Drying vegetables and fruits

ISTR that there’s a whole lot of info on the various homebrewing boards (I’ve always been partial to homebrewtalk.com)

What variety did you grow? How did they do?

Hi bump! :slight_smile: I got a second-year bine of Cashmere hops which are a Cascade/Northern Brewer cross and although I put it in the ground kind of late it grew quite well for ten feet or so and set quite a lot of cones for a second-year bine and a hop-growing homebrewing colleague came over to give me some tips about picking and drying in exchange for some of the cones and maybe a bottle of IPA later and now they are definitely getting a lot drier and papery-er after just about 48 hours but I think they still have a ways to go because I read you’re supposed to be able to snap the cone in half and they’re still bendy?

Still very excited about this, if you didn’t notice! :slight_smile: AFAICT they’re drying fine although slowly (no heat, moderate fan), and should be done in the next 24 hours or so. I am trying to figure out what kind of deals I should make with my homebrewing friends for local organically-grown air-dried Cashmere hops, as I’m in this for the beer and not just the fun of drying stuff!

I tried growing some Cascade and Willamette hops about a dozen years ago, and they didn’t do well- I think it’s too hot here for them to really thrive without ridiculous amounts of water, plus the day length is wrong. Glad yours worked well! I suppose you’re going to use them for flavor and aroma since you don’t have a real good idea of the alpha acid levels?

I don’t brew myself, so I don’t really know what the eventual recipients of the dried hops will use them for. Hoping I get a few bottles of whatever it is!