How to properly store hops at home: drying, freezing

Knowing a few necessary points during the preparation and storage of hops will help you personally, and most importantly, correctly prepare and preserve for a long time one of the main components of “homemade” beer.

Cm. rules for collecting hops.

How to dry hops at home

The most important things to keep in mind when drying hops are a few key factors: time, light, heat and humidity. Oxidation and isomerization processes (some “change” in quality) cannot be allowed. To do this, the hops should not be dried for more than 3 days and provided that the temperature does not exceed 60 °C.

If there is no suitable room (warm, dark, without high humidity), you can also use a shed in the fresh air to dry hop cones.

The container with hops should be placed on the surface only when the dew has completely subsided. You cannot leave containers with hop preparations outside overnight. You need to bring them into the house, and the next day take them under the canopy again.

If the weather is hot and dry, the hop cones will dry out within 1 week.The stem of a properly prepared ingredient for beer should be elastic and break if pressed on it.

For drying during rainy weather, a traditional fruit dryer with a temperature control is suitable. The optimal temperature, in this case, is considered to be 45-50 °C.

How to store hops at home

To save hops, it is customary to use several proven methods, or rather, so-called “places” of storage:

• plastic zip bags;
• vacuum container that closes hermetically;
• thick paper bags;
• vacuum containers;
• fabric bags;
• sealed cardboard boxes.

The main thing for storing hops at home is to choose a room where it is cool and always dry. If these important points are not violated, the hops will be suitable for use for 3 years.

In the case when a decision is made to store hop cones fresh, then this is ideal for this purpose. freezer (hops must be placed in a vacuum foil bag), where they will not lose their taste and aroma. In addition, the shelf life of raw materials increases by as much as 5 times.

You can familiarize yourself with another method of storing the main ingredient for beer by watching a video from Alexander Postnikov:

The most important thing to remember is that moisture, light and heat can destroy the hop properties. During oxidation, the characteristics of the hop oils change, and the bitterness of the hop oils disappears and, as a result, the hops smell like cheese.

Therefore, you should not neglect a single rule of drying and storing hops at home, then you will be able to stock up on high-quality raw materials for brewing for a long time.