Hop shelf life

I bought some leaf hops for dry hopping a couple of weeks ago. I had a good bit left over so i just put the bags in the fridge. Now im making a recipe that uses the same hops. I've always just bought new hops but i have so much left over I would like to use it. Would this be risky? I dont want to ruin a batch of beer to save a couple of bucks. Thanks

All the hops out there were pretty much harvested at exactly the same time. If they are 2010 hops they were probably harvested in September of last year. So the only difference between the hops in your possession & those you would buy today from a HBS is how they are treated.

HBSs should keep them as cold as possible (freezer is better than the fridge), out of light, and away from oxygen. To do this with your hops, the easiest thing to probably do is seal them in the smallest jar they will fit tightly into & put them in your freezer. They'll be fine there for weeks/months maybe even years. There will be some slight lower of AA% but that even happens with commercially stored hops. Otherwise they will be fine. Use em!

if they have been in the fridge for just two weeks, they are as good as new.

Ill put them in the freezer now. Thanks

A couple of weeks in the fridge is fine. If you're aging them longer, the freezer is much preferred.

http://www.brewerslair.com/index.php?p=brewhouse&d=calculators&id=cal16&u=eng has a hop aging calculator. In the fridge unsealed for 2 weeks, you lost about 1-1.5% of their bittering--not enough to matter. For longer aging, that calculator can help adjust.

If you know the HSI for your type of hop, you can get a better estimate--look it up at http://www.brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue2.1/garetztable.html#1 and enter it as "Percent Lost at 6 months").