My hops have been sitting on a screen, 1-2 hops deep with a fan blowing on them for 72 hours. You can tell they've dried considerably by looking at them and when you move them around. I read that the main stem inside the hop should break once dried but the stems seem far from breaking despite seeming quite dry. Should the stems in fact break? Have others any direct experience with this? Thanks!
I was under the impression weight is how to judge dryness. IIRC you want the dry hops to weigh 80% less than they did fresh.
I think you are certainly right! But I did not take a starting weight so I'm looking for other methods.
Yes, stems snap when dry AND weight should be much less. It depends a lot on your humidity. Here, 72 hours with no fan would be plenty with our 10% humidity.
Just an update for anyone else who might come across this thread searching for a similar answer: 3 days on a screen with an oscillating fan seemed to dry out the hops considerably. They felt light and papery but the internal stem only bent, no break. I bagged/froze half of them and left the other half drying with the fan going. After 11 days, the internal stem still only bent. I could tell no difference between the hops at day 3 and day 11. Furthermore, a sandwich ziploc bag, moderately stuffed, weighed exactly 1 oz for both day 3 and day 11 hops (obviously not a terribly precise measure). My basement is probably somewhat humid but you would not walk into it and notice it being more humid. It is at about 70-74 deg F. Thanks for the replies.
