Free hops - how to harvest

[BritishBelgianTwst]

Hi,

There is an abbey in my village (in Belgium ) that is in the process of being renovated. One of the features they have integrated into the renovation is a hop garden next to the old brew house.
Anyway I was looking round at an open day and found out that they don't use the hop flowers, they just let them die off so I offered to rid them of the unsightly mess and harvest them in September for my home brew.
The questions I have are do I harvest all the flowers and what are my options afterwards? Dry them or use them wet and I presume they'll only be good for aroma unless I can find out the strain and then do a test brew if I dry them to see the acidity.

Cheers,

Paul
P.S. There must be about 20 plants there all growing up wires so I reckon I'll have quite a harvest - if I manage to dry them I'll offer some up to forum members as traditional belgian flavour hops - obviously for nothing more than the price of postage and a beer (it's cheap here).

[crafty john]

Dry them, they will keep for ages.

[BritishBelgianTwst]

Any advice about using them as bittering hops?

[crafty john]

Any advice about using them as bittering hops?

I don't know that much about hops but I am sure one of the AG brewers will give you some advice.

[Invalid Stout]

Going on what we know:

• There was once a brewhouse
• there are hops growing

So they are probably brewing hops and not decorative ones. Good. They are most probably also traditional varieties, I wouldn't expect more than 3 or 4 per cent alpha and possibly much less.

Check that they weren't just planted at the time of renovation though, which would vitiate anything I've said above!

Do you know when the brewhouse was last used? Are there records of brewing which may include recipes and if you're lucky, the kind of hops they grew?

If not, you could try contacting a local hop grower or merchant to find out what hops were typically used in the region.

Otherwise, your best bet is probably just to brew a few beers with them to figure out their characteristics.