Distilling hops

[Bitterweed]

I filled the back of my pickup this morning with hops, drove 60 miles to the lavender farm where my hops would become "liquid gold" we ran the still 2 times longer than what he does with his lavender, the result... 10 gallons hydrosol and 1 oz of pure oil... Granted if everything was perfect, and I did small batches of hops at their peak I could have had higher yields.. BUT... OMG it smells like heaven!

 

[corkybstewart]

I'm looking at ways to distill hop oil this summer-my Cascades usually start producing cones in May and continue until October. Do you use fresh hops, or do they need to be dry first?