can hops mold

[sashurlow]

This may sound like a silly question but I'm pretty certain much of my harvest this years is wasted.
Can hops mold (the flowers, not the plants)? If so, does that ruin the hops?
I dry my hops in a tube of bridal tule hanging from the ceiling of my covered porch (8 inches diameter). I just tried to put them in ziplocks for storage and the center of the tube was darker with some white fluffy crap on them. I'm pretty certain this means bad things but wanted to double check first.
Thanks,

 

[PapaBearJay]

This may sound like a silly question but I'm pretty certain much of my harvest this years is wasted.
Can hops mold (the flowers, not the plants)? If so, does that ruin the hops?
I dry my hops in a tube of bridal tule hanging from the ceiling of my covered porch (8 inches diameter). I just tried to put them in ziplocks for storage and the center of the tube was darker with some white fluffy crap on them. I'm pretty certain this means bad things but wanted to double check first.
Thanks,

That sounds like mold, likely a saprophytic fungi feeding on the dried tissue. It's unfortunate, but if you wanted you could try a hop tea and see if anything is affected by using them. Remember that the boiling process is meant to destroy all living organisms and help sterilize the beer, so maybe they're still usable, but I'd recommend using them as bittering hops so they're boiled for the full time.