Are these hops worth using?

[CraigT]

I got some free hops today from a guy who picked these last season off his first year plants. He doesnt brew so he said I could take them. He said they are golden nugget. But anyways I think he has just kept them in plastic grocery bags in his basement. They don't seem to have very much aroma from them and they are pretty brown. Is it worth using these at all?

 

[Indianhead_Brewer]

The infamous "Golden Nugget" hops rears its head again. There was a thread I was looking at awhile back about this questionable variety (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/golden-nugget-271367/). It seems like this variety is probably one of those people have gotten from the various seed catalogs (Gurney's, Farmers Seed & Nursery).

Nonetheless I would be skeptical of using them especially if they haven't been stored properly (i.e. in loose plastic bags in a basement). Hops alpha acids and oils will become oxidized relatively quickly (matter of days and more than likely sooner than that) if not stored appropriately. Also if they weren't in a temperature controlled environment,for every increase of 10 degrees C (18 degrees F) increases the loss of alpha acids by 2X. Not bueno.

 

[damdaman]

Don't risk it. I used unknown hops from a friend in a batch once and it turned out horrible. Don't put **** in your beer unless you know what it is.

 

[H-ost]

Seems like such a waste... Maybe you could do a small 1 gallon smash and test em out, if they taste fine but have little bitterness then just use the whole bag as one addition in one batch.

 

[sweetcell]

Seems like such a waste... Maybe you could do a small 1 gallon smash and test em out

probably the best option. don't want to waste 5 gallons of wort when you could spent a few dollars on known hops (vs. throwing out the entire batch because your mystery hops taste like @$$ - that would be the real waste!)

 

[CraigT]

Yeah seems like its probably a waste but maybe I'll make a one gallon smash and see what I end up with. I never really researched it before because I just assumed he meant "nugget" and didn't know what he was talking about. So I was excited to get these. But seems like very very few homebrewers grow these golden nuggets. But I really doubt there's much AA left to them since they've been sitting at room temp and not airtight for 6 months.

 

[GVH_Dan]

As I have told many others that have sent me sample of hops that had gone bad..."They are perfect for reapplication to your field to boost your yield next year."

Seriously, hops grab a lot of nitrogen and a lot of it goes to the cones. A couple years back I dumped a couple hundred pounds of moldy hop cones on my tomato garden and I'm still getting a bumper harvest.

I would not brew with them. If you can't smell anything, the oils/aromas are probably gone. And unless they were properly stored, the Alpha's are gone, too. (Assuming there was any to begin with.) You may as well add wood shavings to your beer.