How to tell if hops are viable

Ingredients
1

I “happened” on a couple of opened 11 pound boxes of hops when I was looking at a closed down brew pub for a client. These were in boxes that are taped shut and the inner foil pouches seem to be rolled moderately tight. These appear to have been stored in a walk in cooler until the business closed about 6 months ago.

How do I figure out if these are any good and/or worth using? It is a lot of free hops but not worth ruining batches of beer over.

Also scored a unopened sack of Munich. Pretty sure that would be fine.

2

Open one up and give it a smell. Hops that are not usable will smell cheesy.

3

they are likely fine. maybe some degradation in AA, but nothing that would ruin a batch.

+1 to rookie l a. if they smell cheesy don’t use them.

4

Thanks guys, I will give it a shot. It is a bunch of hops that I would hate to see go to waste

5

I might reserve them for bittering only. After you bitter 2-3 batches with them, you will be able to figure out the alpha acid content within 0.2-0.3% based on taste alone and then use that number with accuracy going forward.