overdried my hops ?

[blackwaterbrewer]

i accidently left a full batch of hops in the dehydrater overnight. it was set at 120. they feel very dry but smell great. is it possible to dry hops out too much?

 

[pilotdane]

I don't think you can dry them too much. You just do not want to dry them at too high a temperature. You should be OK with your 120f.

 

[david_42]

Yes, but if they didn't turn brown they are fine. I had some hot wind last year at harvest time and the hops got toasted brown.

 

[GVH_Dan]

It is possible to overdry. Turning brown is one indication. You're really overdry if the bracts (the "leaves") start falling off the stig (the stem). When this happens, most of your lupulin (the yellow/gold stuff) falls out. The lupulin is where the good stuff is. sometimes you can also get to the point where the cone opens up too much and the lupulin falls out even though the bracts are loosely attached.

If your hops are still intact, you should be OK especially since they still smell good. If you're worried, you can condition them just like the big boys do in Yakima. They just lay them out and cover them with a tarp to let the moisture equalize. But since you may not have enough moisture, leave them on the drying trays. Fill a dish with water and some water conditioning salt. Set the trays on top of this and throw a tarp over it. Leave this for a day or so. The salt should equalize the relative humidity to around 60 to 70% which will give your hops an internal moisture content around 12 to 15%, which is perfect.

 

[blackwaterbrewer]

wow, GVH Dan, that is some good info. thanks for the help

 

[pilotdane]

What is conditioning salt?

 

[GVH_Dan]

Sorry, water conditioning salt. Really any salt will do, that's just the cheapest. You want to make a slurry where all the salt isn't dissolved but is wet. You can use other things like glycol, too.


Do a search on "humidor" or something similar. Many of the cheap humidors use a water/salt or water/propylene glycol mixture to maintain a 75 to 80% relative humidity. Here we are just doing the same thing for our hops.

Read this article http://www.cigartoyz.com/_e/page/1007/Humidor_101.htm. About 1/2 way down it talks about calibrating a hygrometer with a salt/water solution.