hows your hops doing

[Mark1964]

Ours should be ready for picking early next month hope we can dry them all out :thumb:

 

[BIGJIM72]

Mine are at a similar stage.Picked up one of these for drying

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Food-Dr ... =8-3-spell

& a vac packer for storage

 

[The Goatreich]

Out of interest how do you work out the alpha acids for your home grown hops? I'm very very interested in growing my own, as I already do veg and some other things.

 

[Mark1964]

never bothered working them out just use the hops as we would bought ones. Im sure there are less AA than bought ones though

 

[Mark1964]

We have a vac sealer Jim will be using a 2 kw fan to dry them hung in a net curtain

 

[evanvine]

We have a vac sealer Jim will be using a 2 kw fan to dry them hung in a net curtain

Sounds promising Mark, just be careful you don't scorch them!

 

[evanvine]

never bothered working them out just use the hops as we would bought ones. Im sure there are less AA than bought ones though

You will find you will 20% less of your own hops.

 

[Mark1964]

gently does it Jim :thumb:

 

[evanvine]

These are my hops this afternoon, hope to harvest in the next 2-3 weeks.

Bloody pidgeons!

 

[Mark1964]

how come you have blue sky and here its **** :lol:

 

[The Goatreich]

Amazing photos! I've just realised that in the process of gutting my garden I removed a large pole which was previously used for a washing line. I may well grab that for a hop line

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

So how much home grown? Bramlin is usually 7% AA or thereabouts, but when you buy them they are already dried so a lot lighter than the ones dangling off my trellis.

Do I therefore bung a load more in? or do I use them less as they are obviously fresher??

My thoughts were that if I needed 100gms of dried then I would need double of the fresh ones due to the liquid in the hops..

I was going to do a big brew with them for a xmas brew. My first go at a stout

using Bramlin, Northdown and Goldings...

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

Here is the recipe I was going to use for my first stout...what are your thoughts??


25 litres

5Kg of Maris otter
500gms medium crystal
300 gms of torrified wheat
250 gms of roasted barley

hops

30 gms of Northdown 90 min boil
50 gms of fresh Bramlin last 20 mins
25 gms of goldings last 20 mins

yeast WLP002

aiming for OG of 1048-1049.
FG of 1013

But as I have no idea as to what the AA of my Bramlin is, its a bit chucked together with stuff I have in stock..

 

[Mark1964]

ive always used them same as shop bought

 

[evanvine]

When you dry 100gms of fresh hops you end up with 20gms of dried hops!
So if you are going to brew with green hops you will need 5X the weight, less about 20%!

 

[screamlead]

Well happy bunny here - after trying twice now to get some rhizomes sent over and having no luck growing them.
Someone contacted me on facebook and has around 2kg of hops for disposal - free!
Spoke to the woman today and of course no idea what type and also quite a way off from where i am. No great problem as next week is pension day (PMSL) so me and the Mrs are hiring a car for two days as i have to go somewhere quite close to get a shed load of red grapes so going to call up and grab the hops too. Good job i found my vacuum packing machine last month.
She told me loads are ready now so shes going to pick them so i have told her to ram as much into a plastic bag as she can and freeze them - thinking oxyidisation etc.
Their place is up in the hills about 20-30km from me and they get snow everyyear so presuming its a pretty good spot to grow them. I'll report back with pics etc once i get them - hopefully between us we maybe able to identify them - if not i;ll do a brew and see how that turns out. :

 

[evanvine]

I think my Goldings and Fuggles will be ready for harvest in the next couple of days!

 

[Muddydisco]

Great news Scream :thumb:

 

[jonewer]

Harvesting now! Will post some pics at some point.

No idea what to do with them once picked.......

 

[evanvine]

Harvested my Goldings today, took several hours destalking!

The crop before weighing.

2.22Kg in the Oast, should be dry midday tomorrow!

Still got my Fuggles and Brambling Cross to do.