Wet hops and your thoughts?

[WildOakes]

So just got off the phone with a new start-up company who is in the plans of opening a hop distribution company. They would specialize primarily in the sell of wet hops, both to home brewers and commercial breweries. This is the first time I've ever heard of a company trying or attempting this. After speaking with them they have an open position that sounds very intriguing and right up my alley. I just wanted to reach out to you guys though and see what your opinions of using wet hops are and also to those who have never used wet hops. What are your feeling towards them? If they were available to order would you give it a try? Also what might you be willing to pay for say, a pound of Cascade? Yakima Valley currently has 2017 Cascade DRY whole hops for $14.99/lb.

 

[day_trippr]

Distribution is the problem, of course, and as a home grower over 7 years who has used my own hops wet there isn't a surfeit of time to work with before bad things start happening to wet hops.

As for price, a wet pound of hops will contain roughly 1/5th the AA (and all the other goodies) of dried hops.
So all else equal and at AA parity a wet hop version of that $15/lb should cost $3.
Anything above that is a premium - again wrt to what most people expect out of their hops.

So, "wetness" and whatever ephemeral characters it contains is worth how much?

Cheers!

 

[bpgreen]

Distribution is the problem, of course, and as a home grower over 7 years who has used my own hops wet there isn't a surfeit of time to work with before bad things start happening to wet hops.

As for price, a wet pound of hops will contain roughly 1/5th the AA (and all the other goodies) of dried hops.
So all else equal and at AA parity a wet hop version of that $15/lb should cost $3.
Anything above that is a premium - again wrt to what most people expect out of their hops.

So, "wetness" and whatever ephemeral characters it contains is worth how much?

Cheers!

I was going to say much the same thing.

I reread the original post. I'm not sure the suggestion is to charge $15/lb for wet hops, or if the $15/lb is just what is being used as a baseline for dried hops.

 

[WildOakes]

Distribution is the problem, of course, and as a home grower over 7 years who has used my own hops wet there isn't a surfeit of time to work with before bad things start happening to wet hops.

As for price, a wet pound of hops will contain roughly 1/5th the AA (and all the other goodies) of dried hops.
So all else equal and at AA parity a wet hop version of that $15/lb should cost $3.
Anything above that is a premium - again wrt to what most people expect out of their hops.

So, "wetness" and whatever ephemeral characters it contains is worth how much?

Cheers!

Thanks! If i can ask what are some of your findings on using wet hops? Did you notice any pronounce flavors that you didn't before with using dry hops?

I am not sure what price range they plan on selling the wet hops for

 

[WildOakes]

I was going to say much the same thing.

I reread the original post. I'm not sure the suggestion is to charge $15/lb for wet hops, or if the $15/lb is just what is being used as a baseline for dried hops.

Yes sorry, I edited it to include that I was giving a comparison for dry hops

 

[day_trippr]

Thanks! If i can ask what are some of your findings on using wet hops? Did you notice any pronounce flavors that you didn't before with using dry hops?[...]

If I had to sum my impressions it would be that on a 1:5 dry/wet basis everything is more intense with the wet equivalent, which may or may not be in folks' wheelhouse...

Cheers!

 

[WildOakes]

If I had to sum my impressions it would be that on a 1:5 dry/wet basis everything is more intense with the wet equivalent, which may or may not be in folks' wheelhouse...

Cheers!

Do you compensate for the added water in the hops, or do you stick with the same procedures as the dry hops? Also what have you found the best time to use the wet hops? Hot side, cold side, or maybe both?

 

[bpgreen]

I grow my own hops and have actually never used them to do a wet hop brew.

I've always been nervous about keeping my hops relatively fresh when drying,vacuum sealing, and freezing them. How will these wet hops be kept fresh?

I'm not saying it can't be done. I'm just asking.

 

[johnstod]

Surely you would need to freeze them and transport them frozen because from what I can see they degrade quickly when fresh.

You may have a market for people dry (wet?) hopping if the aroma is more intense this way but would have to price it right.

Interested to see how it turns out

 

[Aaron Beers]

I'm not seeing how this business is going to work.

1. You don't have wet hops year round. So what are you selling the other ~10 months of the year? Are you freezing the hops while they're wet and selling frozen blocks?

2. Shipping costs will be excessive. Whether actually fresh or a frozen block, you'd need to be shipping overnight, with insulated packaging. That's expensive.

So, limited availability and/or not truly fresh hops (frozen), and quite expensive, not seeing how this business is going to work...

 

[day_trippr]

Do you compensate for the added water in the hops, or do you stick with the same procedures as the dry hops? Also what have you found the best time to use the wet hops? Hot side, cold side, or maybe both?

I've only used them at FO and WP, I'm nudgey about using wets post-fermentation as they're not particularly clean, never mind sanitary (seriously, there can be dirt and even wildlife involved ).
I don't compensate for the moisture as it's not significant enough to affect the finished wort at that point...

Cheers!

 

[Sbe2]

I've only used them at FO and WP, I'm nudgey about using wets post-fermentation as they're not particularly clean, never mind sanitary (seriously, there can be dirt and even wildlife involved ).

I have found white streaks on some of my own harvested hops. Just sayin.