Hopsdirect Quality (not price) Issue

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funkswing

funkswing

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So, I orded some hops from hopsdirect.com earlier this year. Their prices are amazing, <$10 a POUND for most varieties.

I'm not questioning their pricing or the quantity of hops you receive from them. This has been well covered in other threads.

Question: has anyone else been disappointed with the QUALITY of their hops?

Let me elaborate.....some hops are fine. Magnum is my bittering hop in nearly all my beers, and I've had no problems there.

Hallertauer - great too. The pellets are a beautiful green color and do what you would expect Hallertauer to do in a beer.

The bad: Centennial and Cascade. I have been severely disappointed with both of these varieties. I make a Centennial Pale Ale and it always taste just a bit off.

Whenever using Cascade it seems to add very little flavor/aroma and when dry hopping the aroma isn't what Cascade should be (I mean everyone knows what Cascade should taste/smell like).

I also got Willamette, but haven't decided on the quality of this one, mostly because I'm not very familiar with brewing with this hop.

I don't know if this is an issue of getting old hops. But its obviously hit or miss with hopsdirect from my experience. And when you are buying a pound of hops, the misses really blow.

I know hopsdirect has a lot of fanboys out there. I'm really just wondering if anyone else has had quality issues from their hops (nothing to do with their amazing prices and 18 oz pounds)
 
I've not but I buy whole hops from them. I tend to think that freshhops is a touch better if anything on quality, but they do not sell pellets.
 
There were some low AA batches of cascade (3%) and centennial (5%) about a year ago. I know I got some on sale from another supplier. You may have gotten some of those. I haven't used hopsdirect. But if I was worried about it, I would do a cheap IPA to clear out the hops and try another supplier.
 
I'm not really sure that making an IPA with sub-par quality hops is a good idea IMO. I'd rather make some hop pillows for the lady :)

I bought pellets from them. My normal supplier of hops in the LHBS and their quality is never questionable.

The Casacde (5.4%A) and Centennial (9.1%A) both had a slight brownish tint to the hops pellets, which is generally the case for English hops, but American hops tend to have a yellowish tint (exploding with lupulin).

I hope that the hops were old and I didn't receive there normal quality Cascade and Centennial hops. The taste and aroma is off-putting in the beer.....just something isn't right. The pellets themselves smell OK.

I have brewed all these beers (same recipes) with hops from the LHBS and everything turns out as expected. Just doesn't seem to work with some of the hopsdirect hops.

Anyone else have experienced this same thing?
 
Ichthy - I don't vacuum seal them, but I stored them in glass mason jars in the freezer. But regardless, they came vacuum sealed and I have noticed the issue with Cascade and Centennial from the get-go. The Magnum and Hallertauer are fine and are stored the same way.

I'm not saying that all their hops are bad. Just that its kinda a crap-shoot IME.
 
I've had good experiences with HopsDirect. I also store them in the freezer, vacuum sealed in mason jars. I'd suspect not vacuum sealing is pretty hard on them in the freezer, but if they seem off in the first place, that sucks.
 
Also had good experiences with Hops Direct from a quality standpoint. Have ordered both Cascade and Amarillo with no problems. I store in plastic zip lock bags in the freezer.
 
How do you vacuum seal the mason jars every time?

So the general consensus here is that no one has ever gotten hops from them that seemed a little off?
The brewpub brewer, old LHBS owner, and I have all been disappointed in SOME of their hops compared to what we normally get.
 
I have funkswing but couldn't say it was them because I wasn't storing them properly. But a while back I got some 'new crop leaf' Crystal and it was uber-cheese as soon as I opened the bag.
 
I got a pound of the 2010 cascade leaf hops from them a few weeks ago. I made an APA with that hop exclusively (about 4 oz). I racked it yesterday and it smelled like an all cascade PA should smell. Sample tasted great. I will soon start dry-hopping with the same product once I have a keg getting low.
 
funkswing said:
How do you vacuum seal the mason jars every time?

So the general consensus here is that no one has ever gotten hops from them that seemed a little off?
The brewpub brewer, old LHBS owner, and I have all been disappointed in SOME of their hops compared to what we normally get.
Click to expand...

Buy a vacuum sealer and make sure you have the attachment hose. Then buy this - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000CFFS6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20.

Use a new lid, attach the above product to the jar and sealer. Vacuum the air and you're set.

It's really easy and my hops are as fresh as the day I opened them.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I have 17lbs of hops in my freezer from Hopsdirect, some pellet, most whole, and I have never had a problem with the quality with any bag.
 
