Second year for these puppies and they are coming out swinging… So, when to harvest and how do most people utilize?
Good to see ya around again! Harvest is usually late Aug.-Sept. I dry 'em, vacuum seal 'em, and put 'em in the freezer. 3 years later I throw them away becasue I’ve got so much I couldn’t use it all! 
Hi Denny, are you seeing the pic? I get a blue “?” (MAC equivalent of the red “x”) It’s on flickr…
Interestingly a right click on it gets me to the pic, so it’s just the thumbnail I’m not seeing…hmmmm
Nope, no pic.
Right click on it and open in new window…does that work?
Nope
This
You’ll harvest when the cones feel dry and papery and spring back when compressed. Usually it is August or later.
If you want to store them you’ll need to dry and package them. I did it once and then decided it was too much of a pain, so I always made some fresh hopped beer and composted the rest.
I assume you didn’t use it for bittering? And how the heck did you get that picture to show?
Dr. Tom, you know, has his secret ways.
;D
I quoted your message so I could see your link, then pasted it into a new window and kept trying to right click it until I got to a version of the pic that let me “copy image location”. That is the link you need to put between the img tags.
And I did use them for bittering. I probably weighed them at some point, but mostly I have no idea how much each addition weighed. I did it by volume instead, thus my “three colander ale”. One colander each for bittering, flavor and aroma. I didn’t take it too seriously obviously. It was never bad that I can recall, but was never awesome either. Fun though.
HAH, fixed it. Flickr doesn’t make it easy though.
Back to green hops… is there a DIY to get a ballpark bittering power of your home grown? Or is it pure trial and error…?
Good to hear from you again Oscar. Unless you want to get them analyzed at a lab, bittering will be an educated guess. You can start with using the average AA% for the variety and use trial and error from there. I just use store-bought hops for bittering, and then toss a @#&$load of homegrown in at flame-out.
i used to do the trial and error method, and once I know the rough amount needed, did that amount each year. This year I just bittered with magnum, as that was pragmatic.
It’ll be unpleasant but…
you can make a tea with a sample of known aa% of the same variety, and then either do the same with your homegrown and taste side by side, or do a titration test on the known sample, repeat with yours and you should be able to get pretty close.
Long time…no post Oscar. Good to see you back.
I like to make a harvest ale, which is on the order of an amber ale (hopped up). I use 5 times the weight of wet hops vs. dried hops, and use them all in a late kettle addition. Add them with 1min left in the boil.
Dammit Ron!
I think I like that last idea. Yes Ron, I should be here more often. Moving at the speed of life, ten gallons of stuff in a five gallon bucket and more such cliches. Speaking of buckets of gallons, just started a brewing spree. Four buckets of triple in the fermenting chambers. Need all I can make for an SCA event in July.
Also, working on a new beer cart. Started with a 1978 EZGO golf cart. Stay tuned…
You said motorized brewing cart?
;D