Composting of spent Hops

[ScoMo]

Hey Brewers.
I'm not a brewer, I work with golf courses on various environmental projects. Currently I'm conducting an experiment on compost ingredients that help retain moisture. I was lead to Hops from a few articles I found on the net and have now sourced some from a local Craft brewer.
Does anyone have any tips, comments, experiences or theories about composting spent hops? Anything will help.
Thanks, Happy Brewing.
ScoMo.

 

[olllllo]

I'd put up a post at Probrewer.com too if I were you.

 

[Chipman]

Oh I'd be interested in the finding as well. The roomies compost some of my spent grain, if hopes have something to offer that'd be great info.

 

[Randar]

Hey Brewers.
I'm not a brewer, I work with golf courses on various environmental projects. Currently I'm conducting an experiment on compost ingredients that help retain moisture. I was lead to Hops from a few articles I found on the net and have now sourced some from a local Craft brewer.
Does anyone have any tips, comments, experiences or theories about composting spent hops? Anything will help.
Thanks, Happy Brewing.
ScoMo.

I compost mine but they are such a small percentage of the compost mix that I could not discern it from other ingredients.

All good compost efforts contain a mix of brown and green composts. Grains and hops are "green composts". I would imagine spent hops are not much different than yard clippings in regard to compostability.

 

[tallybrewer]

Been throwing my trub (which of course contains some hops, but mostly spent grains) into my compost since I started brewing about 9 months ago. As Randar points out, this is only a small portion of the organic material I use in my compost bin.

If you have any specific questions, fire away.

 

[ScoMo]

I received this as part of a private message and figured I'd post it here to help with the discussion.
"Hops have a good supply of nitrogen but like any other green plant material it needs to be properly composted before it can be used. This will require mixing with the appropriate amount of high carbon containing bio-matter and a conventional composting period (triple high temperature cycle followed by a cool-down and curing period). Once this is finished the N content is still in biological form and required soil mineralization to transform the bio N into mineral N (nitrate and ammonium). You're shooting for a maximum C:N of 40:1. anything higher than that will rob N from the surrounding soils.

I designed the composting system for a huge landscaper that processes 100K+ cubic yards of biomass annually. Honestly, hops will act like any other properly composted biomass (grass clippings, food waste, etc). I would treat them as having similar C:N ratio properties as grass. Moisture holding capacity impacts from compost come primarily from increasing organic matter and improving bulk density. If you want to improve capacity even more add gypsum to the final compost mix...AFTER it has cured. Adding gypsum to uncomposted biomass will result in the release of hydrogen sulfide...not a great thing to have..."