My DIY hops dryer

[GreenEnvy22]

I have a regular food dehydrator, with the temperature adjustment so I can get it nice and low for hops, however with five Vines in the backyard that are each over 15 feet tall, I don't have enough capacity with that dehydrator.

So I started looking into a DIY set up that would give me some more capacity.

I came up with a simple solution, similar to what others have done in the past.

I built a 20-inch by 20-inch by 11 inch wood box, and then used a staple gun to attach some grape netting from my grapes to the bottom. I then added a wire shelf and stapled it on for additional support. That whole thing is now sitting on a 20 inch box fan, and I have a space heater blowing warm air into where the box fan sucks up air from.

I'll give it a try tonight, and compare the results to my traditional dehydrator.

Any suggestions on how thick I can put in the hops? Should I just keep piling it on till I can't feel much of a breeze coming through anymore?

 

[B-Hoppy]

That looks fine but I can tell you from experience, before the hops are at the correct moisture content they get light enough that they'll begin to levitate and end up all over your cellar (or wherever you're drying them). All you have to do is direct the airflow from the open end of the box so they end up pressed against the screen. Also, the less heat you can use the better. You can easily do a half pound (dried wt) in about 3 days with no additional heat but the depth of your bed and how open or dense the cones are of the variety will alter the timing. Remember, the bracts and bracteoles will dry out in no time but most of the moisture is found in the strig (the center stem inside the cones). You have to make sure you pay attention to that because if you don't get enough moisture out of the strig, it will migrate back out into the bracts/bracteoles once you 'think' you're all done drying.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

Thanks hoppy.
I've go the fan on top now, though i guess I could also put a screen on the top and blow from bottom, but that would probably cause me to lose more materials from all the bouncing around.
I have the space heater on low, I just want it to take less less than 36 hours a batch or I'm going to have issues with hops on vine getting too old. My wife is using our other dehydrator nonstop for the next week for herbs, so I'm down on capacity.
I thought low heat, like 90F, was ok? Heater is putting out heat about that temp.

 

[B-Hoppy]

Commercially out West they used to push stuff through at like 140-150F, then once the craft brewers went hop crazy they decided to do a little research and got many to reduce it to something like 125F. Not to be outdone, some of the newer growers in the Midwest were claiming that even 125 was too high and were drying without heat down to about 20% and then adding a little heat to get them down the rest of the way. From what I've seen, below 120F should get you there in really good shape.