Aged (but not cheesy) Hops

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aksea102

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So I scored some used homebrew equipment off a fellow who is retiring from homebrewing (the horror!!). He had a freezer full of hops that he just gave me with the rest of the goods. Unfortunately he couldnt remember the age of most of the hops, except that they were less than 5yrs old. I have many ounces of Chinook hops that I would love to make an all Chinook IPA with...problem is I dont know how old they are. Therefore, Beersmith and I really can't calculate how much the AAU's have deteriorated.
The Chinook hops (as well as some Galena, Centennial, Cascade and Columbus) are all still in the 1oz foil packages, and like I said before, he kept them stored in a freezer. The varieties that werent in foil/sealed packages were in ziploc bags, and when I took a whiff, I didnt smell batches upon batches of lambics in my future.
If I had to make a ballpark guesstimate of age, Id say between 2 and 5yrs?? Geez, I dunno. I hate to see them go to waste, but I also hate to waste my time, effort and grain/DME $$ on a 5 gallon batch of ewwwww!
Id love to hear some HBT thoughts on the matter.
Thanks in advance-
 
Check out the hopunion web site. It will give you good information on how fast the hops deteriorate. The "C" hops don't do well even when stored at 0F and light and 02 free. If I were in your spot I would use them but increase the amount, using the information in the hop union information as a general guide as to how much additional to use.
 
+1. Use them. I'd split the difference and estimate 3.5 years for the age. It sounds like they were stored well, so if you don't hit the IBUs you were expecting, it will still taste good and you can adjust the next batch. Or, you could aim low and if you are under-hopped you could up the IBUs with a hop tea.
 
I had some hops that were vacuum sealed and frozen for close to four years and they worked great for an IPA. I say use them.
 
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