Old Hops..Good or Bad?

I was at a little hole in the wall store that sells brewing supplies. They had some old hops that they were giveing away for free so I took them on the off chance they could still be good. The store owner wasn't sure how old but would guess about 3 years or so. They are packaged in nitrogen and sealed. The only thing is they were never kept refregerated. I know from searching that hops degrade fast when not stored right but wanted to know if these were truely junk or are still useable. Any thoughts on this?

open them up and if they smell like bad cheese throw them away. But otherwise they might be good. probably lost quite a bit of their oomph though.

Well I Have 2 kinds of hops. Plug and pellet. The plugs smell like hay. I never used them before but I'm sure thats not the way they should smell. The pellets still smell like hops though. Maybe I'll try a 1 gal beer to see what would happen. I don't want to ruin a whole batch. Any other thoughts?

You could try a lambic. Pretty sure they require old hops. But I think there is a particular way to age hops for a lambic. I've never brewed one but it could be interesting.

You might consider brewing a lambic if you enjoy that style of beer. It is appropriate to use "aged" hops in a lambic.

lol, you beat me to it, braceful

Yup, many belgian beers are made with "aged" read stale hops, just for the preservative effect rather than for the flavor or aroma. So yeah, if they still smell ok then use them.