Trying to figure out how to get some heat on my hops as they are sitting in a mild garage at the moment. We had a cold front come through with rain so the temp dropped and humidity went up. I am no really okay with leaving a hair dryer on while I am away. I am aware of other options like the box fan and heater filters thing, but I am only looking for a good, safe heat source to blow on/over/through the hops. Thanks much.
If you're going to use heat, you definitely want to go easy on it. Generally speaking, you're better off simply using a fan. Heat will speed up the process, but it can degrade the hops if you're too aggressive. That's true of any dehydrated food.
For sure. My buddy who has been growing hops for over a decade now and I were talking last night about how my hoppy beers just aren't hoppy enough (regardless of how much I use). He gave me a few pointers and one he said was that he used to air dry his hops but then he went to using a low heat source (120) and it dried them out even more and his hoppiness increased noticeably. His thought was that the air drying wasn't getting enough moisture out of them quick enough before packaging. The other things he said should help is shredding up the hops prior to dropping them in the wort, and packaging the hops in smaller quantities so I am not constantly exposing the hops to oxygen every time I open an 8oz package for 1oz of hops.
IMHO...screens...fans...dehydrators...oasts makes complicated a very simple task. Splay your hop harvest onto a tray...a towel...a bed sheet...or in a shallow bucket or three no more than ~4" (10 cm) deep and turn'em by hand once a day. In a few days...they're dry enough for cold storage or immediate use. Done and done.
Do you have an attic, or a friend with one? They will dry out quick there. A few years ago, I helped out John Kimmich, the brewer at the Alchemist, with some manual labor in the old pub brewery (pre-Irene). He had the hops they had picked off the west wall of the building, for their annual Hop Harvest IPA, in the basement, on screens with a fan underneath. Since I saw that, I've not worried much about getting the hops hot (or even warm) to dry them out. It is alleged that Kimmich makes some pretty good IPA.
A bit of topic creep: Most of us are pretty anal about protecting our hops from oxygen (maybe it's simply a successful ploy by the FoodSaver folks). Drying in a dehydrator, on a screen, bedsheets, or in a shallow bucket, it can be argued, is virtually force feeding them O2-laden air, even moreso if a fan is used. At what point in the drying process does exposure to this air transition from good to bad?
Do you grow your own hops? Loosely packed (necessary for drying), a pound of dry hop cones fills my Ale Pail nearly to the top. I don't think I could fit enough buckets in my garage to hold my harvest if they were filled to 4"
I have read that some oxidation is required for flavor development. The commercial growers dry with air heated to 140F forced through the hop bed ipn the dryer. Lower temps are better.
It sounds like a ticky thing -- optimizing the time and temperature to minimize loss of volatile oils and oxidation - and yet, people have been drying hops for centuries. I'd suggest we might be overthinking this, but homebrewers are always looking to build a better mousetrap; I think everyone is seeking the fame that comes with a 1-paragraph description of your innovation in the Gadget Issue of Zymury.
I do grow my own; altho the crowns are few and production is still limited. Guess I'll have to re-tool my process when I start harvesting pounds instead of ounces.
True, but I would add that humidity may be the most central factor...my homegrown hops are usually dry in 2.5 days
If you're interested in home grown hops and haven't seen the latest chop and brew, maybe this will interest you: http://chopandbrew.com/2013/08/23/chop-brew-episode-11-growing-hops-at-home-part-2/
