Old hops still good?

Hey all,

I found a 2 oz pack of cascade pellets (5.5% AA) that's been in my freezer for the last 18 months. It came with a B3 RIS kit I brewed 6/06 but I used leaf hops & stashed these away.

I'm brewing a cranberry ale tomorrow & was wondering if these would still work (for bittering), or if I should sub in some Target pellets I got recently?

Thanks!

Depends really on how they were sealed up. if vacuumed packed and airtight they may be ok, but i would lean more toward no. keep them around and use them in a lambic or something.

Cheers

If they were sealed, they should be fine.

Southwood said:

Hey all,

I found a 2 oz pack of cascade pellets (5.5% AA) that's been in my freezer for the last 18 months. It came with a B3 RIS kit I brewed 6/06 but I used leaf hops & stashed these away.

I'm brewing a cranberry ale tomorrow & was wondering if these would still work (for bittering), or if I should sub in some Target pellets I got recently?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

The alpha acid content has degraded a lot, so it might be a good idea to sub in the Target. Brewsmith has a calculator for this, but I'm at work right now and can't check it. Maybe someone else can do that fer ya...

brloomis said:

The alpha acid content has degraded a lot, so it might be a good idea to sub in the Target. Brewsmith has a calculator for this, but I'm at work right now and can't check it. Maybe someone else can do that fer ya...

Click to expand...

Cool, I hadn't seen that yet.

5.5% AA Cascade stored for 18 months @ 28 deg. F adjusts to 3.79% AA.

Thanks for the great replies!

I brewed today & went with the fresh Target pellets I had. I used 1.5 oz. @ 8%AA to bitter, then finished with an oz. of Willamette @ 3.8%AA. The hydrometer sample tasted great for being warm, flat, and unfermented. I pitched WLP011.

I'm planning on racking onto a few lbs. of cranberries in secondary.

Should be good!

Cheers