Poor planning on my part. I have 10-12 oz ea of centennial and citra that I am debating use or toss. They are '14 crop. After opening the package and using some, I vacuum seal and store in the freezer. I also have some '13 crop of Chinook, same handling.
I am leaning towards tossing them all but thought I’d get some feedback.
Toss 'em or use 'em?
Give 'em a sniff… If they smell cheesy or stale, pitch them. If they are brown instead of green, they’re probably oxidized. Vacuum sealed and kept frozen, they’re probably fine, though.
Yeah, if you have been careful with them they are probably still good. I have used hops which were 3-4 years old that were stored vacuum sealed in the freezer with no off flavors or significant loss of bitterness, etc. Always give them a sniff though.
Those hops are less than a year old and seem to have been treated well. I think you have another 12 months or so before you really have to ask that question. You won’t get 2015 pellets until November or December, so literally all the hops breweries are using right now (except for Southern Hemisphere ones and Fresh Hop ales that are being brewed this month) are at least as old as yours.
i keep pellets, if vacuum sealed and frozen, 2 years no problem. after that then i get suspect. you’re fine.
I have vacuum sealed homegrown hops leftover from like 4-5 years ago. I use old hops all the time. It turns out just great. I’m making some of the best beers I’ve ever made even with these old hops. Granted I only use them for bittering, not flavor or aroma; also, I always blend them with fresh hops. I try to use 50/50 blend of old and new hops for bittering. But hell, mine are ancient, and they still work. And you’re worried about one year old, vacuumed and frozen!?!? They’ll be stellar!! You can use them just like normal. Worry more after they’re 2-3 years old. But then you can still always use them for bittering, if they should lose some of the nuances of their youth.
Agreed with above. I take good care to vacuum seal and I still have some 2012 hops left. I typically reduce AA by 10% per year of age.
Excellent point. This is approximately correct in my experience. I have used a lot of ancient hops, 3-4 years old. What I’ve found is that if properly stored, they do not lose as much alpha acids as many sources would otherwise indicate. I use a few hops in small batches to try to figure out the alpha acids within 0.2%, only takes a couple of batches to figure that out, and then if I determined they had like 6% alpha or whatever, I find out that even after several years of storage, they might fall down to only 4.8% alpha at worst. They do NOT go way way down to 2-3%, not if you vacuum and chill the whole time. So… yeah, 10% per year seems like a reasonable figure to me. It’s in that ballpark for sure, and not worse than that.
When amarillo first came out I bought a large amount and didn’t use them up for over five years.
[quote=“Rookie L A”]When amarillo first came out I bought a large amount and didn’t use them up for over five years.[/quote]Hop Hog … I did similar too. :lol:
I remember everyone raving about Amarillo and decided to buy an ounce to try. Glad I held myself back, can’t stand that hop.
[quote=“blatz”]http://brulosophy.com/2015/09/28/the-impact-of-age-hops-exbeeriment-results/
read this…[/quote]
Interesting. Would also be interesting to do this with a more hop forward beer with DHing, etc.
That was a pretty hop forward recipe, using just a single hop variety for flavor and aroma. Can’t say I’m shocked by the results though. Dried ingredients can last an awful long time if stored properly.
For a while I was adjusting for AA loss (10%) on old hops but then the beers ended up over-bittered. My personal experience is pretty much the same that properly stored they last a long time. I really dig Brulosopher debunking stuff. Thanks for posting Paul! That said, I think 5 years is my comfort level.
Anyone been brewing long enough to remember buying hops not refrigerated or vac sealed or both? They really do get CHEESY and I don’t mean slightly… Even then in those days the beer didn’t end up cheesy, just IBU and aroma was off bit.
[quote=“zwiller”]For a while I was adjusting for AA loss (10%) on old hops but then the beers ended up over-bittered. My personal experience is pretty much the same that properly stored they last a long time. I really dig Brulosopher debunking stuff. Thanks for posting Paul! That said, I think 5 years is my comfort level.
Anyone been brewing long enough to remember buying hops not refrigerated or vac sealed or both? They really do get CHEESY and I don’t mean slightly… Even then in those days the beer didn’t end up cheesy, just IBU and aroma was off bit.[/quote]Agreed.
Unfortunately, my LHBS still stores hops not refrigerated. They are at least vacuum packed, and I’ve never opened a pack to find them cheesy, but they are sometime not as fresh and aromatic as I’d like.
Hopefully at least the yeast is temp controlled. I would think an average home sized fridge would take care of the needs of the typical LHBS.
Liquid yeast is in a fridge, dry yeast is on a shelf.
