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Do fresh hops lose their potentancy over time?

RogueNationPatriot

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My friend brought me some fresh hops back from nearby Seattle, Washington.  They have been drying out for a couple weeks now, will they lose of their bitterness or character if over time?
 
Hops oxidize and lose their aroma and citerness potency.  You can preserve them by vacuum saving them and storing them in the freezer.  If you intend to keep them for a long time you should use aluminized bags.
 
Hops will lose both acid and aroma values as they age. For accurate Bittering levels, you need to take into account both age and storage factors. Centennial, for example, can lose 40% of AA levels in six months if kept at room temperature and not stored in an airtight container. That big 85 IBU IPA you brew may actually be closer to 50. BeerSmith has a hop age tool that will take age and storage and calculate an adjusted AA. Also see this article in the BeerSmith Blog:http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/04/15/brewing-hops-storage-preserving-precious-hops/
I buy in bulk as close to harvest I can and immediately vaccu seal and freeze in one ounce increments. I've successfully used two year old hops using the hop age tool on both BeerSmith and ProMash. Do you actually know the age or storage abuse of the hops at your LHBS? I no longer buy those that I can't determine at least the harvest year.
Hopunion has a nice variety handbook http://www.hopunion.com/17_HopVarietyHandbook.cfm?p3=open that will give you an idea of the Hop Storage Index or remaining AA after six months of storage at 68F (look at storage stability.)
 
This past harvest season I visited one of the largest hop storage and distribution facilities in the NorthWest.  It was very educational, so I figured I would pass along what I learned.  There seems to be a lot of myth and misinformation around hop storage and degradation.  In commercial hop storage, hop are stored in bale form and almost all the bales have some kind of rip, tare or hole in them.  They are not stored in any kind of air tight packaging.  I inquired as to how long hops would last in storage like this.  They said that they have had hops in storage for 2-3 years, in bale form, and tested them to find that they have not lost any of their qualities.  The key to this kind of storage is that, the hops must be kept at 28F-25F and out of the light.  They also stated that they have had hops in pellet form for 5-7 years without any losses.  This is pretty amazing.  What this means for homebrewers is that if we keep our hops in the freezer, they will last for several years with no worries.

Cheers!
 
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