I got my free whole hops today

[Banjo-guy]

I saw a post on the AHA forum about free hops. I contacted the guy who lives about 30 minutes from my house.
He had a nice Cascade hop vine growing. It is in it's second year and he forgot that he planted it. I only picked 1.60 oz today. I'll probably end up with 3 ounces when all is said and done.
Right now I have them drying over a fan on a window screen.
I'll probably use them to dry hop my next brew which will be an IPA.

I can't grow them in my yard. I have partial sun.

[Gman20]

how do you know what the alpha acids are tho?

[Banjo-guy]

how do you know what the alpha acids are tho?

I have no idea.

One way is to brew a tea with the same hop with a known IBU and compare it to a tea brewed with the hone grown hops.
I'm just going to use it for a dry hop so it won't matter that much. If I have enough a might use the Cascade home grown hops in the boil. What's the worst that can happen? It's just beer.

[John Sand]

I agree, use them late and AA doesn't matter as much. You might grow them with partial sun, I do.

[Inkleg]

That's a pretty cool score. I'm a AHA member and will have to see if anyone around here has any.
But then I'd probably just leave them sitting out in a bowl and squeeze them every now and then to make the room smell great.

[Banjo-guy]

That's a pretty cool score. I'm a AHA member and will have to see if anyone around here has any.
But then I'd probably just leave them sitting out in a bowl and squeeze them every now and then to make the room smell great.

They really smell great. When you put your nose to them you get a big unmistakable aroma of Cascade.

[DaYooper]

If you are brewing soon there is no reason to dry them. In fact, with them being wet, you wont lose much if any due to wort being absorbed.