How do I use semi-dried hops?

[gb369]

I just bought some hops from a local grower. On their website, they state "The hops are carefully dried by about 50%, then baled and frozen to retain their brewing qualities for up to 2 years."

From what I know, there are wet hops (100% moisture content) and dried whole cone hops (8-10% moisture). From a recipe perspective, you treat dried whole cone the same as pellets, but wet hops you use at a 5:1 ratio.

So, should I be using these hops as wet hops (5:1), or some middle ground ratio like 3:1?

 

[cactusgarrett]

From a recipe perspective, you treat dried whole cone the same as pellets

This isn't really accurate with regards to weight. When using cone vs pellets (at least for bittering), you need 10% more since pellets are more efficient and the lupulin is more readily available.

I've never heard of a local grower packaging wet hops like this. The whole draw is that wet hops are used fresh, and freezing/storing them is counterintuitive. If these were dried to only 50% weight (as opposed to 20% as typical), I don't know if I'd use them (personally). I would expect they'd have mushy, vegetal, non-fresh smell and flavor to them, but only you can be the judge of that since you have them in-hand. But if you decide to use them, just use the adjusted weight (dried to 50% by weight as opposed to 20%)

 

[cire]

I've used wet hops and to be quite honest, they rarely perform as expected. Indeed they often are vegetal as @cactusgarrett suggests. This isn't necessarily as bad as the name suggests, they can often be grassy, which if you like grass, is no bad thing.

A major problem is anticipating AA% and bitterness. I would advise you use them as late additions to a basic cheap grainbill. In that way you will taste what is on offer, and not be left wondering why such and outcome. That can be fun using cheapest malt and reused yeast.