Hops! Am I doing it wrong?

[cafe_tom]

A month or so ago I picked a load of wild hops from one of the hedgerows nearby. They've been drying in the greenhouse since then and are now nice and dry and brown.
Very pretty.
I'm wanting to do a beer using them, and the recipe (from Prue Coats) calls for 40g dried hops. Well so far I've got an old ice cream carton full and the scales have hardly moved from 0g.
Am I using hops that are too dry? Or do I need a whole heap of them?
Help would be appreciated,
Cheers
T

[frozenthunderbolt]

You do need a fair wack of them. Some to boil with yiour wort and a little to add once off the boil and steeping

[cafe_tom]

Ok, cheers, I think I'll end up using all of the ones I've picked then! Phew.

[Andy Hamilton]

Drying in your green house probally isn't the best idea either really. They should really be dried without light. Might be ok, can you see and smell any yellow pollen inside them? Thats what makes them bitter and it can be destroyed with sunlight. I hang mine up on the banniser in the hall where there is the least amount of light.

[cafe_tom]

Aha, more knowledge, I did not know about the lack of light. I shall have a good nosey around them for pollen and see. I was going by the info I had found that suggested they be dried until they were springy.

[gregorach]

Drying in your green house probally isn't the best idea either really. They should really be dried without light. Might be ok, can you see and smell any yellow pollen inside them? Thats what makes them bitter and it can be destroyed with sunlight. I hang mine up on the banniser in the hall where there is the least amount of light.

Technically, those are lupulin glands, not pollen grains. They're on the female plants rather than males (which are useless for brewing).