Hops: Should they stay or should they go?

[_Edge]

Hi folks,

I have a dilemma. I just got my second year cascade hops from my parent's place (I am a student and move every year and they have a great garden). They harvested over one pound of hops once dried.

I did most of the gardening until July, and then they took care of trimming the bines after that - although the number of new growths were pretty slow by then. They harvested last week and dried them in cookie sheets (in one layer) with two fans. A family friend brought them to me two days ago where I finished drying them using the same process.

The PROBLEM is that while they have a bit of a cascade smell, they smell more like old armpit sweat. I'm not even lying, it's a dead ringer. I was wondering if anyone could help me with figuring out how this problem came about, and how to avoid it.

Here are my thoughts --

1) perhaps there were too many bines growing and so the plant couldn't concentrate on a small number? Like I said, I wasn't there to trim them past the 12th of July.

2) I asked them to dry the hops in a place that got no sun, but they dried them in a room with windows. Though they said that southern facing room doesn't get "much" sun, can that cause the volatile oils to break down even though they aren't yet isomerized? The sun messes a lot of stuff up - this is my main contender. As always, if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.

3) When shipped to me, the hops were not completely dry, and they spent one day in a car, that probably isn't enough time for rotting to occur, but they had gone one week already and weren't completely dry -- were they wet too long?

4) Is it just that they are in year 2 and not completely mature as hop plants?

Thanks for the help folks.

-Edge

 

[david_42]

I'll vote for #3. Hops need to be completely dried before storage.

#2 - Sunlight during the drying process is not a problem.
#1 & 4 don't matter.

 

[HoppyDaze]

either way...I wouldn't brew with something that smelled like that.

 

[_Edge]

Ha, yeah. I will be tossing them. I just don't want to toss next year's harvest as well.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

"As always, if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself."

This is the only thing. Hops are a LOT of work. It's nice that people are chipping in but, you cannot expect them to do it all with as much care and pride as you might.

 

[GVH_Dan]

Armpit sweat smell is usually the isomerization of the beta acids (in a bad way). Exposure to sunlight could do this, but it is much more likely that it was from insufficient drying and then sticking them in the bag. The smell could also be from early stage mold/mildew development.

Yeah, toss the armpit ones.

Should they stay or go? There's probably nothing wrong with the plant, but if you can't get there to do the harvest and your parents don't take this as a personal challenge, you may want to pull them out. Otherwise, their garden could be overrun with hops.

Could you put them in a pot to take along with you. I have a couple that I haul around for displays and classes. I put them in an 18" pot with a 6 foot post mounted in it at an angle. I drop down a twine for them to grow up. The twine threads through an eyelet I have mounted in the top of the pole. When the bine is almost to the top, I drop the string down a foot. I continue this process until the bine is done growing up. Then I take the rest of the string out of the eyelet and wrap the whole thing around the pole. Its not the greatest for production, but it takes up a lot less space and makes it transportable. They maybe produce 1/2 to 3/4 of a normal bine.

 

[brewjunky]

buy a food dehydrater and leave them in there for like 30 mins they will be dry