I recently made an all Cascade APA with 9 month old hops from Hopsdirect. The beer was wonderfully flavorful and fragrant - the hops didn't taste as if they were of inferior quality or as if they had aged one bit.

For full disclosure: I keep my hops in the freezer in vacuum sealed mason jars.
 
You can get the ziplock bags that have the vacuum pump (Ziplock is a hand pump/Hefty is a battery pump) and use that with the mason jar sealer. Works great for me. I'm sure it doesn't get into as much of a vacuum as it would using a FoodSaver hose attachment, but I've never had a problem with my hops using the Ziplock pump.
Tom
 
DKershner said:
I have 17lbs of hops in my freezer from Hopsdirect, some pellet, most whole, and I have never had a problem with the quality with any bag.
Click to expand...

Ditto. I probably have 2 x that much from Hopsdirect in my 2 freezers. I use the leaf in the BK and pellets in the BK/to dry hop. The leaf always smells good and is pungent and is normally sticky when I dig into the bags to measure them out. The pellets look and smell like all of the other pellets that I have ordered or purchased from my LHBS.

Just received a large order from HD today including cascade, centennial, Columbus pellets among the group. I will make certain to note any irregularities in my brewing notes but based on the many many pounds of leaf/pellet hops from HD that I have used in the past I am not anticipating anything. Montanaandy
 
I was always fine with Hopsdirect, especially because of the famous "Heavy Pounds."

However, I've since switched to Farmhouse Brewing Supply. Very cheap, much, much faster delivery, and buying in quarter pounds is a lot easier for me to handle compared to buying in pounds.

Freshops is too damn expensive and I'm totally sold on pellets now.
 
TomRep said:
You can get the ziplock bags that have the vacuum pump (Ziplock is a hand pump/Hefty is a battery pump) and use that with the mason jar sealer. Works great for me. I'm sure it doesn't get into as much of a vacuum as it would using a FoodSaver hose attachment, but I've never had a problem with my hops using the Ziplock pump.
Tom
Click to expand...
True, that's an option. For some reason, though, I never had much luck with those bags. They never held a seal for me. Other people have had great luck with them. Go figure. :cross:
 
kuphish said:
True, that's an option. For some reason, though, I never had much luck with those bags. They never held a seal for me. Other people have had great luck with them. Go figure. :cross:
Click to expand...

Nah I didn't mean the bags. Those things are junk! I meant using the pump to put a vacuum on the mason jars. Works like a charm and is cheaper then the FoodSave with hose attachment.
Tom
 
TomRep said:
Nah I didn't mean the bags. Those things are junk! I meant using the pump to put a vacuum on the mason jars. Works like a charm and is cheaper then the FoodSave with hose attachment.
Tom
Click to expand...

I use this one for ~$30 and it works great for mason jars. Is this the one you use? I've had stuff sealed for over a year and got a woosh when I opened the top. It has a tube for using standard zip locks, but depending on the zip locks it is iffy.
 
The Ziplock one I use is very similar to that, same principle atleast. I got mine for whatever the cost of the "starter kit" is at the grocery store. I don't know, $6-7 maybe?
tom
 
For the people that have recently bought from Hopsdirect (in the last month). Are they saying whether or not they are shipping the 2010 crop?

I think the only reason people have slow shipping with hopsdirect is that they are really busy at harvest time (Sept - Dec), harvesting hops, drying them, and pelletalizing them.

I have had no issue with the business end of HD. I was really just disappointed in their Centennial and Cascade hop pellets, compared to what I have gotten in the past from other sources.

To all y'all that posted about the vacuum sealing stuff, thanks. I will check in to that.
 
Freshops = ;)

Hopsdirect = :(

Talking leaf hops, 2 of the four pounds from Hopsdirect that I purchased were subpar and ALL of the varieties I've bought from Freshops have always been great.
 
samc - when did you buy from hopsdirect? What time of year? I do believe they have their best stuff around right now. If you ordered 2-4 months ago, the hops were getting old (I know this all depends of storage, but HD is a fairly small company compared to the Yakima family growers)
 
+1 on how hysterical that pump-n-seal video is! Its like an old-school corporate instructional video.
 
In case anyone else turns this up in a search...

I bought a pound of low aa (3%) fuggles (whole leaf) from hops direct that, when boiled, just smelled like vegetables. Quite a disapointment.

The columbus I bought from them had some brown in it, but still smells and tastes good almost a year later.

Fresh Hops is more expensive, but better sounds like the consensus, but I've never bought from them.
 

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