I have begun picking the hops that are growing at my house. I don’t know what kind, as they were growing there when we moved in. I started drying them in the basement on screens that are resting on chairs with a box fan on low near them. For the first few screens, I turned off the dehumidifier in the basement because I thought it may damage the hops in the drying process. So, I’m wondering, is it a good or bad idea to keep the dehumidifier on? I would assume good, possibly speed up the drying process but not sure. Also, I thought it may be bad off because it may encourage mold.
I have begun picking the hops that are growing at my house. I don’t know what kind, as they were growing there when we moved in. I started drying them in the basement on screens that are resting on chairs with a box fan on low near them. For the first few screens, I turned off the dehumidifier in the basement because I thought it may damage the hops in the drying process. So, I’m wondering, is it a good or bad idea to keep the dehumidifier on? I would assume good, possibly speed up the drying process but not sure. Also, I thought it may be bad off because it may encourage mold.[/quote]
The object is to dry the hops so I think that anything that removes moisture from the air would be a good thing.
[quote=“Shark”]Are fans and dehumidifiers the best route to go for drying out hops?
I’ve been wondering about this… Ideas on how to do it, best practices, etc.[/quote]
I prefer to dry the hops a lot faster than those methods permit. Hops will start composting themselves within a few hours so the sooner you can get them dry, the better. The commercial growers use 135F and blowing air. I use a food dehydrator and have found that 2-3 hours at 120F works great.
+1 for dehydrators. Plus you can use them for so many other cool things like drying out fruit, peppers, and making meat jerky. They are reasonably priced (you can get a decent one for $50). I use this one at home for all my dehydration
