Hop Dry picture tutorial

[Zulu]

3 days on the drying racks, no forced air at this stage

 

[Randar]

Nice pic, Zulu. Do you only air-dry without forced air?

I am likely to build something like this in the fall of this year and plan to enclose the sides and force hot air through with a space heater and a squirrel cage blower from a furnace...

 

[Zulu]

It is a steel 20ft container standing in full sun at edge of the hops field.

Only power I have is 30ft away 3 phase, so not bothered to fix anything in way of fans yet, and it worked fine last year - 2 -3 days max.

As we are a small co-op of brew club members, getting guys out to vacuum bag 3 days after picking is a challenge, but kinda worked last year - we tried picking on Wednesday/Thursday and bagged on Sat

 

[Randar]

Yeah, the fan-based drying has it's drawbacks as well since you have to keep rotating the screens and mixing the hops in order to get a consistent dry. 2-3 days is pretty good! Maybe I will skip the dryer this year and see how it goes... we shall see how much time I have on my hands this fall.

 

[Zulu]

With door closed temp gets up to 120-140deg in full sun, so I think that is why it works so well. Dark and hot with plenty of space, we are only using about 1/8 of it at present for hops, rest is our storage for tools etc

 

[InfernoBrews]

the filter idea was pretty nifty..

 

[Pwrflpills]

What do you guys do about humidity in these closed door environments?

 

[kinison_fan]

You ever get any fiberglass fragments from those filters?

I use a couple of old screens when I dry mine-hose the screens off (dust), cover with fresh hops. Then lay them across the open rafters in my garage for a few days.

 

[cheezydemon3]

Do conventional dehydrators create too much heat?

I know that POT deteriorates under too much heat.

 

[GVH_Dan]

alpha acids deteriorate above 140F. Most oils start to evaporate above 100 F, one as low as 79F. Keep it as cool as possible.

 

[cheezydemon3]

Thanks Dan. So the deal on dehydrators is useless for hops.

 

[GVH_Dan]

Not useless. Just try to turn it down to as low of a temperature as possible. Some go as low as 95F.

 

[cheezydemon3]

The cheapo ones have no temp controller.

 

[bf514921]

I have had good luck with just a screens set up on saw horses in my garage, minimal air movment , but after 3 days the are dry

 

[Mygrain]

Nice! I came by looking for some drying tips. Thanks for the pics.

 

[HSM]

Other tips you can utilize...

- Use a space heater to help raise your temps into the 100-130 degree range. (works great if you live in a hot climate with a garage that isn't well insulated!)
- flip the filters so the side nearest the fan doesn't overdry relative to the opposite end


BTW, this is essentially Alton Brown's method for herb drying applied to hops.

AB's beef jerky drying method I believe.

My hops were almost dry off the vine so just a few days on a screen and they were fine.

 

[virginiawolf]

Hi, Nice info Thantos and everyone. I hope to read more on this.
I'll share what has worked for me so far. At harvest time it's still pretty warm here in punxsutawney so
I put them on screens in the basement out of sunlight for like others said about 3 days.
Then I weigh em, shrinkwrap em, and freeze em. I found that if I shrink wrap the hops in individual oz on brew day it's easier to gather what I need for a recipe without leaving half used open bags of hops in my freezer. I might have to build a nice drying rack like Zulu. Nice Rack
pic from my garden. I love hops. Virginia Wolf

[/IMG]

 

[motobrewer]

what's the desired moisture content of dried hops?

 

[GVH_Dan]

The easy answer is 8%, but that's really the target to hit if you are a commercial outfit trying to pelletize.

From what I have seen, anything under 12% is fine for storage and 20% and above is too wet. So the highest moisture content is somewhere between 12% and 20%. The lowest is about 6%. Below that and the bracts fall off.

 

[chapa]

Hmmmm...this makes me want to grow some hops!! I just got hopdirects email today about their hop rhizomes. VERY tempting!! Will keep this in mind for future ref. Thanks.

 

[BigRob]

Just a note for those with the cheap-o dehydrators you can rig a regular old dimmer switch to the heating coil and then calibrate it yourself with a sharpie and a thermometer. Couple holes and mounted through the case and you've got some temp control on the cheap.

 

[Balrog30]

There's quite a wealth of information in this thread. Just thought I'd add a couple points from my own non-hop related experience.

