Dry hopping with your home grown beauties

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OneImpBrewery

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I was pretty sure I already knew the answer for this but just heard the opposite from my LHBS. Just looking for some reaffirmation. Can i toss an oz of my whole leave home grown into a keg to dry hop without worrying about infection?
Thanks
Imp
 
I won't use my homegrown hops for dry hopping anymore. I lost two batches from it. I disagree with the oft-repeated idea that "hops are naturally anti-bacterial so you don't have to worry."

When I go up to cut down my hops for harvesting, many of them get on the ground. There's plenty of dirt that can come into contact with the hops. Or what about insects? insects getting into your dried hops can carry all kinds of contamination. Hops being "naturally anti-bacterial" will not matter if there's chunks of soil keeping the hop oils separate from a source of contamination, or have any effect on an insect's body, or any number of other potential problems.

All that being said, I'm not sure why commercial hops would be any more sanitary unless they use some kind of heat treatment, which would possibly be problematic and potentially destroy sensitive aromatic oils anyway. I do dry my hops on low temperatures, maybe I'll try a higher setting on my dehydrator next time.

All that being said, some people do it successfully, but I'm reluctant to risk another batch after losing two in years past. You might have more luck than me.
 
I won't use my homegrown hops for dry hopping anymore. I lost two batches from it. I disagree with the oft-repeated idea that "hops are naturally anti-bacterial so you don't have to worry."

When I go up to cut down my hops for harvesting, many of them get on the ground. There's plenty of dirt that can come into contact with the hops. Or what about insects? insects getting into your dried hops can carry all kinds of contamination. Hops being "naturally anti-bacterial" will not matter if there's chunks of soil keeping the hop oils separate from a source of contamination, or have any effect on an insect's body, or any number of other potential problems.

All that being said, I'm not sure why commercial hops would be any more sanitary unless they use some kind of heat treatment, which would possibly be problematic and potentially destroy sensitive aromatic oils anyway. I do dry my hops on low temperatures, maybe I'll try a higher setting on my dehydrator next time.

All that being said, some people do it successfully, but I'm reluctant to risk another batch after losing two in years past. You might have more luck than me.

Thanks for the reply. The guy I spoke with lost a batch as well and it went against all the same things you are saying. The anti bacterial properties and all. I saw something on heat drying commecial hops which would make sense on why they dont cause as many problems. Hoping I wasnt just paranoid
 
Well, heck, while we're dealing in anecdotes, I've dry-hopped with home-grown hops three times, with hops fresh off the bine, and not had any issues with infections.

Generally speaking, it's the pH, alcohol, and hop compounds already in the beer that make dry hop additions (and other things – spices, oak, etc) relatively safe – it's not that the hops are "self-sterilizing," it's that the beer is a hostile environment in which most anything you introduce will have a hard time multiplying enough to affect the flavor. Clearly this isn't the case with alcohol- and hop-tolerant bugs like brett and pedio, guess I just got lucky that none of that was growing on my hops.
 
That's the one thing I don't do with my home-growns: dry hop.

But only because I've seen too much :eek:

Specifically, one year my Cascades got creamed by aphids - just an epic infestation - and seeing the wave of tiny green bodies evacuating the oast as the ~20 wet pounds of cones dried totally put me off using them post-boil...

Hmm...That's two scarring events related to hops in my life.

[Digression Alert] The first one was masticating a healthy pinch of whatever hops Coors used back in the early 70s while on my umpteenth brewery tour (I went to college in Colorado and we hit the Golden tap room anytime we got bored, but you had to go through the damned tour every friggin' time).

I immediately switched to Crown Royal and it was two full years before I could drink a beer without feeling like it was going to take the short way back out...

Cheers! ;)
 
I hate to break this to everyone, but commercial hops are not handled any more delicately than home grown. They often touch the ground, and get thrown in dirty trucks, and get piled on the floor...

The one big difference is that they are careful about drying the correct amount. Too much moisture in the hops can harbor bacteria and other funk.
 
No clue if I did it right as far as drying goes but I will just stick with Boil additions. I got some pellet for my dry hopping. There are some nice plans for a Hop Oast in this months BYO I am going to build for this season. Thanks for all the input. I see both sides of the fence. I think I will start out with a half oz dry hop so that the whole leaf stuff will not take up a 3rd of my keg. Next time.
 
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