Hops, use, save, or discard?

I have made a few beers recently that didn't exactly have 1 oz hop additions. So now I'm left with odds and ends of hops in my fridge. If I don't plan on making the recipe again for awhile, what should I do with them? Would it hurt to throw an extra half or quarter oz in my boil? Perhaps for a little less time so as not to extract too much alpha acids? By the time I use them again, I'm thinking they may be stale and therefore useless. Cheers

In the past I've saved them to use later taped up in the freezer. At some point just tossed together a recipe with what I had on hand from bits and pieces here and there. You can also find a hop substitution chart so you may be able to do another recipe and sub in the bit of hops that you have left without having to buy new ones.

If you do toss them in the boil do it carefully. If its a hop bomb like an IPA just go for it. If it doesn't have any late addition hops think about it first and make sure you want some aroma/flavor added. You may like it even though it would drive the SJCP style brewers crazy.

I say make an IPA and add them as you wish, and see how it turns out..

I've been curious on this too. A friend and I just went in on a good sized hop buy, 3lbs. each, and I already have about 12oz. of EKG sitting in the fridge. Do they lose their aroma over time, flavor, any bittering, or all of the above? My neighbor declined to get in on the hop buy because he said they'd "go stale" before he used them up (he brews lagers mostly and not very often).

LouBrew13 said:

If I don't plan on making the recipe again for awhile, what should I do with them?

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why do you need a recipe for the scraps at all?

a couple times a year when i have 5-6 lbs of extract, 1/2-1lb of random specialty grains and a few onces of hop scraps, I brew it just to clean up storage.

the mystery ales often come out quite well.

My neighbor has also been saying that he'll use almost anything with a higher alpha content as bittering hops since the flavor and aroma is mostly gone via the boil. That helps to get rid of some hops without greatly affecting flavor/aroma.

Unfortunately I'm not a hop head. IPA is probably never gonna be made by me. I suppose I could organize a swap at my next club meeting. That might be a really great idea actually. I'm sure that some of the best beers were made with a"what about this?"mentality.

tre9er said:

My neighbor has also been saying that he'll use almost anything with a higher alpha content as bittering hops since the flavor and aroma is mostly gone via the boil. That helps to get rid of some hops without greatly affecting flavor/aroma.

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i'd start with this. keep track of the hops' AA%, and sub them in for whatever bittering hops your upcoming recipe calls for. bittering hops don't add much flavor or aroma, so it doesn't matter much what kind you use. you can use several different kinds if you don't have enough of 1 type to provide your required IBUs. use an recipe calculator, like hopville.com or beersmith, to calculate how much to use.

it's also an excellent excuse to try your hand at coming up with a recipe. "leftovers ale" can turn out great, and i think it's something you can be extra-proud of. more rewarding that following someone's recipe... but that's just me. i realize not everyone subscribes to that mentality.

and finally, you could consider getting a food-saver or some other type of vacuum-sealer. once vac-sealed in a bag, the hops will last for months in the freezer.

sweetcell said:

it's also an excellent excuse to try your hand at coming up with a recipe. "leftovers ale" can turn out great, and i think it's something you can be extra-proud of. more rewarding that following someone's recipe... but that's just me. i realize not everyone subscribes to that mentality.

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+1. I made a "leftovers ale" with stuff a friend had laying around once. It was a pale ale, brown in color but sessionable with good balance. I've made other on-the-fly recipes that have elements of this brew because I liked the way it turned out.

American 2-row 8
American Victory 1
Belgian Aromatic 1
American Crystal 60 0.5

Mash 153

Fuggles 0.5@60
Kent Goldings 0.75@60
Fuggles 0.5@30
Fuggles 0.5@Dry

Chico (US-05, WL001, WY1056) yeast, fermented low 60's.

My girlfriend and I just did. Called it garbage pale ale. Leftover hops, some 2 row and 2 pounds of smoke malt. One of the best beer we've made.

Frankenbrew.

I have some fuggles, willamette, northern brewer hops leftovers. And a 5 or 6 pound mixed bag of grain I have no idea what it is.

I recall going to the lhbs and giving a list of grain I wanted. They usually put it all in seperate bags, but they dumped it all in one garbage bag. I noticed and stopped them before it all went in. I shouldn't have taken it, but I did. But I can't remember at all what made it into the bag and what i was planning on making at the time.

Just going to add a few pounds of Golden Promise and shoot for an EPA.

tre9er said:

I've been curious on this too. A friend and I just went in on a good sized hop buy, 3lbs. each, and I already have about 12oz. of EKG sitting in the fridge. Do they lose their aroma over time, flavor, any bittering, or all of the above? My neighbor declined to get in on the hop buy because he said they'd "go stale" before he used them up (he brews lagers mostly and not very often).

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Put them in the freezer!

If you have a vacuum sealer (Food Saver), that's even better.
They will last for years in the freezer if vacuum sealed.

If not vacuum sealed, they will still last a long time in the freezer.

I have about 15 pounds of hops in my freezer right now, and I just pull them out and use them when needed.

sweet, thanks Yooper. My neighbor was like "Oh, I'll never use them before they get all stale." so me and other friend had to buy his 2lbs. to save on shipping.

Some people are still living by what they "heard" back in 1997. Glad to have up to date info from people who are doing it.