Do these pictures of dried hops look OK?

Buddy of mine gave me some nugget hop and cascade hop cones. I tried air drying these by spreading them out on a large screen and letting them air dry for over a week. A few of the cones showed some brown colors of their edges so now I wonder if I should just toss these into the compost bin or use them for late hop additions or dry hopping. Any thoughts? The first picture is the cascade and the second is nugget hops.

Smell them. If they still smell hoppy then I'd use them soon. Keep them in the freezer and if they start to smell cheesy throw them out.

The fresh hops I bought had some minimal browning. Use them as a dry hop for some intense hop smell in secondary.

I cannot detect a strong hop smell from the hops because I have a sinus cold right now. I did feel oils from the hops on my hands as I was packing them into bags for the freezer.

I would really like to use the cascade next weekend to dry hop an IPA but if these hops don't look good then I don't want to end up with grassy flavors in my final product.

msa8967 said:

I cannot detect a strong hop smell from the hops because I have a sinus cold right now. I did feel oils from the hops on my hands as I was packing them into bags for the freezer.

I would really like to use the cascade next weekend to dry hop an IPA but if these hops don't look good then I don't want to end up with grassy flavors in my final product.

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If they are as brown as they look in the photo, and don't have great aroma, then I wouldn't use them.

The second photo looks great.

Yooper said:

If they are as brown as they look in the photo, and don't have great aroma, then I wouldn't use them.

The second photo looks great.

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OK...I will toss the cascade away in the compost bin and then save the nugget.