How long will hops keep in the fridge?

[Anthony-Fucito]

I've had an open bag of hops in the fridge, sealed, for a few months now. What do you think is the shelf life for refrigerated hops?

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Not that long, their likely done or have lost a lot of their punch...

You need to store hops, sealed or unsealed in a freezer, the colder the better.

I think its for every 10C colder you go, you double the shelf life...

 

[unionrdr]

Agreed. All my hops get sealed if they aren't already & placed in a zip lock freezer bag on the lil shelf above the ice maker.

 

[brettg20]

Freezer is definitely the best. I vacuum seal mine in mason jars, this way I buy in bulk and will last me for months at a time.

 

[kh54s10]

Agreed, they have lost a fair amount. How much???
Vacuum seal, or at least get as much air out as possible, and keep in the freezer. I have used some that were stored for more than a year this way with good results.

 

[unionrdr]

Me too. Some have lasted over a year at like -10F.

 

[dnslater]

I'll bet they haven't lost that much if it has just been a few months, especially if you were careful to squeeze the air out when you sealed the bag? Use the freezer next time.

Remember all hops are harvested in the fall, so even the commercial breweries are using 10 month old hops in the summer brews, although they were likely stored at very low temps and vacuum packed.

 

[reefriot]

We did Zwickelmania this weekend and did tours at 4 differant breweries. Not one of them kept there hops is a freezer. They were in walkin's and it was cold but not freezing. Most were in open sacks or bails. Not sealed up at all.
I keep my hops in freezer and vaccumm seal them but i think too many people get worried the hops are going to go bad and while they can loose a little of the fresh aroma they will still bitter just fine.
AB for instance uses very old hops on the main fizzy yellow beer.
Ive got hops that are from 2012 and they work just fine.