Old Hops

[JonnyAnchovy]

Hi All,

Just a general question about hop age - how old is too old? If vacuum sealed in a proper oxygen barrier container/bag in the freezer, how long can hops be kept? What with the hop shortage, a lot of the stock at the LHBS seems to be fairly old. forum search turned up surprisingly little....

Cheers!

 

[joshuahardie]

Well if you are making a lambic, then there may never be such thing as too old.

I have plenty of stock from 05 and 06 that I am using.

If the hopes have been kept in a cold, temperature stable environment, have not turned brown, and don't smell cheesy then they will be fine.

I don't think there is a real hard and fast rule on use by dates

Hope this helps
Josh

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

sure does. obviously I'll do bitterness compensation in brewsmith, just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to ruin a batch.