Hop Dryer Plans?

[calpyro]

There's a guy in my club who uses a stack of furnace filters bungee corded to a box fan to dry his hops. IIRC it takes him several days to dry his hops.

I've considered using my press (standing w/ big hydraulic cylinder) to "pelletize" hops. This would involve grinding them up and squeezing the water out of the pulp. I think a couple of machined aluminum plates would do the trick.

It seems to me that the primary drawback of fresh or frozen hops is the variation in moisture content. That will probably vary significantly from plant to plant and year to year.
It would be interesting to examine three brews: fresh hopped, slow (low temp) dried hops hopped and commercially dried hops hopped. Maybe I'll do that if I get a significant harvest this year.

The variation in moisture of wet hops is not too big of a deal. Just come up with the moisture content of your hops. Weigh a pound of your first hops wet and then dry them. Compare the to weights and there you go. That's what I did and I have found it pretty accurate.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

IIRC, another merit to drying is the process helps drive off some of the properties involved with photosynthesis, when is what lend the grassiness associated with wet hopping of some varieties..

I do like me some wet hop beers but, not all hops are created equal for this so, make sure you keep really good notes of your tastings.

 

[Hopfarmer]

check out the pics of the dryer I built u can adjust to size Cheers Glen

 

[digdou]

Anybody tried this drying method?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5912487412723519389#