Fresh hops, so many to use, so little time

[xico]

Who has used them before. I have 10 lbs coming in every day for 80L batches and I have no idea how to work with them! Some people say 5-6 times, others 10 times (since hops are dried to 8-10% their weight during curing). 10 lbs of fresh hops is the volume of a large rubber bin I fit bags of grain in. Any advice?

 

[kh54s10]

I think you need to rephrase the question. Are you asking how to store them or how to brew with them?

For brewing whole hops are generally used in close to the same amounts as pellet hops. If you were to need one ounce of pellet hops you would use 1 ounce of whole hops.
What you don't know is the Alpha Acid level of the hop unless you have them tested, so most people will use them for flavor and aroma additions and use hops of known AA levels for bittering.

You will have to experiment to know how much to use, unless you know the type of hop and how potent they are.

 

[xico]

I think you need to rephrase the question. Are you asking how to store them or how to brew with them?

For brewing whole hops are generally used in close to the same amounts as pellet hops. If you were to need one ounce of pellet hops you would use 1 ounce of whole hops.
What you don't know is the Alpha Acid level of the hop unless you have them tested, so most people will use them for flavor and aroma additions and use hops of known AA levels for bittering.

You will have to experiment to know how much to use, unless you know the type of hop and how potent they are.

We know the kind of hop we get each time. I work for a distributor that purchases most of their leaf stock from farmers directly in Yakima. Analytical work is done on the harvests in order to send to market. But I opted not to boil fresh hops long and went with a hop burst and whirlpool; 15, 10, 5, 0.. My concern was creating a vegetal contribution to an already-grassy (as accepted in the style) brew.

I need to brew with them as they com in. Upon getting additional advice I was told to multiply the weight of hops by 6 to 10 depending on how much moisture content exists in the given hops. We knew the first drop off was picked at 9 am, and arrived at my brew station at 11. We acquired the density of 500mL of the hops and compared the data to currently-curing, and finished hops. The numbers are estimates at best but it gave us an idea of roughly how much we needed to add. Our calculations put us between 8 and 10 times.

Two batches done, the first one received 10 times the mass of the recipe for processed hops. The second one, because they were given more time on racks waiting for the next batch's kettle, they lost some moisture and density and were added at a rate of 6.67 times the recipe. Both look great, cloudy messes, but taste balanced