Should I use my hops?

[hamilt22]

I harvested a bunch of Nugget hops the other day. Some were on the vine a little too long, some were just right, some were a little young still probably, and others I left for a secondary picking later.

So I have two questions:

1. Some of the cones have some brown leaves - do I pick those off before using them? Or just toss them in the boil?

2. When I break open a cone, it smells just the way a hop should. But if I take a bunch in my hands, they smell a bit grassy. Should I use these hops at all?? I definitely don't want a grassy beer. I probably only got about one ounce (young plant) so I won't be too bent out of shape if I just toss the crop...

Thanks all...

 

[JFry]

Should be fine for bittering. Even though you don't know the exact IBUs without testing, the IBU range for each hop variety is a good indicator. I have used my cascade hops in the past to dry hop an IPA and it worked well, but they had a good fragrance. The grassy smell may be that they weren't dried sufficiently.

 

[samc]

I had 3 plants for my first year. I left the Magnums on to a point I thought was too long and they smelled like hops and are now vac sealed and frozen. For my other 2 plants I rushed the harvest and wound up with a lot of green smelling hops. Although they were dry & papery with golden Lupulin they just never really took on the hop flavor. I wound up tossing the larger batch (Cascade) and froze the Centennials thinking someday I might take them out and see what happened to them.

Next year I will have more patience with the harvest. And besides I ordered a batch from Hops Direct which is far cheaper than I can produce them for on my own.

 

[uechikid]

I would use them.

 

[hamilt22]

Thought this thread had been forgotten about. Thanks for the replies!

I think I'm going to use them. Probably throw them in around 15 or 20 minutes. I don't want to bitter with them because I don't know their AA%s and I won't really taste any of the home grown hops.

What's the verdict on going through and picking out the brown leaves?

 

[netjunk1e]

I have had commercial hops with brown leaves mixed on the cone. Dont worry about it.