2020 hops question

[Joewalla88]

So, I apparently went on some YVH shopping sprees over the last year or two, and now I have a lot of 2020 hops sitting in my freezer. Anyone have a good idea on when I should try to use most of those by? I know AA% can fads over time, but what other flavor compounds. For example there's an unopened pound of El Dorado that I kinda forgot about. How many years do I have left for before they lose their goodness? There's plenty of others too.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I lost almost 18 months from Memorial Day 2020 through the end of 2022 due to a spine injury and subsequent surgery and recovery. Going into all that I had a freezer compartment stuffed with roughly 20 pounds of pellets covering a couple dozen strains, all in their original mylar bags inside freezer bags.

My spine doc cleared me to "no restrictions" status this January and I've been brewing like a psychopath since While I had no concerns about the ~350 pounds of base malt as well as maybe 40 pounds of specialty grains I had on hand, I had considered was how much "bang" all those hops might have lost during the down time, so on my first brew I arbitrarily increased the early additions by 50% - and found the result was noticeably more bitter than usual.

I decided if there was a loss of potency in sealed bags in a freezer over ~18 months it wasn't worth countering. I've brewed 60 gallons across 6 batches using unadjusted recipes and they have all turned out too close to "original" to notice any change.

Curious about that I looked around the web and found this "Hop Freshness Calculator" that at arm's length seemed to consider all the right metrics. According to the calculator if one puts sealed bags in a 0°F environment for 18 months the losses would be under 10% - solidly in the "can't tell the difference" realm. I can live with that

Cheers!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

from Understanding the importance of the Hop Storage Index - Hops

tl;dr? maybe close it tight with a rubber band and toss it in the freezer?

eta: look closely at this portion of figure 5 ...

 

[Brooothru]

fwiw, I lost almost 18 months from Memorial Day 2020 through the end of 2022 due to a spine injury and subsequent surgery and recovery. Going into all that I had a freezer compartment stuffed with roughly 20 pounds of pellets covering a couple dozen strains, all in their original mylar bags inside freezer bags.

My spine doc cleared me to "no restrictions" status this January and I've been brewing like a psychopath since While I had no concerns about the ~350 pounds of base malt as well as maybe 40 pounds of specialty grains I had on hand, I had considered was how much "bang" all those hops might have lost during the down time, so on my first brew I arbitrarily increased the early additions by 50% - and found the result was noticeably more bitter than usual.

I decided if there was a loss of potency in sealed bags in a freezer over ~18 months it wasn't worth countering. I've brewed 60 gallons across 6 batches using unadjusted recipes and they have all turned out too close to "original" to notice any change.

Curious about that I looked around the web and found this "Hop Freshness Calculator" that at arm's length seemed to consider all the right metrics. According to the calculator if one puts sealed bags in a 0°F environment for 18 months the losses would be under 10% - solidly in the "can't tell the difference" realm. I can live with that

Cheers!

BeerSmith has a built-in Hop Age calculator that is very accurate. Entering arguments are hop varietal, original Alpha-Alpha % values, storage media, etc., to account for the main pertinent variables.

I, too, have quite a collection of old and new hops. Realistically there are a lot of “orphans” that will never see wort, but recently I was able to save a brew day when my inventory spread sheet showed that I really didn’t have 2 oz. of Perle that I thought were there. The closest hop I had on hand was a 5 year old stash of Northern Brewer. The calculator showed how much I would have to substitute to achieve the same IBUs.

Normally I wouldn’t have used 5 year old hops, but they had been in the deep freeze in nitrogen flushed/vacuum sealed foil packs. The original AA% was 9.6%, and the calculated aged NB hop was 3.1%. They smelled fine, though obviously not as pungent. The Spalt Select and Hallertau additions will fill in any weaknesses in flavor and aroma.

 

[Joewalla88]

fwiw, I lost almost 18 months from Memorial Day 2020 through the end of 2022 due to a spine injury and subsequent surgery and recovery. Going into all that I had a freezer compartment stuffed with roughly 20 pounds of pellets covering a couple dozen strains, all in their original mylar bags inside freezer bags.

My spine doc cleared me to "no restrictions" status this January and I've been brewing like a psychopath since While I had no concerns about the ~350 pounds of base malt as well as maybe 40 pounds of specialty grains I had on hand, I had considered was how much "bang" all those hops might have lost during the down time, so on my first brew I arbitrarily increased the early additions by 50% - and found the result was noticeably more bitter than usual.

I decided if there was a loss of potency in sealed bags in a freezer over ~18 months it wasn't worth countering. I've brewed 60 gallons across 6 batches using unadjusted recipes and they have all turned out too close to "original" to notice any change.

Curious about that I looked around the web and found this "Hop Freshness Calculator" that at arm's length seemed to consider all the right metrics. According to the calculator if one puts sealed bags in a 0°F environment for 18 months the losses would be under 10% - solidly in the "can't tell the difference" realm. I can live with that

Cheers!

Thanks, this is what I figured. I've used old hops before without it screwing up the beer, but was just curious about how much those fruity flavor "compounds?" are effected over time.

 

[day_trippr]

BeerSmith has a built-in Hop Age calculator that is very accurate.

Totally forgot about that It confirms what the calculator I linked had to offer...

Cheers!

 

[FloppyKnockers]

I know they drop in AA potency as time passes, but not as noticeable as I thought. Don't tell anyone here, but I have hops from 2019 and probably 2018. I just make sure to use a smidge more when using older hops.

 

[Joewalla88]

I know they drop in AA potency as time passes, but not as noticeable as I thought. Don't tell anyone here, but I have hops from 2019 and probably 2018. I just make sure to use a smidge more when using older hops.

I have a have some that old too. I'll use them, but nothing I'm as excited about as what's in my 2020 inventory.

 

[JAReeves]

Pretty much my primary concern with older hops is how do they smell? If they are moving to raisiny/cheesy/foot sweat, then I leave them out to age at garage temp and use them for sours after about a year.

 

[balrog]

this January and I've been brewing like a psychopath since

Hm. My invite for taste testing must've gotten lost in the mail...

[Edit: Oh, and, yeah, glad you're better!]