An acquaintance just gave me a batch of wet hops from his farm today. I wasn’t expecting this, but I did have plans to brew on Monday. That’ll be about 72 hours from harvest. I could probably fit a brew day in tomorrow night too but that’s not ideal for me. Otherwise my Labor Day weekend is filled up. Can I wait until Monday or do I have to use them by tomorrow in order to get the fresh hop character?
It is best to use wet hops fresh (e.g., within 24 hours of picking). The other option is to dry these hops and use them for brewing at a later date. Cheers!
...and/or pick them on successive weeks so that you can use them in the boil and dryhop with them both...timing is everything when wet hopping. Having said that, I don't wet hop much anymore...takes too much planning for overly grassy home grown hoppy beers.
Could not agree more. I stopped growing hops all together because of the grassy flavors and to a lesser extent the PITA of picking and processing.
So one follow up question here. I'm not 100% certain of when he picked these hops. The leaves on the hops do feel a little dry to me this morning. I'm assuming that shouldn't be the case, but I've never had hops in this state before. They did sit in the refrigerator overnight. Am I out of the window for using these as wet hops already then?
Put them is a bag in the fridge and use them within a week or so. One year a friend sent me (from PA to UT) some homegrown State-College Hallertauer. I used them wet. One of the best beers I ever made. BTW, his Hallertauer were nothing like any other hops I've ever used, although it's been so long ago, I don't recall any specifics.
Mark, did you notice any deterioration (e.g., starting to rot or mildew) of the wet hops over that one week time period? Have you brewed with wet hops within 24 hours of harvest and also with wet hops at one week (under refrigerated conditions)? If so, how would you compare these two batches? Cheers!
Well, those hops are definitely over the 24 hour window. It is entirely your choice how you want to proceed here but based upon my readings I personally would not brew with wet hops that are well outside the 24 hour window. Please report back what you finally decide to do and how things turned out. Cheers!
My internet service went down yesterday so I’m reporting back now. Given the delay since the hops were picked and not knowing the exact time, I decided to freeze the hops and pass on the wet hopped beer this time. Thanks for the insight, as it saved me from a potentially sub-par beer that may have clouded my thoughts on the style.
I would have dried them first, but I have heard of some folks having ok experiences with frozen hops.
Jack, sorry, I've not done a comparison. Seems to me though, that most botanical objects keep quite well in a refrigerator for at least a week. Of course, one should always inspect any food product before using. Cheers!
