1st year harvest, usable or waste of time?

[prrriiide]

We got about an oz of cascades dried. They are first year harvest. I have heard that they won't be worth much. I was thinking about dropping them into my IPA tomorrow at around 5 min left. They look and smell like hoods, so how much damage can they do?

 

[Shakybones]

You may not get much the first year, but I can't imagine why they wouldn't be worth using. My first year, I used them all for playing around...mostly "dry hopping" Coors Light in the glass to improve the flavor (moderately successful, since flavor > no flavor).

Not sure what you mean by "hoods", but if they smell good, why not use them for dry hopping a batch?

 

[Cyclman]

Tear one apart, if you see mustard colored lupulin, you're good to go.

 

[JohnSand]

Mine had very little hop smell, but I'll probably use them anyway.

 

[billl]

If the plant produced hops, they are perfectly suitable for late additions.

The real questions is if you harvested them at an appropriate time. This was my first year growing as well. I had columbus and cascade that I harvested at the same time. Apparently, the cascade matured more quickly and I missed the window. They had smelled great about 2 weeks before, but they were obviously past their prime when I picked them. By the time I dried them, they smelled more like cardboard than hops. Oh well. Live and learn. The columbus smelled great though - just like a commercial harvest.