Anyone used fresh home grown hops?

[fury_tea]

I'm brewing for the first time in months. I have been growing some hops. It's not been the best year (better than the 1 hop I got last year though).

They are starting to turn slightly brown so I think they are ready to go.

So my plan is to just make a simple pale ale, small bittering charge and let it run its course, then in a few days harvest all the hops and throw them all in i.e. wet hop it.

Is this a good plan?
Anyone done similar?

 

[RichardM]

Lots of people have brewed with fresh hops. The rule of thumb is to use 3 times the quantity of dry hops.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Having dried my hops ready to use I realised that Brewers friend has an option for you to input fresh hops in their recipe builder.

 

[Litmus]

If you want to get a ball park figure for the IBU have a Google around, there is a good guide for using a hop which you know the IBU for and making a weak tea from each and watering down by 50% until one of the teas lose all trace of bitterness. It had some math for working out the IBU of the unknown hops.

 

[An Ankoù]

I'm brewing for the first time in months. I have been growing some hops. It's not been the best year (better than the 1 hop I got last year though).

They are starting to turn slightly brown so I think they are ready to go.
View attachment 55516View attachment 55517

So my plan is to just make a simple pale ale, small bittering charge and let it run its course, then in a few days harvest all the hops and throw them all in i.e. wet hop it.

Is this a good plan?
Anyone done similar?

If it were me I'd brew today and chuck them all in at the end of the boil. Or 50% at the end of the boil and the rest when the wort has cooled to below 80C. If they're turning brown they need using straight away.

 

[clib]

Lots of people have brewed with fresh hops. The rule of thumb is to use 3 times the quantity of dry hops.

5 times, is what I thought? I've done two brews recently. I added the wet hops to the kettle at the end of the boil.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

If it’s any help, I put two options as an example in the BF recipe builder and this is what came out with regard to the IBU difference between dried and fresh:

100g dried Fuggles boil for 60 minutes = 48.07 IBUs

100g fresh Fuggles boil for 60 minutes = 8.01 IBUs

So, it looks like you need 6 x fresh hops compared to dried to get the same IBU in this example. Not sure if the same relates to flavour/aroma?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

The rule of thumb is to use 3 times the quantity of dry hops.

Nah - commercial brewers in the UK reckon on around 7x the weight, the US books tend to go for 5-6x. I suspect that may reflect a lower water content that you get from growing hops in semi-desert areas like the Yakima Valley, whereas water content in British hops are typically in the 85-90% range.

I wouldn't bother with using them for bittering when you've got relatively few, the whole point of green hops is that they retain the delicate flavours that are normally evaporated in the drying process, so if you've only got a few then you want to use them after flameout.

Just don't let them hang around - they go off incredibly quickly, you want to use them the same day that they're picked, ideally within a couple of hours.

And I wouldn't hang around - it's already getting to the end of the hop season, they will be starting to go onion-y if you leave them much longer.

 

[fury_tea]

I just harvested them - underestimated how long it would take to process so I've had a 2.5 hr mash

617g harvested - does this seem a good amount?

I'll do as @An Ankoù says, half at 10 mins and half at 80c.

Not even sure what type they are exactly just a gift someone got me and I grew from seed. They smell nice enough though!

Thanks

 

[An Ankoù]

I just harvested them - underestimated how long it would take to process so I've had a 2.5 hr mash

617g harvested - does this seem a good amount?

I'll do as @An Ankoù says, half at 10 mins and half at 80c.

Not even sure what type they are exactly just a gift someone got me and I grew from seed. They smell nice enough though!

Thanks

2.5 hours is no problem at all for a mash. I often leave. Mine overnight. That's a lot of hops, though, especially as you don't know the variety. I've never used more than about 200g in 25 litres. Again, if it were me I think I'd put half of them in the freezer (to chuck, frozen, in another brew). But what do I know if I haven't tried bigger amounts?

 

[Northern_Brewer]

If you use a 7x multiplier then it's the equivalent of 88g of dried hops.

If that's going into 20 litres or so then it's just over 4g/l - it's fine.

 

[clib]

When I have looked into it, people who have dried their hops tend to find the dried weight is about 20% of the wet weight. But I am sure this varies.

I don't use wet hops for bittering, just whatever dried hops I have available that are most suitable.

 

[fury_tea]

When I have looked into it, people who have dried their hops tend to find the dried weight is about 20% of the wet weight. But I am sure this varies.

I don't use wet hops for bittering, just whatever dried hops I have available that are most suitable.

Brewed it up today. Listened to a Brulosophy on wet hops and the guest said it's not advisable to dry hop with wet hops as it tends to impart grassy flavours, so I just threw them all into 2 additions

 

[fury_tea]

2.5 hours is no problem at all for a mash. I often leave. Mine overnight. That's a lot of hops, though, especially as you don't know the variety. I've never used more than about 200g in 25 litres. Again, if it were me I think I'd put half of them in the freezer (to chuck, frozen, in another brew). But what do I know if I haven't tried bigger amounts?

Whoops I missed this.

I like hoppy beers though and I'll often put 200g of pellets into whirlpool.

Honestly though I have so many hops in that I didn't really have the space to freeze them.

I need to get brewing!

 

[clib]

Brewed it up today. Listened to a Brulosophy on wet hops and the guest said it's not advisable to dry hop with wet hops as it tends to impart grassy flavours, so I just threw them all into 2 additions

Yes I just add wet hops late boil/post boil. You want to use them as soon after picking as possible too, same day.

 

[Dorst]

Brewed it up today. Listened to a Brulosophy on wet hops and the guest said it's not advisable to dry hop with wet hops as it tends to impart grassy flavours, so I just threw them all into 2 additions

I brewed two full wet hop beers that I'll sample towards the weekend. My light blonde beer (kölsch with 700 gram wet hop) was definitely grassy when I sampled it when kegging it. My heavier spelt saison (900 gram wet hop) seemed a lot less grassy and more balanced. What I'm trying to say is that the style also matters quite a bit.

I used 6 times the amount wet hops when compared to dried hops and I used about 5 percent AA (Centennial). That seems to be pretty much spot on bittering wise.