Obtaining dried hops is easy. Walk, bike, or drive down to your local homebrew store, open the fridge, and take your pick. If the exact variety you want isn’t available, you may have to ask the shopkeeper about suitable substitutions. Otherwise, the hardest decision you have to make is “Leaves or pellets?”
Acquiring wet hops, however, is something else entirely. Some retailers and homebrew clubs place a group order from growers and divide the overnight shipment cost among a number of people. But the most convenient way to get your hands on truly fresh wet hops is to grow them yourself (see “Growing Your Own Hops,” in Issue 8—Aug/Sept 2015 of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine® for some great tips). And once you’ve solved the normal challenges associated with nurturing a healthy plant, you need to start thinking about the harvest. How do you know when it’s time?
Joe Schiraldi of Left Hand Brewing Company (Longmont, Colorado) recommends that homebrewers conduct a dry matter test to know when hops are ready to go. The idea behind the test is that hops cones dry as they age, and picking them at their peak means catching them when they’ve hit just the right moisture level. The process is fairly straightforward.