Vacuum sealed hops - still need to be stored in freezer?

[ResumeMan]

So I've tried finding this answer and keep coming up with contradictory and (what seems to be) speculative advice.

This question applies independently to both pellet and (home-grown) flower hops:

If I put the hops in a vacuum sealed Food Saver bag, is it necessary to store them in the freezer to maintain a reasonably long shelf life? My freezer space is limited, and especially storing a ton of flower hops from the garden in the freezer won't go over too well with my other half. And harvest time is rapidly approaching!

So I was wondering if the consensus was that most of the shelf life benefits came from depriving the hops of oxygen, or if freezing them was also necessary.

 

[JollyIsTheRoger]

Freeze what you can, the rest just store in a completely dark place that's cool. I don't have any numbers or anything but chemical breakdowns happen slower at lower temps so if you can freeze it, do. Otherwise, just keep them out of light and oxygen.

 

[kylevester]

To back up JollyIsTheRoger, the key is lack of oxygen and lack of UV rays. Temp doesn't matter if they're dark and oxygen free. A fridge is just fine and every HBS I've been to has their hops in a fridge, not a freezer.

 

[Calder]

You need to freeze them if can. Here are some numbers from BeerSmith for Centennial hops (40% HSI), starting with 10% AA.

Storing hops for 12 months

- Plastic bag at 60 F = 4.35% AA, or about 55% loss of AAs.
- Vacuum packed at 60 F = 6.6% AA, or about 35% loss of AAs.
- Plastic bag at 0F = 8.4% AA, or about 15% loss of AAs.
- Vacuum packed at 0 F = 9.15% AA, or less than 10% loss of AAs.

While both are important, these numbers indicate colder temperatures are more important for hop stability than the method of packaging.