I’ve been AG brewing for a while, but have always used pellet hops. I’ve got some home grown Cascade and Centennial coming my way. I’d like to know how to determine how much of the whole leaf cone hops I should use in the boil given that I won’t know the exact AA? Cheers!
You can estimate using the average published value. I dealt with it by only using them for late additions where the AA wouldn’t matter much.
Hopefully whoever harvested them dried them out really well or else you’ll need to increase the amount you use to compensate for the water weight not present in commercially sold hop pellets
Here’s a couple Homebrew Con presentations you can check out about this:
Hop Growing 101: An Introduction for Everyone, Including Non-Gardeners
Denny’s suggestion to use as late additions is a good one depending on the quantities of hops you’ll have to use. I’ve been brewing exclusively with homegrown hops- all with unknown %aa for the past 4 years. I recommend using the bottom of reported %aa value range to begin with in using them for bittering additions. If you can find data on %aa of hops grown in your area, that can be very helpful. Good lucck & enjoy!