Refrigerating wet hops until use?

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nanobrau

Tiny tiny batches
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The heatwave going on in California is forcing me to harvest or lose my hops this year. I will need to harvest in the morning to avoid the heat later in the day, but I won't have time to actually brew until the afternoon or evening. My plan is to refrigerate the hops until I'm ready to throw them into the boil. Does anyone do this? If not, what is the longest time you've let the hops sit out before they end up in a beer/wort?
 
Due to an emergency, I won't be able to brew today anyway. I threw the hops into the freezer. Hopefully I'll have time to brew with them tomorrow.

I've read some concerns about freezing wet hops due to chlorophyll/vegetal off flavors, but I'm just going to have to roll with this and see how it goes.
 
I am curious how they turn out.

I have picked and dried my hops the last two years just because it has been difficult to time a brew day around the hops being ripe with a day that includes enough time to brew and pick the hops. It is also easier to plan around the amount of hops that I end up with.
 
I brewed with them today. As I transferred to the fermenter, the aroma was seriously intense.
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The bag pictured is 35g. One bag was thrown in at 60min and another at 5min.

Something went wrong during the mash and I undershot my target OG. Came out at 1.038 instead of the intended 1.050 o_O but regardless I hope it turns out fine as a session pale ale.
 
I brewed with them today. As I transferred to the fermenter, the aroma was seriously intensThe bag pictured is 35g. One bag was thrown in at 60min and another at 5min.

Something went wrong during the mash and I undershot my target OG. Came out at 1.038 instead of the intended 1.050 o_O but regardless I hope it turns out fine as a session pale ale.
Remember that wet hops are ...wet... so you need a lot more of wet weight to have the same dry weight as using commercial hops. US brewers seem to work on 5x or 6x the dry weight, here in the UK 7x seems to be the usual reckoning.

In answer to the original question - fridging for a few hours is OK, if they went straight in the fridge you might get away with as long as 24 hours in the fridge, but normal reckoning here is no more than 12 hours.
 
I understand that you wanted to use wet hops, but considering your circumstance with the heat, you had the perfect conditions to dry them in the shade for a good dry hopping. Wet hops don't last long, as you already know. Maybe a thought for next time?

What the hell do I know though, I let my barley rot into a delicious liquid.
 
Had to add good job pushing the air out of the baggies a bit, that should help them stay fresher. Like you needed the props... you know what you're doing
 
Maybe I'm greedy, but I wanted to get the jump on some experience brewing with wet hops. That way, hopefully when I have more hops than I know what to do with, I can both brew a successful wet hopped beer as well as dry the rest. I tried drying hops last year and they turned out alright. This was the next step and I didn't want to wait another year.
 
I was forced to harvest my hops the day before I planned to brew with them. We had a really bad storm on it’s way and didn’t want harvest them soaked in the rain. I cut down the bines and brought them into the garage with the cut ends in a bucket of water like flowers. About 24 hours I picked the cones and used them fresh. Worked great. Probably could have kept them like this for another 2-3 days after I cut down the bines.
 
First taste of the beer brewed above. I was shocked. I’ve never attempted a NEIPA or anything similar but I got nearly that.
8FCC9673-7241-423D-8DA6-338F317A1FF1.jpeg


I get orange juice and apricot on the nose. Since I bittered with the same hops (unknown alpha acids), it appears I underestimated the AA. Bitterness was unbalanced in the bitter direction. The low OG is certainly not helping here. But despite that, the flavor is still quite good. It’s not so bitter that I need to put it down. It’s just strong and does linger somewhat on the finish. But most importantly: NO VEGETAL OFF FLAVORS!

I still have some leftover wet hops frozen and I may reattempt this beer assuming a higher AA and fixing the OG. It will be really interesting to see if longer time in the freezer is detrimental or if I still manage to get good results.
 
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