Old Hops -- To Use or Not To Use?

[GHBWNY]

Today I bought several cases of used bottles. In the deal were 14 1 oz. packets of hops, some opened, some still vacuum-sealed. The opened ones had the date 2009 written on them in sharpie, so I have to presume the unopened pkgs are from the same era. Should I consider using any of them, or just chuck them?

 

[masonsjax]

If they don't smell like cheese, go ahead and use them. If there's no aroma left in the open ones, use them for bittering, or put them somewhere warm/dry to age further and use them in lambic styles.

 

[GHBWNY]

If they don't smell like cheese, go ahead and use them. If there's no aroma left in the open ones, use them for bittering, or put them somewhere warm/dry to age further and use them in lambic styles.

So, if there is a 'cheese' smell with open ones, don't use. Gotcha. But since there's no way to smell the sealed pkgs, can I assume they're worth keeping for possible future use as long as they pass the smell/aroma test when opened? Should I keep them in the fridge? Cool, dry place?

 

[masonsjax]

The sealed ones might be low in aroma now, but should be fine to use. Keep them in the freezer until brewday.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

IF they were vaccum packed in foil bags, they are probably still good. It's also possible that they were purged with nitrogen (which is in your favor). Hopefully, the previous owner stored them in the freezer. Warm temperatures will break down the alpha acid (amongst other hop compounds) and decrease the bitterness you will be able to get from them. Like masonsjax said, if they smell good you can use them. That's almost a pound of hops, so by all means don't let them go to waste. After the first batch you brew with them, you can make adjustments down the road to compensate for lower bittering or aroma. I recently used some home grown hops from 2009. I try to use up the oldest first, but this bag slipped through the cracks. Smelt fine when I cut it open, so I tossed it in. It was a late addition, I wasn't worried about the bitterness contribution.

 

[Teromous]

You could always use them in a Lambic. People love using old hops in Lambics. Even the cheesy ones!

 

[cjgenever]

Here's what I do with questionable hops...

It's hard to tell what you'll get out of them. I'd use them for bittering only and figure conservatively on the aa. Use them in an iipa with an expected 100ibu. It's been documented that this is the threshold for hop utilization so if you over bitter it will still be 100 ibu.

If that's too much, brew the same thing with 10% abv and 5 gal volume. Dilute to 7 gal@bottling to give 7.1% abv and 71 ibu.

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[day_trippr]

Just for chuckles I plugged 10% AA and 60 months in the sealed foil pouch at 70°F into BS2.2's Hop Aging Calculator, and the predicted residual AA is down to 0.67%

If that isn't garbage I don't know what is.

Chuck 'em...

Cheers!

 

[cjgenever]

Yeah, warm storage will quickly destroy the hops. You could make a cheerfully measured hop tea(s) and compare them to a known good hop sample.

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[JohnSand]

I like the idea of hop tea comparison. You could also make a one gallon test batch and see. I've done this to test unknown homegrown hops. I made a simple batch with light extract. That way I didn't have much time or money invested. I used light extract to let the hop flavor dominate. Don't chuck 'em, have some fun with them!