Freezing wet hops.

[Hounds]

Will the hop cones still be viable after 6 Months in freezer zip lock bag that were frozen fresh, not dried?

My sister has some heirloom in Brattleboro VT and last time I visited it was harvest time from the looks and feel. It is WICKED grapefruity aroma and flavor when I made tea. And Im not even from New England and its WICKED.

I was going to come back and brew with her in a few months time so rather than dry it we just put it in the freezer.

Thinking of making some wet hopped IPA and add to the finish boil since I really don't know what the alphas are, etc. kinda wing it.

Thanks. I also harvested several rhizomes to plant here in Central NY. Did I say its WICKED grapefruity? LOL

 

[old-pasture-brew]

I got bad news for you on those hops. I made the mistake this year of throwing wet hops in the freezer. Just didn't have time to dry them. I tried to use them just a month after and it wasn't pretty.

Hope I'm wrong. Just sharing my own misfortune.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[day_trippr]

I would be surprised if what comes out of a frozen bag of wet cones was anything other than mush.

Sorry...

Cheers!

 

[tooldudetool]

They will be mushy. With that much moisture in the plant cells when its frozen the sharp ice crystals end up piercing the cell walls and breaking down the plant material. Think of lettuce that has frozen in the crisper drawer and how nasty that gets..

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

I tried it once, looked like what you would pull out of your house gutters in the spring.

 

[thaymond]

Concensus: dry it and then try it.

 

[day_trippr]

Concensus: dry it and then try it.

Nope. The consensus would be to dump it...

Cheers!

 

[thaymond]

Nope. The consensus would be to dump it...

Cheers!

I'll clarify. After harvest, dry it and try it. Fresh frozen hops are dumpable.

 

[GVH_Dan]

I going to give you the smallest hope. Yes, if you thaw them, they will be a nasty, gelatinous ooze. Don't do that.

6 months is a long time. there will have been some degradation so do use them as the bittering hop. There may be hope for the grapefruit flavor. Take out the block and chop off a frozen bit. Put it one of those porous mesh containers and step it as a tea, again. See if the flavor is still good and close to what you remember.

If you feel brave enough to make a batch with it, don't thaw the hops. Throw them in as a solid brick. It will be a mess to clean up but it is hopeful you can get the flavor.

After this, dry first, then freeze. If it works out and the beer is awesome, I'll send you my address so you can ship me a bottle.

 

[stpug]

I recently went to use some frozen hops from a friend. He said they had been dried prior to freezing, but upon opening the vacuum sealed bag they were not dried first. They were stuck to the bag and solid. I pulled out a small amount, crushed them up in my hand, and all I got was GARLIC/ONION (they were Columbus). Needlesstosay, they were not used. Columbus has been known to produce excess sulfur at times resulting in garlic/onion character so I can't totally say that was from freezing, but it should be pretty easy to tell if you want to use frozen wet hops or not.

 

[GVH_Dan]

I recently went to use some frozen hops from a friend. He said they had been dried prior to freezing, but upon opening the vacuum sealed bag they were not dried first. They were stuck to the bag and solid. I pulled out a small amount, crushed them up in my hand, and all I got was GARLIC/ONION (they were Columbus). Needlesstosay, they were not used. Columbus has been known to produce excess sulfur at times resulting in garlic/onion character so I can't totally say that was from freezing, but it should be pretty easy to tell if you want to use frozen wet hops or not.

Not to sidetrack this thread too much but that garlic/onion smell IS what fresh, properly dried Columbus smell like. I know this based on spending several hours this fall stooped over a pellitizer while Columbus pellets dropped out. When got home that night, my wife made me throw out the clothes I was wearing because she didn't even want them in her washing machine.

The sulfur could have multiple different sources. It could be residual from pesticide application. It could be residual from a "repellant" that the hop plant makes naturally if they are stressed by insects late in the season. I'm not an expert on this but I could find more information if you like.

 

[stpug]

Not to sidetrack this thread too much but that garlic/onion smell IS what fresh, properly dried Columbus smell like. I know this based on spending several hours this fall stooped over a pellitizer while Columbus pellets dropped out. When got home that night, my wife made me throw out the clothes I was wearing because she didn't even want them in her washing machine.

The sulfur could have multiple different sources. It could be residual from pesticide application. It could be residual from a "repellant" that the hop plant makes naturally if they are stressed by insects late in the season. I'm not an expert on this but I could find more information if you like.

Knowing the reasons for naturally occurring sulfur production in hops would be awesome. I don't use pesticides and the plants where the garlicy columbus was harvested didn't either. I seem to remember reading that late harvest hops (or some varieties anyway) will result in excess sulfur aroma, but I may have that wrong.

Anyway, the frozen columbus hops I was referring to had not been dried, or had been improperly dried - I don't know which. I have a freezer full of 15+ lbs of dry hops (most commercial, some homegrown) and none stick to their bags like these things did (none really stick to their bags at all, really). After deciding not to use the garlicy wet frozen columbus, I opened my commercial bag of columbus and was greeted with what I expected - a big beautiful floral yet dank citrus aroma with no garlic at all.

 

[GVH_Dan]

As I recall, various methylsulfides were identified in hops...again, I'm not a chemist...and there was great regional variation. It appears they were developed by the plants to ward off attacking insects (aphids, spider mites) so the plants under the greatest stress all had the highest levels. In the boil, these were released and a very small percentage of the population could identify them in the flavor.

 

[Hounds]

Thanks folks for the replies. My sister just brought me the hops I had picked in October and it wasn't mush but not good either. LOL. Live and learn.
Thanks again.