To continue my Antwerp legend from last weekend, the giant Antigoon continues to chop off hands of all those that do not pay a toll to cross the river Scheldt. After chopping off each hand, Antigoon tosses it in the river. Nice guy, huh!?
Spacing between the cones is key. Too close and the moisture gets trapped and turns your hops brown. Another thing I've found useful is to have a fan lightly blowing on the hops. An overhead fan would probably work the best but I just use a stand up fan. Above is about 7 ounces (dry weight) of centennial hops.
Here's some of the bigger centennial cones. Large but not as big as the chinook cones. Magnum cones get this big as well and the vojvodina hops are significantly smaller.
I dehydrate all of my hops until they are papery dry. After, I cut a foodsaver bag at three notch lengths (marked on the side of the bag roll). This size allows me to seal hops in 1-1.5 ounce incraments, perfect for sizing hop additions.
I fill the hops to the top of the bag then gently squish them down so there's enough head space to close the vacuum sealer mechanism and to ensure a clean seal.
Before sucking and sealing, I like to distribute the hops evenly in the bag. This will allow the bag to seal flat for easier storage.
While the foodsaver is vacuuming out the air, I press lightly to make sure the bag will seal as flat as possible. This is important since freezer room is really limited. Several flat bags take up very little space compared to clumpy bags.
Mission accomplished, hops are now vacuum sealed for seasonal storage in the freezer.
I adjust my scale to the weight of a three-notch length foodsaver bag and easily weigh the contents after sealing.
Label, date, and weight. Hopefully, you can see how flat the hops have been pressed after vacuum sealing.
In my hand is over 1/2 pound of great hops!
Here's the current view of the farm. All but one mound has grown (the bottom row chinook that was torn up by rabbits). Magnum, as usual has just started cone production. Though the top row centennial had trouble getting started this year, its counter part on the bottom row is nearly ready for harvest. I picked all I could from the top row which was completely ready.
Of course, its always nice to have help. My wife, Dr. Michelle, and Dr. Courtney (I don't think I could have found smarter assistants!) helped pick the chinook. There were so many to pick that I had to tell them to stop. Our dehydrator can only hold so much and while I can lay out hops on tables in the house to start drying, we're leaving for Hawaii on Friday. I want to make sure everything is dehydrated and vacuum sealed by then.
Above is a view of the top wire chinook. A few weeks ago, these were just getting started. The density is likely attributed to a good watering schedule and a good manure base at the season start.
I'm always impressed with the size of the chinook hops we grow. They are large, healthy, and very abundant. Also, their stability for storage is amazing. In the background are the hops that didn't fit in the dehydrator. They'll need to wait for about 48 hours before being moved to dehydrator.
Here's one of the bigger of the chinook cones. In my last blog, people wanted to know if I had small hands. Very good question since it seems unlikely to have a hop cone the length of any finger. I wouldn't call my hands small by they aren't large either. My glove size is typically small to medium.
If my hand doesn't give you a sense of how big these cones are, then perhaps this will better scale the chinook hops.
Here's the dehydrator we use. The capacity is great for its compact size. Considering that we only use it for hops, it readily fits in a cabinet for storage during the rest of the year. Though building a larger dehydrator will be very necessary next year, this works for smaller batches.
A nicer dehydrator can be a bit expensive, even for a used one on eBay. To dehydrate hops, it is very important that no heat is applied. I keep our dehydrator at 85 where it produces no heat. The only heat comes from the electrical fan in operation. I feel like I've posted all these details in my last blog, dejavu! This dehydrator has settings for other applications but we only used it for hops.
Above you can see the four racks in the dehydrator. Next harvest, I'll show how much surface area this particular model has. I think the racks are 1 foot by 1 foot but they might be a bit bigger. Straight off the vine, hops typically need about 48 hours. The hops on the table will only need about 24 hours.
"Smells like there's cookies in the oven, Sean." "Aye, but that's just steel cut oats toasting for today's brew. "
Dr. Miche-Ale
Costco Clover Dry Mead| Original: | 1.098 |
| Final: | 0.994 |
| Alcohol By Weight: | 11.1 % |
| Alcohol By Volume: | 13.9 % |
I've never used dried yeast before and thought that I'd give it a try. Dried yeast is significantly cheaper and many claim they're great. This strain is similar WLP001, White Labs California Ale. I know the California Ale yeast strain very well so it should be an interesting comparison.
Chinook is doing well with hops. Below shows the hop density with many more on the way. I picked about one ounce that was ready but most need another week or two. Just have to wait until the cones are lighter and paper-like.
The chinook has just started its second flowering and its really an explosion! I don't think they have flowered with this kind of density before. Below, you can see a cluster area of new cones.
Turns out that a number of chinook cones were ready for harvesting. A JUNE HARVEST! After dehydrating the picked cones, it will likely amount to 1.5 ounces or so. 
Above is a good image to see the progress the bottom row has made in just a week. Even the far left of the bottom row is making progress (previously mauled by rabbits and squirrels). Looking to the middle row, there's more vegetation than last week. Again, I trimmed back but not too much. The main vines have got to be protected!
Here's a wider shot showing the growth during the past week. Established vines are all in cone production!
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