Hop Lifespan

[rodwha]

When you read around, hops never improve with age. The right bag material, vacuum sealing, and frozen storage have proven to be the best strategy. At best they stay the same (a fallacy, they always lose something) or at least remain useful. Save yourself the trouble for additional testing of hop aging. Brew beer instead. Like 3 Barleywines.

3 barleywines, huh? For my 100th batch I tried brewing a barleywine. I bought yeast nutrients and was told by the Fermentis guy it would just barely be able to tolerate the 12% projected. I forgot the nutrients, it stopped at 9% and was a bit sickly sweet. But I might just do so again one of these days but in a 1 gal carboy I got in a tiny kit.

I love a plethora of styles but we’ve found ourselves always desiring an IPA or hoppy pale ale. So I figured I’d quit brewing so many beer styles since I don’t have the people to help drink them all, another reason I’m dropping to smaller batches for myself. But a gallon of my other good beer recipes might just be in order once in a while.

 

[IslandLizard]

3 barleywines, huh?

It was just an example of a possible alternative to prove something that was proven already. I had just posted this, and Barleywines were on my mind.
I thought that would be a better and more useful experiment than making Parmesan hops.

[...] was told by the Fermentis guy it would just barely be able to tolerate the 12% projected. I forgot the nutrients, it stopped at 9% and was a bit sickly sweet.

Sweeter Barleywines can be excellent, as long as there's something to balance it elsewhere, like sumptuous maltiness (British style), or really bitter and/or hoppy (American style).

 

[6531Brewing]

Brewed a Porter with 2 year old hops that were frozen in vacuum bags… not a good outcome…the bittering compound was missing! Had a friend fix it with his still… good outcome….

 

[CascadesBrewer]

A standard ziplock vs vacuum sealer bag vs original container taped.

I have read that standard Ziploc type bags are not very good at keeping out oxygen. I would be curious about data on that, or if the freezer bags are any better.

There is a (rather small) chart in this article that seem to indicate that while vacuum and frozen is best, either [vacuum sealed at room temp], or [frozen and exposed to air] are still pretty stable in the 6-12 month range. I am curious what the conditions are for the "1°C Air" storage vs "in a freezer in a squeezed mylar bag":
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/understanding-the-importance-of-the-hop-storage-index