The freshest ingredients

I wanna see what fresh tastes like. I'm pretty sure I've seen what stale is like.

Does anyone know of a place to buy grain that has a manufacturers date where freshness is known? Also same for hops.

bump,

Anyone know of any hops or grains that share harvest date and or manufacture date? I am talking LHBS stuff.

Can anyone here blindfold tell the difference between 2011 crop and 2012 crop hops?

Is anyone here partial to a peticular hop brand/distributor, if so, how come?

Does anyone think they could tell the difference between a beer brewed with grain that was 4 years old vs. one brewed with fairly recent grain?

i used hops that were 3 years old for a recent Pale Ale. It won 1st place in the category and 3rd Best of Show.

I think its more how they are stored. Frozen and away from oxygen.

If you looks at the probrewers forum youll see that alot of microbrewerys use hops that are several years old.

I have noticed on the probrewer's forum that old hops have value on the trade/sell portion of the forum. Did you compensate for degrading alpha levels with your hops or just simply treat them as if they were fresh in your recipe that you won with? btw congrats.

I did not compensate for any AA degradation.