How long to dry?

[bhancock]

A coworker told me that the previous owner of his house planted hop vines on his back fence, and that I could help myself. I filled a 5 gallon bucket up to the 2 gallon mark this evening and will be drying them on a window screen tomorrow, then using my wife’s vacuum sealer to keep them O2 free while I freeze them for later.

The question I have is, how long should I let them dry on the screens? I live in an apartment and have not been able to plant hops myself, so this is my first “harvest”. Is there a visible sign I should look for to know when they’re dry? Should I let them sit overnight, a few hours, days, etc?

[grainy]

not that I know what I’m talking about but I let mine dry for 3 day with a fan on low blowing cool dry(65 degree air) on or though them. check the stems and make sure they snap when bent. just what I do, so take with a grain of what ever.

[toadhall]

Gorst Valley Hops had detailed info in their July 2009 Newsletter. You can download here:

http://www.gorstvalleyhops.com/newsletter.php

In brief, you want them to have 8% - 10% moisture to store well. If you have a good scale sensitive to 0.1 g, then dry a coffee filter (microwave about 15 s) and put on the balance and tare it (zero). Weigh 10 g hops that you have “dry”. Then nuke them on the coffee filter several cycles briefly until warm/hot (and dry) and reweigh. if they now weigh 9.0 g, then you had 10% moisture…(etc.) because they lost 10% of the original weight.

Cheers!

[holaday1185]

I let mine dry for 3 days of so on a cooling rack over a sheet pan. Works out well at room temp.