Hops gone bad?

[Boru]

So a friend of mine who I brew with from time to time is taking to the road for about two or three months, and as such, I reap the benefits of his departure by receiving all his as yet unused grain and hops to make use of until he returns.

However, I noticed some of the hops have a cheesy smell to them. To my mind this means they've probably gone bad. Now, have they all gone bad? I ask because there are some unopened vacuum packed in foil packaging hops as well that aren't open that he was probably storing for about 6 months before he gave to me. I definitely want to use some of those. (Got plans for a british bitter and he's got six ozs of EKG that are vacuum packed in foil and unopened.)

Currently all of them are sitting in my freezer in a ziplock bag, but I'll pitch the cheesy smelling ones if that means those have gone bad.

Thanks!

 

[wolfman_48442]

Yeah, cheesy = trash.
If the sealed ones were stored cold (freezer hopefully), they'll probably be a little weaker in AA% content than stated, but quite usable.
You won't know till you crack 'em open, however.
You're doing the right thing, though. Give 'em the sniff test, and trust your nose.
If they don't smell like delicious hops, don't put them in your beer!

 

[barrooze]

Don't pitch the cheesy ones just yet! Cheese hops are used in lambics and other sour beers. If you plan to brew a lambic ever, keep these hops around. It can take a while to find some good cheesy hops without having to cheese them up yourself. Hell, send them to me! I'll lambic the heck outta them!

 

[Revvy]

Don't pitch the cheesy ones just yet! Cheese hops are used in lambics and other sour beers. If you plan to brew a lambic ever, keep these hops around. It can take a while to find some good cheesy hops without having to cheese them up yourself. Hell, send them to me! I'll lambic the heck outta them!

This is what I was going to say. They're also useful in some other funky belgian beers like saisons.

 

[Boru]

Good to know about funky belgians. I actually want to do a Flemish sour red sometime soon. Anyone got pointers for it besides funky hops?

 

[barrooze]

Good to know about funky belgians. I actually want to do a Flemish sour red sometime soon. Anyone got pointers for it besides funky hops?

I plan to brew one of these myself and will follow the Brewig Class Styles recipe. Use the Wyeast Roeselare yeast. Don't age it in a bucket. That's all I really know off hand. Historically, it's a blended beer. You can manipulate your grain bill so you don't HAVE to blend but I'm sure if you wanted to brew it again in a year it would to hurt to try!
EDIT: I don't think you use cheesy hops in a Flanders beer.