Hop Freezer Life

[aabrown]

Since I started homebrewing I have always kept my stock of hops, I buy them by the pound, in the freezer, still in the foil bags I get them in. Recently I habe been told that hops do not have much of a shelve life, even in the freezer once opened. I have used some some that have been there for just over a year with no blatently obvious sign of a loss of aroma or flavour. As hops are expensive I am interested to hear what are the thoughts of some more home brewers and or professional brewers. Thank you

 

[IslandLizard]

I still have quite a few hops (majority is pellets) from previous harvests, going back as far as 2012, all been stored in boxes in the deep freezer chest, kept around 0°F.

They're all sealed in the original silver, multilayer thick barrier bags from HopsDirect or mylar bags from other suppliers.
After opening (only a corner gets clipped), they get resealed by folding/rolling the flap over a few times, squeezing as much air out as possible, and taped down with plastic packing tape. Then back into the freezer.

The past few years I've been purging opened bags with CO2, before resealing, to largely reduce the amount of air (O2) left behind.

I have not noticed any significant degradation in flavor, aroma or bittering. At least to me they all seem to be as good and fresh as the day I got them.

 

[Steveruch]

I've used amarillo hops that were almost five years in the freezer with good results.

 

[Bramling Cross]

Well, like most things in life, it depends.

In this case, it depends on the varieties you're storing, your intended use for specific hops, and the method you employ for storage. I've had great success storing bittering hops such as magnum or northern brewer for a couple years in the freezer. Late addition hops, or varieties that are noted for poor storage qualities are a bit less forgiving. Even so, I've been able to maintain Saaz and Cascades for a year or more in the freezer without inducing world wide calamity.