I am having a very good year so far and wasn’t really expecting very many cones the first year. I have alot of buds and so I think I will have make a drying rack. I don’t have any old screen doors so I’m going to fabricate my own. What would work better? 1/4" chicken wire or door screening. One would have better air circulation, but would they get stuck in the larger openings? Having never dryed hops before I would appreciate any feedback. Thank you.
They can tend to break up while drying, I would go with the screen, it would minimize mess and loss and it will circulate just fine.
+1. Excellent advise.
Congrats on the harvest. It only gets better from here. :cheers:
+1. Excellent advise.
Congrats on the harvest. It only gets better from here. :cheers: [/quote]
+2 Don’t use a pillowcase and clothes dryer. :roll:
I second the screen.
I use old window screens(3’X4’) and lay them out in my utility room near the ceiling. I run beams wall to wall 6" and 1’ from the ceiling(where all heat goes) with a small box fan cirulating the air. Utility room get mid 80’s from sun, two days and all dry then vacuum sealed.
Congrats again on the upcoming yields.
I built my oast from some plans I found somewhere but basically just bought a roll of window screen and built this:
After stacking each of the racks with a couple inches of hops in them, I place a box fan on top blowing downward. I do that for a couple days and they are dry for me.
Then I just weigh them out and vacuum seal them:
It’s all VERY low tech!
this is about what i use. Plain unfinished 30 in screen door. 20$ at home depot.you can stack them with blocks and use a fan to move the air.
Solution 1X2 firring strips $.67 x4 Fiberglass screening(won’t rust) $5.98, Staples already have, My time getting more worthless every day as I spend to much time here. Total cost <$10.00.
I make hop hammocks by stapling landscaping fabric on the underside of the garage rafters, running parallel to the rafters the long way. I tend to harvest all of my cones at once, rather than doing a rolling harvest, and there’s enough room to basically dry all the cones at once. There’s plenty of air circulation up there, and they dry in a couple days. The only sketchy part is standing up on top of a ladder to dump them and gather them up.
I just scoop them all into a medium-sized rubbermaid bin when they’re dry, then go package.
The landscaping fabric is cheap and in fact is still up from last year. If it looks dusty and nasty, I’ll replace it. Cheap and easy hop drying!
When you say landscape fabric…do you mean that weed barrier stuff?
Is it the heavy black woven material or something gray? Porous?
Thanks
I’m using the extremely cheap weed barrier that is essentially useless as a weed barrier after one season. You can pretty much see through it. Not the heavy-duty, expensive stuff!
The only downside here is that it’s kind of “grabby,” and so lupulin glands that fall from the cones tend to get stuck on and in the weave. Other than that, it lets air permeate through, so the hops are dried from top and bottom. As long as I spread them in an even layer, they dry in just a couple days, really. It probably depends a lot on your humidity and how your garage is vented - we have vented soffits here, so there is a lot of air flow.
I’m leaning toward replacing the fabric this year, just because I left it up all winter and now it’s probably loaded with dust and old oxidized lupulin glands. I suppose I could flip it and use the other side, especially if I took it down and folded it up after this year’s drying.
I too have used the hammock approach with weed control fabric, works great even with foil underneath to catch the fallen lupulin.
