Brewing with old hops..?

Are two year old hops ok to use if kept in freezer?

  • No way.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hell ya!...double them up.

    Votes: 5 41.7%
  • Depends on the hops.

    Votes: 7 58.3%

  • Total voters
    12

Trail_hoppy

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I have a bunch of hops that I opened almost two years ago.. but all the bags been stored in a freezer bag in a freezer. Are they ok to use? Should I maybe just double up on amounts knowing the age?
 
I try to use mine within a year and do store them double bagged in the freezer. Just to be sure they are still good hops, smelling them is a good idea. Only once have I thrown away hops and it was Citra from a well known supplier right after receiving them.
 
I try to use mine within a year and do store them double bagged in the freezer. Just to be sure they are still good hops, smelling them is a good idea. Only once have I thrown away hops and it was Citra from a well known supplier right after receiving them.
Wow ok why was that? Bad batch?
 
Wow ok why was that? Bad batch?
The batch was drinkable but the Citra was a huge disappointment. Citra is a great aroma and late in the boil hop. My 5' X 12' fermenting room smells wonderful when fermenting a batch of Citra/Mosaic with a small amounts of other hops. When I opened the 8 oz. pack, the smell was not good and lacked the distinct citrus aroma and the same result when used in the boil, during the ferment/dry hop, and when drinking. The other 6.5 oz went into the trash.
 
I had a bunch of about two year old leftover Cascade, Columbus, Mosaic, Citra, Galaxy and Simcoe, stored in a freezer, some in unopened original packs, some opened with original pack put into a ziploc bag. I used them all in a West Coast style DIPA batch and while it was an OK beer, it was definitely lacking in fresh hop aroma and flavor. You could clearly taste that it was made from older hops.

Although now that I think of it, maybe using six different hops muddled the flavors a bit as well... (Normally I don't use more than three)
 
I'd use them. If they've been in the freezer the whole time they're probably fine. I wouldn't double them but maybe 50% more?

If you can find the HSI (hop storage index) for the individual varieties, this tool works well for calculating AA% degradation.:
HomeBrewMap - Hop Age
As long as you use them only for late additions, if they pass the sniff test, they can be used at normal amounts.
 
I had a bunch of about two year old leftover Cascade, Columbus, Mosaic, Citra, Galaxy and Simcoe, stored in a freezer, some in unopened original packs, some opened with original pack put into a ziploc bag. I used them all in a West Coast style DIPA batch and while it was an OK beer, it was definitely lacking in fresh hop aroma and flavor. You could clearly taste that it was made from older hops.

Although now that I think of it, maybe using six different hops muddled the flavors a bit as well... (Normally I don't use more than three)
One of the best brewers in the Denver area has a mantra: Five grains, three hops, no more. If Bill says it (Bierstadt Lagerhaus for the locals, formerly of Prost and the Dry Dock), I tend to believe it.
 
A few years back we visited the Rogue brewery several times. They had a series of IPAs that included a 4 hop, 5 hop and 6 hop version. The 6 hop was a muddled mess, the 5 hop not so bad, and the 4 hop was pretty good. This series from one of my favorite breweries. It's easy to make a muddled mess by using too many hop varieties. I'm sure that there are varieties that play well enough together for more than 3 to work, but I almost always stick to 3 hops and usually 3 grain maximum.
 
Same here. Still working on a couple of 2016 crop hops. Still plenty of good aromatics.
 

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