Drying Hops

Hello Gardeners Corner,

We have a hops bush growing as an ornamental and felt we should use it. Wasnt sure when to pick them so waited till they were smelly.

I tried drying them in an oven at 50c but they just kinda, wilted, became soft and gross, losing all their flavour. Had to go back for unharvested stuff to replace it

Just spent half the day brewing some beer, its our first all-grain beer and we are using 50% malted wheat 50% vienna malt with a wiesbier yeast. Came out as 1.056 sg so hopefully a nice 5% beer in a few weeks. Cant wait!
We used the hops and the aroma is lovely but gosh are those flowers lightweight, ended up using 150g which was two big bowls worth. Still a kilo left over!

Half a Sainsburies bag worth.


Any idea on how to properly dry the rest so they keep their flavour and aroma?
Thanks!

 

Buy an oast house.

I assume they are dried very slowly with just warm air wafting up through them,but not sure how you can do that in an oven.

 

I think oast houses provided some heat from a kiln at the bottom, which was then drawn up through the hops on the floors above and out of the roof which was turned so the wind drew the warm air out, this was important as the moisture was drawn from the hops and out.
I've seen lavender and herbs dried by hanging over the Aga (or similar) so they have good air circulation. So either hang your hops in the airing cupboard, if that's warm, or over the Aga, if you have one. Failing this I would put them on a wire rack in the oven at about 50°C and leave the door slightly open to allow the damp air to escape.