Did I pick too late?

[musicnvrstops]

I just harvested most of my first year Cascase crop and am looking for a little advice.

The pick yielded about 5 ounces, which I'm fine with considering how low my expectations were. My plan was to wait until the cones were papery with slightly browned tips. But... I'm worried I may have waited to long. Quite a few of the cones were more brown than I would have liked.

Does anyone out there know if these cones are too brown? As much as I'd love to use my fresh hops, I don't want to ruin a perfectly good batch of homebrew.

 

[Soldevi]

They look great to me. I think you want them to be semi dry and papery.

Better than too early. I'd use em. lol :rockin:

 

[day_trippr]

They don't look bad at all, and if they smell nice and hoppy (and not oniony, garlicky or bad cheesey) they're just fine!

Cheers!

 

[musicnvrstops]

Awesome! Thank you both for the feedback. I can't wait to use them!

 

[Tombraider2]

Yep, my first season of grow and they were just getting there to. I wanted to see if I could get them dryish on the vine, and smell killer. I've added to the Wart when I was picking them off the vine. Man the smell was

 

[thughes]

I'm lazy and mine usually look like that by the time I get around to picking them. They'll be fine.

 

[ForerunnerBrewer]

Just when I thought I had it all figured out, my second year Cascade hops are putting out non aromatic cones. I had a first harvest months ago. I picked them because the lupulin looked "school bus/yield sign yellow" like the guy from Gorst Valley hops said on basic brewing radio. I ignored the fact that there was barely any smell thinking it might come out when they dry and it would be better than over aged hops. Big mistake! Now I have some new ones that came in and they have been on the bine for about 2 months... Which is over the 5 weeks to maturation I have read about but they still doesn't have much fragrance.

Has anyone had this happen, that the hops are not aromatic? My first year harvest was plenty aromatic!