Wet Hops

[ECH]

When using hops right off the bines, when should I add them to the wort? During the boil? Whirlpool?

I don't have enough grown to bother drying them, so I thought I would do a wet hop pale ale (mostly centennial that I have), and was going to use an oz of pellets at 60 for bittering, and put what I have for whole cones in a 30 min whirlpool once the wort cooled down to 180, but then my wife asked, what about any insects and such that may be in them, shouldn't you at least put them in the boil for last 5-10mins.

So now I am perplexed, didn't think of that.

Just a simple recipe, 80% Pale, 20% Vienna, Centennial pellets to bitter to about 35IBUs, and then the wet hops in whirlpool. If I estimate that I might have the equivalent of an 1oz of dry hops with what I have on my plants, it brings the IBUs up to about 50 if I put them in with 10mins to go. Not detrimental, just thought the whirlpool additions might give more of the wet hop character.

Other option is to put them in at 0min, and let them steep for 30mins. Would get the initial boiling wort and then maybe roll into some of the flavors.

Any advice? 

[jamie_savoie]

You can pretty much use them like any other hops, just use 5-6x the amount. So the equivalent of 1oz of pellet would be 6oz of wet hops. I've never worried about insect and such and never had a problem. I typically use them at flameout and also at 170F for 30-45 min. It's also a good idea to make you batch a bit bigger in volume because the hops will soak up a lot of wort

[ECH]

Won't know how much I have until I pick them, but good to know that it doesn't matter when.

I have seen some people put fresh cones in as a dry hop, so didn't think it mattered when. Figure any insects aren't going to survive in 180F water, and anything going in as a dry hop, likely isn't going to survive the alcohol. Just have to worry about infection on the cold side.