Aging Hops

[wolves63]

I had a friend of mine who bought hops about 2 years ago. They have been kept in mylar bags, but at temperatures around 70-75 degrees.

Would I still need to bake the hops in the oven to force age them?

Once aged, how many ounces per 5 gallons?

My sour recipe I was looking at initally called for 1 oz of Tettnang that was not going to be aged.

 

[mnick12]

Oxidation is an important part of the ageing process, and in sealed mylar bags there is not going to be very much oxidation going on.

Baking helps remove the volatile oils but does not do much for oxidation. I would open the bags and transfer the hops to a paper bag, and wait a while.

In my experience, aged hops from baking alone still gives a pronounced bitterness.

 

[wolves63]

I can make sure that happens, and just use a lower AA for my first batch. What amount of hops is appropirate after they have aged in a 5 gallon batch? 1 oz or would you suggestion 2 oz?

 

[mnick12]

It depends,

I used my "aged" hops for a spontaneous lambic style ale. In that instance I used 4oz for 5 gallons @ 180 minutes.

I use that amount of hops for its preservative qualities, not flavor or bitterness.

If you are going to pitch a culture rather than wild innoculate 1oz is probably fine.

 

[Biobrewer]

Aside from doing this for the sake of being traditional in the sense of lambic beer, why go through the effort to "age" hops? Why not simply use some very low alpha hop.

I've used the aged hops from hops direct at the recommended hopping rate suggested for lambics in Wild Brews, and the beer tasted like ****, and still does after 14 months. They literally ruined the beer. I switched back to simply adding a very small quantity of low alpha hops to my sours, and I haven't encountered that wretched flavor again. The exact same beer tastes incredible.

The more I brew, the more I become a fan of the KISS school of thought... "aging" hops, IMO, is just adding another (very unnecessary) variable to the beer. Save yourself some time, keep it simple and just use a small amount of low AA hops to hit your target IBU.