I’ve never seen this before with my home grown hops. Is this okay to use? The leafs are coming out from inside the cone.
it should be okay. i would pull most of it out before drying anyway.
I’ve had this every year, especially on my Santiams. I too just pull the leaves from the cone before I dry them. I neevr noticed any defects from these cones.
I’ve got a lot of these this year on both my Cascades and my Hallertauers. I think it might have something to do with being such a rainy year. Or who knows. I take the extra leaves out from inside the hops and use them anyway. They still have plenty of good lupulin. Some people think the hops with leaves growing out are the over-ripe stage, but I’ve come to realize that this is a false assumption, as you can have leaves while the hops are still very wet and grassy (not ripe yet).
Depends on how you’re gone use 'em. Roll 'em & smoke 'em, or make beer out of them.
But seriously, I’ve always pulled the stems out and used them normally.
hey man, nice bud. those should be dried and stored separate from the other ‘normal’ hops and used only sparingly. actually, they’ll be fine to use. i’ve been told they were called ‘cock hops’ with the little leaves referred to ‘angle’s wings’. my cascades mostly, and chinook tend to have these almost every year. i like to find the ‘king hop’ - the one that forms at the terminal point of the vine. they are usually loaded with leaves and look really cool, and depending on who you hang out with, they may even have ‘barter’ power associated with them! hop on !
Those leaves growing out of the hops are ok. I asked this same question to one of the head Hop grower/researcher at Sierra Nevada and he simply said that it is the hop expressing it’s phenotype. Some hops are more prone to expressing this leaf in the flower approach. Just pull out the leaf and move on!
Last year my Sterling hops did it, this year it was my goldings. Oh well!
Thank you all for your comments. At my home brew club meeting the other night a fellow member brought a vine and they had one of these on it. I was never concerned about these three, just curious. The total harvest so far has been 1.25 lbs. 
Oh… it’s you, Baron von Bruce? That sure is a nice club you guys have down there in Milwaukee. Loved the World of Beer Fest again this year. And while I’m usually a beer guy… I think I spent more time at the meads and ciders than anything else this year. Fantastic stuff.
Yes, the hops are having an amazing year this year, with all the extra rain we had, at least the first half of the summer. For a while it seemed it was raining almost every day. And now, barely a drop for weeks.