Hop Freshness/ use by date

[Brennen Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Brennen]

Good afternoon gentle brewers,

How long would you keep hops (pellet hops, whole hops) for before you bin it?

I've got some 6 year old Hallertauer pellets I found in the back of the fridge, sealed.
I opened it up, and the pellets still smell very fragrant.

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

Good afternoon gentle brewers,

How long would you keep hops (pellet hops, whole hops) for before you bin it?

I've got some 6 year old Hallertauer pellets I found in the back of the fridge, sealed.
I opened it up, and the pellets still smell very fragrant.

NOT something i will do .... use it as a dryhop in your next brew

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Good afternoon gentle brewers,

How long would you keep hops (pellet hops, whole hops) for before you bin it?

I've got some 6 year old Hallertauer pellets I found in the back of the fridge, sealed.
I opened it up, and the pellets still smell very fragrant.

Brew with it. I'm busy working through my "backlog" of hops I bought when I started. Never realised how little you use per batch, so I ended up with almost a kilo of hops in the fridge. I just started using all my hops as bittering hops at 60 minutes and made a bunch of beers. I've got some others left I'm not 100% sure what to do with yet, but I got great ideas in my thread where I asked about it.

I think hops expire a lot slower than we think, specially if it's stored properly sealed and all that.

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

Brew with it. I'm busy working through my "backlog" of hops I bought when I started. Never realised how little you use per batch, so I ended up with almost a kilo of hops in the fridge. I just started using all my hops as bittering hops at 60 minutes and made a bunch of beers. I've got some others left I'm not 100% sure what to do with yet, but I got great ideas in my thread where I asked about it.

I think hops expire a lot slower than we think, specially if it's stored properly sealed and all that.

That's were the term "Moer-by" brew comes from ... most brewers at the end of the year brew a batch and just moer in (moer-by) what is left in the hop fridge

I made a very nice IPA like this that my dad said "yea, I like this one, you must make it again" .... but there is no way of knowing what really went into that one,so making it again is not much of an option

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

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I think hops expire a lot slower than we think, specially if it's stored properly sealed and all that.

Beersmith software have an option to check the drop in AA on hop ageing ....

Screenshot_20.jpg

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

I need to give that a test run. I guess it's mostly to do with AA though, not much with the others, since as mentioned above, the hops still smell 100s after even a long storage.

Stupid question - but where does those AAs go to when the hops are vacuum sealed and stored in the fridge?

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

I need to give that a test run. I guess it's mostly to do with AA though, not much with the others, since as mentioned above, the hops still smell 100s after even a long storage.

Stupid question - but where does those AAs go to when the hops are vacuum sealed and stored in the fridge?

oils breaking down iirc - http://brulosophy.com/2015/09/28/the...iment-results/ seems not much of an issue is stored in ideal conditions

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

oils breaking down iirc - http://brulosophy.com/2015/09/28/the...iment-results/ seems not much of an issue is stored in ideal conditions

OK so if sealed and stored at near freezing, it should be fine over time. Good to know!

Also, on the topic of storing, I guess we should use those calculators to determine the lost AAs when buying hops from the LHBS as well. That hops isn't fresh, I mean, it's been in the packet for a while by the time we get it at home?

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

OK so if sealed and stored at near freezing, it should be fine over time. Good to know!

Also, on the topic of storing, I guess we should use those calculators to determine the lost AAs when buying hops from the LHBS as well. That hops isn't fresh, I mean, it's been in the packet for a while by the time we get it at home?

bevplus have theirs vac packed and note the crop year on the packet, they keep the coldchain storage going too

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Yeah I see the packaging date on the hops I buy everywhere as well, but my question is how accurate is the AA number quoted on there then, if you only get it 2 or 3 months later? Not that it's going to bother me, specially not now, but still.

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

Yeah I see the packaging date on the hops I buy everywhere as well, but my question is how accurate is the AA number quoted on there then, if you only get it 2 or 3 months later? Not that it's going to bother me, specially not now, but still.

Yip, I tried to use that feature in the software to get my IBU as correct as possible, but it's a slep to find out the crop year and when it was package etc etc, so these days i just go with whats given on the packet