Butt load of free hops. What to do....Anyone in the Salem, OR area want some?

I recently attended my local homebrew club's monthly meeting (The Oregon Brew Crew) and we were given some cool free stuff.

Full Sail Brewing donated over 300 lbs of hops and over 400 lbs of malt to the club to give away to members for free. There was a huge variety of everything to choose from. The hops were still sealed and in a frozen room when they gave them to us. The catch...the hops were from the 2003 crop.

I picked up around 20-25 lbs of hops myself including

Centennial (whole leaf)
Cascade (whole leaf)
East Kent Golding (pellet)
Saaz (pellet)
Amarillo (pellet)

I actually wrote down the AA of all the hops but since the club meeting had over 10 kegs I seemed to have lost that vital piece of information. Due to the age of the hops the AA would have been a guess anyway.

Anyone have any advice? Go off the very low end of the AA for that type of hop?

Also I had to take them down to Salem since my buddy has an extra freezer and leave them there. If anyone in Salem would like some for free hit me up (farmbrewernw, I know you live in Salem). I repackaged all the hops and used the foodsaver to vacuum seal them.

Are the peanut M&Ms up for grabs too?

Rick500 said:

Are the peanut M&Ms up for grabs too?

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yes they are.

Woot! M&Ms and amarillo please!

Just kidding with ya, I'm nowhere near [Edit: Oregon] anyway. Good of you to offer.

All I can say is "Holy Crap!!!" Great score! Even for a 2003 crop. The only thing I would be concerned about a stale hop flavor hitting the beer. (I would look for those styles that benefit from stale hops to start, just in case.)

I am not in Oregon but I love me some EKG and Cascade and Saaz and I am even able to pay some shipping charges to Philly.

Strange that 2003 season hops made it this long. You'd think they could have no problem unloading those the past couple years...

Dougan said:

Strange that 2003 season hops made it this long. You'd think they could have no problem unloading those the past couple years...

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That's what I was thinking. I'm sure they always have hops out the @ss in Oregon anyways!

Makes me wonder what the big boys are using from year to year/batch to batch...probably a mixture.

Just a comment/observation about the stale flavor mentioned earlier...on one of the Basic Brewing Radio shows there's this brewer Peter Someone-Or-Other that receommended leaving hops out overnight prior to brewing to release some of the oils (into the air and) out of the hops...I've tried this, but am not convinced. The hop pellets looked a pale green like they got dried out overnight. I'm not certain I like this effect and its benefit.

homebrewer_99 said:

Makes me wonder what the big boys are using from year to year/batch to batch...probably a mixture.

Just a comment/observation about the stale flavor mentioned earlier...on one of the Basic Brewing Radio shows there's this brewer Peter Someone-Or-Other that receommended leaving hops out overnight prior to brewing to release some of the oils (into the air and) out of the hops...I've tried this, but am not convinced. The hop pellets looked a pale green like they got dried out overnight. I'm not certain I like this effect and its benefit.

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Yeah I agree, doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

If you feel like shipping some amarillo and cascade I will cover the shipping and some extra for your trouble. Good score.

Yea it never appealed to me either. There is a style that uses old stale hops as a rule. I forget which (I'm sure some expert here has that info at their fingertips.) As for me the idea never appealed much to me either, but there might be no choice in the matter with 2003 hops.

Lambics use a mixture of new/old hops.

Sorry don't really want to get into shipping esp. since they are not even at my house.

$hit, I wish OBC meetings didn't conflict with a standing meeting I have. I saw the announcement about this upcoming giveaway, and I was sorely tempted to skip on my own meeting just to go pick up some free stuff...

Friend, I would love to get some of those EKG and Saaz hops! I'll have to PM you!

homebrewer_99 said:

Lambics use a mixture of new/old hops.

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That must be it. I did an extensive tasting hosted by Randy Mosher and that was where I first heard of the practice. Only problem is when you taste 37 different beers over the course of 8 hours they start to run together. I wasn't a huge fan of the lambics we sampled.

A good lambic is a beautiful thing.

khiddy said:

Friend, I would love to get some of those EKG and Saaz hops! I'll have to PM you!

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Send me one. I'm down in southeast ptown a lot.

Oh man. Day late and a dollar short on my part. I live over in Boise now, but I was in Salem and Albany yesterday visiting my family.

Good score, though. Full Sail is a sweet brewery- the master brewer there is the guy who got Deschutes running back in the day.

hey farmbrewernw, i would love some, I'm in Keizer, is it too late?

Big10Seaner said:

That's what I was thinking. I'm sure they always have hops out the @ss in Oregon anyways!

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Yes we do, my buddy just came home last night with around 10lbs of free fresh hops. Perle and Magnum, good times. Spend all night vacuum packing them, my hands are still yellow.

I would love to come get some from you but I have a bit to deal with myself. If I were you since you dont really know the AA due to age just dry hop the crap out of some IPAs.

I'll drive down for some...Im in Wilsonville are these still available?

Not sure how I missed this. I'm a just a bit south of Salem and would love to take some of the hops off your hands if ya still have some up for grabs.

Brewin_CRAZY said:

If I were you since you dont really know the AA due to age just dry hop the crap out of some IPAs.

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This is what i do when i get free hops and i don't know the AA. A co-worker of mine no longer brews but still has vines growing in his backyard and gives me his harvest each year. I have several lbs of whole leaf Cascade and Chinook right now but no clue as to the AA and his harvesting technique is not the best and some leafs have browned so i just use these to increase my aroma hops and i dry-hop the hell out of my brews.

curtis97322 said:

Not sure how I missed this. I'm a just a bit south of Salem and would love to take some of the hops off your hands if ya still have some up for grabs.

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ME TOO, Please!!!

What to do???

Easy! Pliney the Elder style brew it is, use at least a # per 5 gallons. That'll get ya started! Oh yea and don't forget a couple ounces of mash hops

Schlante,
Phillip

I'd be interested in some as well. I'm in SE Portland.

I am in portland, and would love to use some of those hops. Are you available to meet up in Portland... soon?!

Obviously the guys at Full Sail are a class act! I'll be sure to support them soon.

Saccharomyces said:

Obviously the guys at Full Sail are a class act! I'll be sure to support them soon.

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Here, here!
I haven't had one of their brews in over a month. I think it's time hit up Topps and get me some sampler packs.