I’m getting ready to brew an all-grain IPA and am putting together the hops now. I have Centennial, Cascade and Mosaic, all from 2013. The Columbus [leaf 14.6 AA] I have is left from a bulk buy in 2012. It still has a good aroma and has been kept in a vacumed sealed foodsaver type bag in the freezer. Is it still usable, how much AA loss do you think has occured? I usually use some Columbus for the high AA’s and a little of the dank and aromatic quality. I am wanting a citrus, tropical fruit type flavor/ aroma. A small amount of pine is ok but I’m not a big fan of alot of that.
Also I’m shooting for 60-70 IBUs, any opinions on a hop schedule? Thanks, Mike.
I’m sure it is fine. I am still using some hops from this 2011 harvest. There are online calculators you can use to estimate alpha loss. Personally I don’t care enough to use them.
Two I found googling “hop alpha acid loss calculator”
Lots of ways to go here, depending on what you’re after. I don’t have software here to calculate so it’s a WAG IBU-wise :
1 oz Columbus - 60 min
1 oz each Cascade, Centennial, Mosaic, Columbus - 10 min
1 oz each Cascade, Centennial,Mosaic, Columbus - added after you cool the wort to 180F, steeped for 30 - 45 minutes.
1 oz each of the 4 hops - dry hopped for 7 days.
It would be good as is, but since Columbus and Mosaic are stronger hops than the other two, flavors and aromas would be weighted toward the stronger ones. So you could back off a bit on the Columbus and Mosaic, adding a bit more Cascade and Centennial and have something more balanced across those four hops. Lots of room to experiment. Cheers !