After checking the moisture content on my hops (elementary method), I decided to harvest my Sterling last night. Picked all the hops, put them in a dehydrator at 100, and let them go overnight. When I went to check on their progress this morning I noticed a lot of small bugs which I suspect to be aphids. My question is whether or not the hops will be OK to continue drying and package? The hops look consistent with past years, just that there is a number of bugs coming out of the dehydrator.
Thoughts?
Edit: This should have been placed in Hop Growing. Can someone move this?
Those aphids are probably dead after getting blown with hot air for hours. If not, I wouldn’t be too worried. They slurp up the sap of the plant and have no interest in the lupulin. Now that the hops have been dried out they will likely move on to look for a new plant to attack.
If you have an aphid problem at harvest then you’ve probably had a problem all season. That’s something to look out for next year.
They are still living. Just checked again and I have a ton crawling out of the dehydrator trying to escape the heat. This would be the first year I’ve noticed them. I guess I’ll have to look into treating my bines next year.
I’m going to seal them, knowing they will all die in the freezer and can’t imagine they would have any flavor effect if used in the boil, or even dry hopping for that matter.
Next year watch for ants around the base of the plants. They nurse the aphids and keep the lady-bugs from controlling the population. When I did that (put some granules of the lawn type ant control), there were significantly fewer aphids to the point of not having to spray the plants.
OK, a serious comment this time.
To me, bugs carry bacteria. Should be no problem in the boil but I dunno about dry hopping. Is there enough alcohol at that point to kill the possible bacteria? If so, why bother to sanitize bottles and kegs?
Good point. At this point, only found in my Sterlings. I’m going to harvest my Centennials tonight, so we’ll see what we have in those. I can’t imagine that I won’t find aphids there as well.
Many, if not most, of the bugs will leave during the drying process. As long as the cones don’t look too bad, you should be fine using them. One way to determine if it was aphids doing the deed, just peel back some of the bracts and take a peek in towards the strig and you’ll usually find some tiny black dots on them. That’s a sure sign that it was aphids. If they look like the ones here: No Pesticides = No Hops = No Beer | pesticide guy, I’d probably get rid of them. A little more info: Washington State University - Entomology (subpage)
