Wet Hops?

[Jake]

I've never dabbled in growing hops. My brother bought a house in April, and he has a bunch of hops in his back yard that look like they're getting ready to harvest. We're not sure what type they are at this time.

Where I have no idea whether the AA% is high vs. low, how would you guys suggest proceeding with them. I was thinking of doing some sort of a single hop, wet hopped pale with them. So here are the main questions that i'm looking for opinions on: a) should I go with fresh wet hops or should I dry them out, and b) How many ounces of wet hops would you suggest using (if we decide to go wet) - early vs late additions.

[JohnQ]

Last year, I harvested my wet hops, vacuum sealed and froze them.
Then I made my wet and hoppy porter, and started tossing them in at 30 min > 0 min.
I used them all up in one 20 gallon batch, and the result was outstanding, unfortunately completely unrepeatable, but still outstanding.

Use a known bittering hop that you get in a bag, then just dump em in a bit at a time.

BYO mag has an article this month that said you should use 5 to 8 times as much as dried hops and they recommend that they are used in the last 20 mins.

JQ

[DandyMason]

Not much experience here, but one of my favorite beers ive ever made was a wet hopped pale ale. I tossed them all in at 0 mins, But I only had 7-8 oz wet.

Ive also heard its better to use them as late additions. Agreed with john, Ive heard its roughly a 5 to 1 ratio

[brew]

So they should work OK in the secondary or even the keg for dry hopping right?

[JohnQ]

So they should work OK in the secondary or even the keg for dry hopping right?

The article says no, too much concern over other stuff making it in at that stage, going in hot side eliminates that concern.

JQ

[Jake]

Got home for lunch today and my brother had dropped of a 1lb bag of wet hops ... beautiful cones!!

[JohnQ]

Got home for lunch today and my brother had dropped of a 1lb bag of wet hops ... beautiful cones!!

Get them either dried, or vacuum sealed and frozen fast, they will start to rot really, really fast.

JQ