8 year old hops stored in the freezer

[hlumbard]

I have many, many ounces of frozen, vacuum sealed hops. I opened a small package and they still smell like hops, no off odors. Anybody have any experience brewing with anything close to this? I had kids and took some serious time off but now thinking about getting back in. I never threw these out over many moves because, well, I knew I'd be back.

 

[akmac]

Make a gallon batch of beer and see how it turns out. You may be pleasantly surprised.

 

[IslandLizard]

Vacuum sealed and frozen is the best way to store hops especially long term. If they still smell fresh and hoppy, not cheesy, they're fine to use, brew away. You may notice somewhat less bittering or flavor/aroma, but nothing major. For example, I had been adjusting older, previously opened and sealed shut, frozen hops with 5% per year extra, and that has proven to be way too much. 2-3% seems more reasonable if any at all. The hop storage index only applies to room temperature stored, sealed hops. There is no such index for (deep) frozen hops that I'm aware of.

 

[imasickboy]

Promash had a calculator to determine loss based upon temperature and the hop storage index. I'm surprised no one else included those calculations in their software.

 

[GPP33]

Frozen is relative. Frost free freezers stay frost free by thawing out on a regular basis. No idea how that affects hop life but i’d imagine it can’t be good.

If they smell good they should be good though.

 

[day_trippr]

Promash had a calculator to determine loss based upon temperature and the hop storage index. I'm surprised no one else included those calculations in their software.

fwiw, BeerSmith, for one, has had a Hop Age tool at least since V2 was released - seven years ago. It looks just like the V3 version...

Cheers!

 

[jwa120]

I have used vacume sealed and cold store hops that are 5 years old without issue. As others have said bittering will be diminish. I use the hop storage calculator in beersmith.

 

[imasickboy]

fwiw, BeerSmith, for one, has had a Hop Age tool at least since V2 was released - seven years ago. It looks just like the V3 version...

View attachment 578370

Cheers!

I use Beersmith, and never noticed that one was actually in there. Thanks!

 

[cmybeer]

I'd buy a few new ounces for bittering just to be sure but if they smell good go for it!

 

[hlumbard]

Thank you all! Looks like I should download beer smith too!

 

[Yooper]

I recently used some hops from 2007- they were vacuum sealed and frozen the entire time and seemed ok.

I wouldn't use them for an IPA where the hops flavor was huge, but I used them in a simple cream ale- and it turned out perfectly fine with no degrading of flavor at all. I wouldn't recommend this as regular practice of course, but I can say that I didn't have any issues with doing it.

 

[zipster222]

I have Beersmith V2. "Hops age tool" is under the "tools" pull-down menu at the top and in the tools menu at the side. Tried it. Works great in that it's easy to use. Thanks day trppr!

 

[z-bob]

I'm using 4 year old hops (I bought too many), stored in a freezer but not vacuum sealed. They still smell and taste fresh, and when I try to discount the bitterness for their age, the beer turns out too bitter -- apparently this variety holds their bitterness well.

I found some 20+ year old small packets of hops in an old chest freezer that I don't use much. They still smelled just fine (but I threw them out anyway)

In 8 years they will have deteriorated but not necessarily as much as you'd think. Try 'em and see what you get.

 

[rneumaier]

I have many, many ounces of frozen, vacuum sealed hops. I opened a small package and they still smell like hops, no off odors. Anybody have any experience brewing with anything close to this? I had kids and took some serious time off but now thinking about getting back in. I never threw these out over many moves because, well, I knew I'd be back.

This was discussed on a recent brulosophy podcast. The conclusion was how you store hops is really the only important factor:

http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/463424646-brulosophy-episode-046-maintaining-hop-freshness.mp3

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Carolina_Matt]

If you're going to use old frozen hops, a) is it better to use them as bittering, aroma or flavoring hops (or dry hop)?. And b) should you put them in the kettle while frozen, or let them get to room temperature first?

 

[adman]

I recently brewed my first batch of beer in almost 4 years, and just dry hopped it with a couple ounces of mosaic hops that have been in my deep freeze, sealed since late 2014. I think they were stored in pretty ideal conditions—it was a full pound, never opened, from Yakima Valley Hops. They smelled fantastic. Hopefully they taste good in the beer.

 

[bpgreen]

If they're vacuum sealed and frozen, they'll last a long time, but they'll still lose some potency over time. Different hops lose potency at different rates. I recently used some hops from 2011. Beersmith estimated they lost about half their aa%. I'm going through my hops now to usr up the older ones. I also check to make sure they're not cheesy first.

 

[fonebrew]

I have a bunch of cascade in my freezer that I hope will lose some of the alpha and keep the beta to use in sours. You could try that. I heard the Jester King head brewer on a seminar day they use those but they don’t freeze their old hops.