I gleaned (with owner's permission, High Halden, Kent) some local hedgerow hops that look very like yours, and I suspect are a close scion of Fuggles.Fuggles!
Dry day so got some picked. Some large cones on. Hopefully ok. Going to do a British lager, own fuggles for bittering ( calls for 38g @ 60 mins, so was doubling) and 6.5g EKG T90 @30min, calls for 6.5 EKG & Fuggles @ 10 min. Malt bill 4.89kg Lager Malt, 820g cara malt, 270g dextrin. Shall see
View attachment 103968
From a gateway and hedge of what was obviously a hop garden when I was a youngster.
After the cold wet snap they showed petal browning like yours. They didn't smell like 'past their best' but I wasn't going to risk them spoiling by leaving more than 2 days of the better weather to dry off a bit. I got 144g when dried.
Do yours show more of the cold wet weather-related sudden petal browning than in previous years?
And have you noticed any changes in the aroma characteristics?
Good luck with the English lager using them,
personally I would only use my own hops for the later aroma additions. Using them for bittering they lose most of their fresh hop personality.