to put them in as a whirlpool addition in a sort of wet-hop APA. I can't wait!

 

[NJtarheel]

Thanks all! I really like the advice from m00ps. You make a great point considering the work put in to growing them!