Help with Mt. Hood hops

[timo944]

All, this is my first post. New to brewing but I am an expert drinker.

A friend sent me a package of 1 oz of mt hood hops grown in his back yard near mt hood. After drying he packaged them and froze them for about a week, then mailed to me. I received them and immediately popped the freezer, about 2-3 weeks ago.

I've done some reading and these seem best suited to a lager. This being my 3rd batch I figured I'd use a recipe from How to Brew for Vienna Lager, and sub the mt hood hops for the last addition of Liberty that is called for.

Questions I have:
1. How long can the hops be stored in the freezer (and is this the right place?)
2. Should these be put in a boiling bag before putting them in the wort (with 10 mins to go?)
3. Is there a better way to use these hops? For example dry hopping?
4. My other problem is fermentation - I have a basement but it's not exactly cool - maybe 65F. Is that too warm? I can maybe find a cooler spot on concrete or wait fornwinter to set in (I'm in atlanta).

Thanks - Tim

 

[rlmiller10]

All, this is my first post. New to brewing but I am an expert drinker.

A friend sent me a package of 1 oz of mt hood hops grown in his back yard near mt hood. After drying he packaged them and froze them for about a week, then mailed to me. I received them and immediately popped the freezer, about 2-3 weeks ago.

I've done some reading and these seem best suited to a lager. This being my 3rd batch I figured I'd use a recipe from How to Brew for Vienna Lager, and sub the mt hood hops for the last addition of Liberty that is called for.

Questions I have:
1. How long can the hops be stored in the freezer (and is this the right place?)
2. Should these be put in a boiling bag before putting them in the wort (with 10 mins to go?)
3. Is there a better way to use these hops? For example dry hopping?
4. My other problem is fermentation - I have a basement but it's not exactly cool - maybe 65F. Is that too warm? I can maybe find a cooler spot on concrete or wait fornwinter to set in (I'm in atlanta).

Thanks - Tim

Here's to being an expert drinker, we all have our talents.

Yes the freezer is the right place and they can be stored there for at least a year. But they will fade over time so the sooner used the better

Not sure what you mean by the boiling bag before putting in the wort. You can put them in a hop bag before putting in the wort just so you don't have as munch gunk in the bottle of the kettle. But no need to defrost is that is what you are asking.

Mt Hood is not really an aroma hop so I would use it for flavor, say at 5 or 10 min.

If you are using a lager yeast then 65 is definitely too warm. Depending on the yeast you want closer to 50 and then after fermentation and diacetyl rest you want to be able to get it to 34 or so for 6 weeks or so.

 

[timo944]

Thanks!

 

[kh54s10]

You could use just about any light pale ale recipe. This would give a lager like brew but is really an ale. Then use them as suggested as a late addition for flavor and some aroma.

Or look at Northern Brewers John Q. Adams Marblehead lager. It is a lager hybrid, fermented at ale temperatures.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/JohnQAdams.pdf

 

[Puddlethumper]

Take a look at Biermuncher's thread on Cream of 3 Crops cream ale. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f62/cream-three-crops-cream-ale-66503/ You can sub the Mt Hood for Crystal in that recipe and the 65F temp of your basement should be about right for most ale yeast strains (try US-05, WLP-001 or WLP-080).

A recent article in Zymurgy magazine indicated that unless the hops are stored in a light-proof package that has been purged of O2 with nitrogen they will loose much of their goodness within a couple of months. Based on that I would suggest using them up as quickly as you can.

Cheers!

 

[m00ps]

Looks like you might be all set, but if you want to hear more...

1) anywhere in the fridge/freezer is fine if its sealed. Freezer will last a bit longer. I dont exactly practice good hop storage methods myself, but as long as the hops are sealed in their original package they arrived in, I keep mine for months and months. Once I open them to use an oz or two, I try to use the rest within the next week or two and store them in an airtight container

2) You dont need to boil them the boiling wort will sanitize them. Plus, youd be diluting your beer pre-boiling them because youd need to add the boiling water into the wort

3)Mt Hood hops are pretty well-rounded dual purpose IMO. Can be used as a noble hop sub. But the styles they lend themselves to dont usually use dry hopping very much. I'd most likely use them in a stout/porter/brown ale or something German as flavor additions but that's just me.

4)65 is PERFECT for like 90% of ales, but not a lager like you wanted. For that you'll need something in the low 50s I think. But just as important as the temp (if not more important) is stability. Large temperature fluctuations can have an even worse effect than being a few degrees warmer than you want.