Hops pellets accidently got wet

Hi there
Some @#$% put a bottle of water into the drawer in our freezer where our hops pellets was stored and of course the bottle wasnt sealed properly and it spilled all over the hops. Do we have to throw it all away, or can we still use it?

 

Are you saying that the hops were not sealed?

 

The pellets were in little plastic bags, but not sealed so the water got in.

 

If your hops were in the freezer unsealed, then they were probably already bad.

 

I have some hops in the freezer sealed in only sandwich size ziplock bags. Is that ok? Or should I be sealing them up a better way?

 

Using something like a foodsaver to suck out the air would be best, but if you're getting most of the air out, they're probably just fine. The less exposure to oxygen, the longer they will last.

 

We have always kept our hops in the freezer in unsealed bags and none of it has ever gone off. I guess if you brew often enough it's not a problem. Getting back to our hops that got wet, does anyone know what influence (if any) this might have on the hops?

 

If they are now frozen in a block of ice, they might be hard to weigh to use, but I wouldn't think they would be unuseable.

I don't know if it is relative, but large fish companies spray the fish/shrimp etc. with water before freezing to protect the product. Out of curiosity, how much hops got wet?

 

Hi there
Yeah, the weighing will be challenging. We didn't loose that much, probably about 100 or 150g dry weight, but all our East Kent and Fuggles got wet and we were hoping to use those in our next 2 brews.

 

I would use the frozen wet hops, just account for the extra ounce of water when figuring your recipe water volumes