Weighing my hops question, help!

[yewtah-brewha]

I picked my Chinook hops last week, and right off the plant they weighed 3.5 oz they didnt seem to wet, nice and spongy with decent recoil and the tips on some were starting to brown.

I open air dried them on a screen w/o any blower in about 80-90 degree temps. After drying I re weighed them and they only weighed .80 my question is this.

Do I calculate my recipes by the 3.5 or the .80

Thanks

 

[day_trippr]

Unless a recipe specifically calls for "wet hops", you always use the dry weight.

Cheers!

 

[yewtah-brewha]

Thanks, When I plug .80 into brew target I get 17 IBu's and "balaned" when I use 3.5 I get 80 IBu's and "really hoppy"

I guess I cant go wrong. will be a learning experience! cheers

 

[day_trippr]

Thanks, When I plug .80 into brew target I get 17 IBu's and "balaned" when I use 3.5 I get 80 IBu's and "really hoppy"

Right. Because Brew Target doesn't know wet hops, it's calculating the IBUs based on 3.5 ounces of dried hops.

I guess I cant go wrong. will be a learning experience! cheers

With .8 ounces I think you're probably right - unless you were looking for a "really hoppy" brew

Cheers!

 

[Hamaki]

Whole cone hops purchased from a supplier have been kiln dried to 9 - 10% moisture content, or about 90% dry matter. Although there is some variability, it seems that most users of wet hops generally use 5 or 6 times the weight of wet vs kiln dried hops, indicating they contain 15 - 18% dry matter. Since your hops have dried nearly to 1/4 the original weight it might make sense to assume less alpha acid contribution than one would for commercially dried hops.

 

[day_trippr]

At some point you have to let the hard core stuff slide.

And in any case, all that math goes straight through the shredder if you don't know what the actual wet weight versus bone-dry weight was to begin with. "Wet" hops don't all weigh the same per volume; if you pick early the same gallon of cones will weigh more than picking late, so applying any generalized rule will be suspect from the jump...

Cheers!

 

[Hamaki]

Sorry, didn't realize it was hard core stuff. But I agree with your point, especially since commercially produced, kiln dried hops vary widely in AA%, who knows what the results will be from home garden grown hops. Almost no point in trying to calculate IBUs, I suppose.