cheezydemon3
Well-Known Member
Thanks Dan. So the deal on dehydrators is useless for hops.
Other tips you can utilize...
- Use a space heater to help raise your temps into the 100-130 degree range. (works great if you live in a hot climate with a garage that isn't well insulated!)
- flip the filters so the side nearest the fan doesn't overdry relative to the opposite end
BTW, this is essentially Alton Brown's method for herb drying applied to hops.
GVH_Dan said:This is a copy from a post I put in a different thread, but relevant to the question you just asked.
It is possible to overdry hops but not easy unless you are using heat or in a desert. When they overdry, the bracts will fall off and the lupulin will fall out. If you are using heat, you may also dry out all the oils and aromas, leaving you with tasteless stigs.
Basically, every non living thing absorbs and desorbs moisture from the air at a rate that is controlled by the relative humidity of the air. For every Equilibrium Relative Humidity (of the air) there is a corresponding Equilibrium Moisture Content (of the hops in this case). If the Relative Humidity goes up, the item absorbs more moisture until it comes back to equilibrium. This is true for hops.
If you check my pictures, I believe I have an isothrem for hops posted. It basically shows that you can dry to less than 15% moisture content regardless of the air conditions. Assuming you are going to freeze them or use them right away, that is probably sufficient. If you are a commercial grower, you want to get to 8 to 10% moisture content, which means 50% RH or less. "Too dry" is somewhere less than 5%.
To hit 5%, you need very dry air for a long time. Or, you put it in a space that is really warm, which lowers the relative humidity, and poof...you have a pile of bracts and yellow dust. In that case, I just saw a thread where someone used the lupulin as a rub on his spare ribs. You can try that.
Perhaps this has been covered somewhere else, or it's common knowledge, but I haven't seen it anywhere so I thought I'd add it to this thread.
If you're shooting for 5-15% moisture then you should be aiming for 25-35% of your original mass. Just thought I should put that up here in case it hasn't been covered elsewhere.
I'm not sure if I've posted this in this thread or just elsewhere, but here's the math behind the reduction in weight to 1/4 to 1/5.What does this mean.
I had to throw all my hops out last year as I did not get them dry enough. I used a box with a screen attached that would hold about threee gallons of hops. The hops were 2-3 inches deep and I used a fan to blow ambient temperature air. I would measure a small sample of hops at the beginning and monitor until I was below 20%. I would occasionally stir them.
I'm not sure if I've posted this in this thread or just elsewhere, but here's the math behind the reduction in weight to 1/4 to 1/5.
The basic equation for determining moisture content of anything (hops, hay, herbs, etc.) is:
M% = ((Ww ‐ Wd)/ Ww) x 100
M% = moisture content(%)
Ww = wet weight of the sample
Wd = weight of the sample after drying
If you want to know the moisture content, take a small sample and weigh it to get Wet Weight (Ww). Then get the moisture out. Either bake it or put it in a microwave to pull out the moisture. When you are sure it is completely dry, that is your Dry Weight (Wd). Now plug it in to see your starting moisture content.
I wouldn't use that Dry Weight sample in your beer, though. They are extremely dry, crumbly, the lupulinic resins have changed and you will probably burn them the first few times you try.
The problem for the homegrower is that you would need most of your crop to get an accurate enough reading of the moisture content...nearly a 1/3 of a gallon of hops if you have a balance that goes to 2 decimal places when using grams. So it is somewhat pointless.
Instead, let's assume the starting moisture content is 80%. (I have seen from 93% when picked in the rain down to 74% for some smaller cones. So 80% is pretty much the middle.).
Let's pretend we have a 1/2 of a pound of cascade that we picked out of the backyard. Since we are assuming that it starts at 80%, we can use the above formula to calculate the Dry Weight....0.1 pounds.
Now let's say we want to dry down to a final moisture content of 10%. (Commercially, we shoot for 8%, but 10% is fine since you aren't pelletizing.) with a moisture content of 10% and a Dry Weight of 0.1 pounds, the "Wet Weight", which in this case is the weight of the dried hops, would be 0.111 pounds.
Working that out, the ratio of beginning to end weight is 0.111/0.5 = .222 or another way to say it is that the final weight of the hops is somewhere between 1/4 and 1/5 the starting weight.
Upon reducing the moisture content to 10% we can defer that the make up of the overall mass will be 0.10 ounces water and 0.20 ounces solid mass
Randar said:Other tips you can utilize...
- Use a space heater to help raise your temps into the 100-130 degree range. (works great if you live in a hot climate with a garage that isn't well insulated!)
- flip the filters so the side nearest the fan doesn't overdry relative to the opposite end
BTW, this is essentially Alton Brown's method for herb drying applied to hops.
I did this and the outside of the hops got really dry and crumbly before the center was even close to dry. Maybe I did not have enough air flow... temp was 128*
newbrewb said:hilarious!
cheezydemon3 said:Jesus Christ what is with all the half page posts????
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