7 mo. old Cascade - no aroma/flavor left?

Bought 4 lbs of hops from hopsdirect last fall ... one was a lb of Cascade. I've been keeping all my hops in vacuum-sealed mason jars in the freezer. So last week I popped out my jar of Cascade to dry-hop an Oberon clone I'm doing, and when I opened the jar, there was very little of the stanky, citrus-y Cascade aroma I've come to expect. In fact, there was very little aroma at all. Which is weird, cause I'm used to the cascade aroma hitting me in the face whenever I open the jar. It was like the hops had somehow ... died, or something.

So I dry-hopped with them anyway, but when I went to bottle last night, I still could taste very little cascade in the hydro sample. It was almost if I hadn't added them at all. Now I'm worried about using them for future brews

Now, I know (from various charts around the interwebs) that Cascades tend to lose their alpha acids faster than many other hops, but come on now! I mean, I've done everything I'm supposed to do with them. Has anyone else had this problem? Anyone else noticed their Cascades losing flavor and aroma in this short a time period?

And if so, what do you recommend I do with them?

BTW, all my other hops are fine and stinky as they're supposed to be. And I'm sure that the jar these hops were in has been vacuum-sealed the whole time it's been in the freezer.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

When last fall did you order them? Are they 2009 or 2008 harvest?

Good question - I ordered them in October, so my guess is that they're 2008 harvest. But I could be wrong. But even so, they still shouldn't be losing aroma and flavor yet, should they?

stab in the dark.. did they warm up a bit before you smell them? None of my hops (pellets) have much smell when I take them out of the freezer at first

The oils that make Cascade what it is are very light and they do have a limited lifetime. Most likely, they are close to two years old and freezer or not, they've lost their edge. Since they didn't come through in the boil, I'd say they are history.

Keep aging them from another 5-12 months and use them for a lambic or since they are Cascades an "American Wild Ale"

david_42 said:

The oils that make Cascade what it is are very light and they do have a limited lifetime. Most likely, they are close to two years old and freezer or not, they've lost their edge. Since they didn't come through in the boil, I'd say they are history.

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Well, bummer. But fair enough. So if they've lost their flavoring and aroma capabilities, could I still use them for bittering?

I would use them for bittering as long as they didn't smell bad. Just don't forget to adjust the AA% for age.