Hops life span

[cimirie]

So, I purchased 3 pounds of hop pellets (fuggles, EKG, and sorachi ace) about a year ago. Due to bad recipe planning (ie, not using these hops) and a general decrease in my amount of brewing, a good portion of those hops are still vaccuum sealed in my freezer.

My question is, given that they are vaccuum-sealed in my freezer, what is the likelihood that they are still in top form and if it were you, would you still use them?

 

[rcrabb22]

If you have kept them frozen I would use them. Hops being sold today were harvested last year and some even before then.......

 

[tagz]

If they were sealed properly, a year wouldn't be unreasonable shelf life. I would open a pack that you might use on your next batch, give them a smell. If they smell like the standard for the variety, go for it; if they smell like cheese or feet, they've gone bad. IIRC, Beersmith calculates a 25% decrease in alpha acids from 6-12 months, so you might want to adjust for your bittering additions.

 

[Franzi]

I still use year old cascades which have been in the freezer, no problems, no adjustments for alpha...beer tastes fine.

 

[SumnerH]

http://www.brewerslair.com/index.php?p=brewhouse&d=calculators&id=cal16&u=eng has a hop aging calculator. If they were vacuum sealed in the freezer for a year, they've probably lost 4-15% of their alpha acids depending on the hop variety (if you know the HSI for your type of hop, you can get a better estimate--look it up at http://www.brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue2.1/garetztable.html#1 and enter it as "Percent Lost at 6 months").

 

[cimirie]

Thanks gang. I figured it wouldn't be too much of a problem. Just wanted to make sure.

On a side note, has anybody found anything to use sorachi ace with? I used them in a Belgian thinking it would work well, but it turned out far more bitter than I was led to believe these hops would produce.

Any suggestions? Generic pale ale perhaps?