I store my hops in the freezer, and yet I have read that they still slowly degrade over time. My question is: Do the flavoring and aroma abilities degrade over time? Or is it just the bittering aspect that degrades?
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My experience is when I kept in the large bag, I keep pulling it out opening, possibly leaving out for an hour before returning to the freezer. I know I lost some of the potential. So I now I break them down AFTER they have been in the freezer, into 2 OZ packages. I notice I can tell, at least for the aroma hops, degradation isn’t noticeable to my nose… Sneezles61
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The flavor and aroma oils degrade over time, also. And keep in mind that HSI, or Hop Storage Index, plays into it also. YCH Hops (formerly Hop Union) have new homebrewer packaging that lists the HSI on it.
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I gotta say I think hops last longer and do better than we expect being stored correctly. Anytime I’ve gotten fancy and did the math on old hops I overbittered. Just did a NGP with some czech saaz (notorious for not aging well) and they were at least several years old and they were fine and I this beer has HUGE hop aroma, actually too big. That said, getting to root of the question, I do tend to think that the aroma and flavor characteristics fade before the bitterness, but I don’t think the science is well understood. Also, sometime hops just do not have a good year. Last few years of centennial have been kinda flat… We can get all science-y and stuff but sometimes it’s more art than science. Trust your nose and experience.
Since the HSI is calculated for each lot of hops, it’s a great “sciency” tool. Trying to figure hop degradation without it is just a guess.
I’m a newbie, I ordered several recipe kits at one time, do I need to keep the whole kit in the frig till I use them one at a time?
Thanks.
Yeast in the fridge, hops in the freezer. The grain/extract should be fine in a cool dry place.
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Yeast in fridge, hops in freezer, malt extract etc is OK room temp.
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