Taking Care of Hops

A friend of mine handed me a bucket full of hops yesterday that he harvested off his property.  He is getting into homebrewing and has started growing his own.  I have only ever used pellets.  Anyone have any tips for storage/care of the whole hops?

If trhey are wet you should dry them on a window screen in a warm area for about 4 days, not in sunlight. then put them in a ziplock freezer bag and squish the air out and store in the freezer. i never had a problem with that method. but my hops dont sit around long I brew a lot.

Hopefully they were not picked too soon!


I am growing hops this year for the first time and picked a bunch a few weeks ago because I thought they were ready.  I have since earned that they were not!

I did dry them on drying frames that I made plus a fan.  They are Zeuss hops, and they do small a tad hoppy, but frankly they smell more green and grassy than hoppy!

From youtube videos I have seen, I think I picked them too soon.  I have some still on the bines and will leave them another week or so.

This being the first year it is just an experiment and learning experience for me anyway,  do no big deal  I did get a lot more hops than I was given to expect for the first year.


Brian.


PS - I know that when you grow your own hops, you cannot determine the  AA level without a costly lab test, and it could vary from year to year,  but does anyone know what sort of variation you could expect from the average?

IE Zeuss hops are supposed to be pretty high - up to 14% - how much lower might my home grown ones be?  a couple of percent less or could they be half of that?  I don't have a feel for it.
   
 

I would dry them on a screen and freeze them as already suggested.
As far as use goes, you probably want to reserve them for late additions since there's no easy way to determine the alpha content on your own.