Fresh hops! Why dry them and more ???

[pnj]

I just spend an hour plus picking some hops from a friends vine. Six or seven years old but she doesn't know the name. She said it's a 'golden' something, because the leaves turn a really cool gold/yellow. She purchased them for their leaves and she's a gardener so I'm sure she's correct on remembering the name. But she didn't know if it was Kent East Golding or if it was just 'golden something'.

anyways, I have a huge pile and wanted to brew. Now I read that people are drying them.. Do I need to dry them or can I just freeze what I don't need/use?

My other question is, can I find out what the flavors/aroma might be even if I don't know what kind of hop they are? They don't really smell too heavily when you hold one up to your nose but as they sit here on my table in a pile, the smell is becoming pretty overwhelming/heavy.

some pics. I put a pint glass next to the pile so you could see how large the pile is.

 

[malkore]

water freezing into ice crystals...tends to damage plant cells. I think that's why you dry first.

plus wet hops weigh far more than dry hops, so it'd suck figuring out hop additions, even for aroma or dry hopping, unless they are dry and thus 'consistent' with commercial hops.

plus, mold. I didn't dry some hot peppers and then ended up molding before I could freeze them.

 

[pnj]

but if you freeze less then hours after picking, I don't think they'll mold.

If the plant material breaks down due to ice crystals, wouldn't that help to extract the oils?

 

[enderwig]

Any fresh green plant matter that I have ever put in the freezer turns black and turns to mush. Never tried hops, but oregeno and basil, plus various vegetables. I would take the time to dry them.

 

[summersolstice]

I'll be the first to admit I don't know the reason we dry rather than freeze but you never, ever see frozen herbs. They're sometimes sold fresh but dried is the coin of the realm. I figure there's a reason so I always dry my hops.

 

[david_42]

Hops are dried because freezing turns them to mush and on a large scale freezing is so much more expensive than drying.

Any Golding falls into the same aroma profile.

 

[calpyro]

I keep all of my hops fresh. I vacuum seal and freeze them within minutes of picking. I prefer the taste of fresh hops to dried.
The do tend to soften when thawed, but who cares when they are thrown into a cauldron of boiling wort? When added, post-fermentation, they seem to release their flavor better than fresh off the vine.
I can't find a reason to dry perfectly good fresh hops.

 

[Orangevango]

flash freeze them by putting them in a vacum bag and submerging them in a dry ice/acetone mix or liquid nitrogen. Then put them in your freezer and see what happens.

If you try it, I want to know what happens.

 

[bhatchable]

umm, can i motorboat your pile of hops?

 

[Pappers_]

umm, can i motorboat your pile of hops?

Hops or boobs, tough choice . . .