Whole Cone Hops

[NJtarheel]

I am growing my own hops (Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Columbia) and have never used whole cone hops. I have two questions: Do the cones have to be thoroughly dried out before brewing? For a standard IPA, how many ounces or pounds are required for a 5 gal batch of moderately hopped beer? Thanks!

 

[mrgrimm101]

1.) Yes and no. Ideally you want to dry them out to prepare for storage and to get rid of some of the water weight. However, you can make a "wet hopped" or "harvest" ale and use the whole wet hops. Many commercial breweries make such an ale around harvest season in the fall. Founder's Harvest Ale is my favorite beer of the season.

2.) It depends if you dry them or not. Wet hops hold water weight so you need more hops to get the same result as you would with dried hops. I use pellets, but for my IPAs I generally use about 4-6 oz in the boil and 3-4 oz to dry hop

 

[Spartan300man]

The general rule of thumb is 5 oz 'wet' hops = 1 oz dry hops.

 

[NJtarheel]

Thanks so much for the direction and advice!!! Looking forward to brewing with them.