Thursday, August 13, 2009

Information Needed on Hop Harvesting

Hello all,

I recently received an email from a friend asking me about hops.

I myself have never dried and packaged my home grown hops so I could not properly answer the question.

I did, however, tell this individual that I think maximum hop growth would be achieved in another two weeks due to the cool Pittsburgh summer we had. Please let me know if this was good advice.

Any help on his questions below would be much appreciated.

To: Keith Tarbi
Subject: Hops!!

Hey Keith, I need some guidance from an experienced hop grower. I have Cascade hops brimming with cones, I think they are getting close to harvesting and have some questions regarding drying and packaging.

For drying I was either going to use some window screens and let them air dry or use the oven at the lowest heat possible. What have you done in the past?

For packaging, do you use a vacuum sealer? I read that putting them in plain Ziploc bags isn't a good idea. Any advice you can offer would be appreciated. Thanks.

http://www.trashhomebrewers.org/node/286