I visited an herb farm near London, Ontario last year that had converted from Tobacco farming to herbs. They used a converted Tobacco Kiln to dry their herbs, but the most important change they made to the Kiln was to lower the temperature. I imagine their principles apply to Hops as well. When I asked about using a cheap home dehydrator to dry herbs, they said if there's no temperature control then its probably too hot. You're better off to air-dry without heat and take a long time than use too much heat. In culinary herbs, you lose a lot of flavour if you dry too hot.

As for target moisture, I'm a big hay producer myself. Our target moisture is below 13%. Anything above 16% has a high risk of mold growth. On the farm we use an acid-based preservative to prevent mold growth in the hay, so I imagine the moisture threshold for hops would be greatly affected by its pH. The more acid it is, the higher moisture it would need to be for bacterial growth. Its a big leap from hay to hops, I know... but you're still just drying plants, right?

 

[junkyard brewer]

This hop drying idea with the pillow case and dryer...

anyone care to elaborate on that? Now that its time to harvest my hops, im terrified im going to over dry them. Is there a way to dry them to much?

 

[GVH_Dan]

This is a copy from a post I put in a different thread, but relevant to the question you just asked.

It is possible to overdry hops but not easy unless you are using heat or in a desert. When they overdry, the bracts will fall off and the lupulin will fall out. If you are using heat, you may also dry out all the oils and aromas, leaving you with tasteless stigs.

Basically, every non living thing absorbs and desorbs moisture from the air at a rate that is controlled by the relative humidity of the air. For every Equilibrium Relative Humidity (of the air) there is a corresponding Equilibrium Moisture Content (of the hops in this case). If the Relative Humidity goes up, the item absorbs more moisture until it comes back to equilibrium. This is true for hops.

If you check my pictures, I believe I have an isothrem for hops posted. It basically shows that you can dry to less than 15% moisture content regardless of the air conditions. Assuming you are going to freeze them or use them right away, that is probably sufficient. If you are a commercial grower, you want to get to 8 to 10% moisture content, which means 50% RH or less. "Too dry" is somewhere less than 5%.

To hit 5%, you need very dry air for a long time. Or, you put it in a space that is really warm, which lowers the relative humidity, and poof...you have a pile of bracts and yellow dust. In that case, I just saw a thread where someone used the lupulin as a rub on his spare ribs. You can try that.

 

[ken11]

nice w/ the filter fabric:

 

[skankin_brews]

That is the Alton Brown technique for drying meat for jerky

 

[DoctorHops]

Yes, in college, Alton Brown too dried ...er hops.

 

[Bamsdealer]

very cool. I use a similar setup when drying jerky.

 

[zwaldo]

Saw the same technique used by elton Brown on his cooking show to do beef jerky.

 

[SouthtownsBrewing2011]

This is a copy from a post I put in a different thread, but relevant to the question you just asked.

It is possible to overdry hops but not easy unless you are using heat or in a desert. When they overdry, the bracts will fall off and the lupulin will fall out. If you are using heat, you may also dry out all the oils and aromas, leaving you with tasteless stigs.

Basically, every non living thing absorbs and desorbs moisture from the air at a rate that is controlled by the relative humidity of the air. For every Equilibrium Relative Humidity (of the air) there is a corresponding Equilibrium Moisture Content (of the hops in this case). If the Relative Humidity goes up, the item absorbs more moisture until it comes back to equilibrium. This is true for hops.

If you check my pictures, I believe I have an isothrem for hops posted. It basically shows that you can dry to less than 15% moisture content regardless of the air conditions. Assuming you are going to freeze them or use them right away, that is probably sufficient. If you are a commercial grower, you want to get to 8 to 10% moisture content, which means 50% RH or less. "Too dry" is somewhere less than 5%.

To hit 5%, you need very dry air for a long time. Or, you put it in a space that is really warm, which lowers the relative humidity, and poof...you have a pile of bracts and yellow dust. In that case, I just saw a thread where someone used the lupulin as a rub on his spare ribs. You can try that.

I planted 5 different types this year. I know that next year will be pretty good but when i harvest them in the summer and dry... Here is the big question AMOUNT? If i normally use 1 oz of cascade pellets how much do i use of my dried fresh stuff?