Bloated hop bag

[Semper Sitientum]

Looking through my hop supply tonight, which I keep in the freezer, I have two, once packets of sealed EKG hops. One of the packets is bloated like something went bad. I have seen this with food but never with hops. I purchased them about 3 - 4 weeks ago and they went straight into the freezer. Any ideas on what, if anything, is wrong? Do you think they’re safe to use?

 

[Mark Farrall]

Weird. It's pretty hard to get something to grow in a bag of hops. Maybe somebody pumped atmosphere in instead of sucking it out. Is it still sealed and what does/did the gas inside the bag smell like would be my first questions.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Looking through my hop supply tonight, which I keep in the freezer, I have two, once packets of sealed EKG hops. One of the packets is bloated like something went bad. I have seen this with food but never with hops. I purchased them about 3 - 4 weeks ago and they went straight into the freezer. Any ideas on what, if anything, is wrong? Do you think they’re safe to use?

Oh I gotta see this! Any pictures ?

 

[Semper Sitientum]

Still sealed and there’s no perceptible smell on the outside of the package. I wasn’t planning on using them until after the first of the year.

 

[Nosybear]

Those are packed in nitrogen, if I'm not mistaken. Looks like someone pumped a bit too much into one bag... They should be fine.

 

[SabreSteve]

If you have a vacuum sealer you could open the bag, check and smell them and then reseal the pack.

Also, I'm far from an expert but for my last couple brews I screwed up and bought two 2oz bags instead of two 1 oz bags. The open package sat in my freezer a little over a month in between brews. I had forced as much of the air out as I could with my hands before sealing and then put it in a Ziploc bag and did the same. I've now tasted the first couple bottles from that batch and so far seems fine. No noticable difference in hop character between the two batches. Just my observation. I'd say @Nosybear is probably right on the nitrogen but if it were up to me I'd want to know for sure so I could reorder if they're bad

 

[Semper Sitientum]

Those are packed in nitrogen, if I'm not mistaken. Looks like someone pumped a bit too much into one bag... They should be fine.

That’s probably it. I don’t remember what the package looked like when I threw it in the freezer.

 

[^Tony^]

I regularly get hops like that. One pack flat and one pack not. I just check the bag by giving it a gentle little squeeze and as long as no air comes out I just toss them in the freezer and forget about them. I have only ever had one pack with a leak. I sealed it with a clip put it into a zip lock bag and did the old red neck vacuum seal (sucked as much air out as I could using my mouth!!) then made sure to use that bag first. The beer turned out fine.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Still sealed and there’s no perceptible smell on the outside of the package. I wasn’t planning on using them until after the first of the year.View attachment 13241

FEWIE thought a little hop monster might be growing in that hop pouch!