As some of you may remember, I got a really cool supply of different hops from a brewer who was slowing down his brewing and wanted to get rid of some stuff. So, I had about 7oz’s of Columbus pellets I had my wife put in a vacuum seal bag. I am going to use the probably in the next week or two, so I took them out of the freezer to make sure I have enough as I am making a Morebeer run for some stuff I forgot to order. The bag was still frozen, but the seal might have been broken as they pellets were able to be moved around. Since they were in the freezer, them being open can I still use them? I don’t mind either way as I am going to get other stuff too.
Also, they are labeled as Columbus, but my recipe calls for CTZ. I have done a bit of reading and they appear to be the same. Am I right there? Any input is welcomed.
I have had hops frozen in vacuum bags for well over a year or two with no issues.
Regarding the vacuum bag loosing vacuum, we also had the same problem every once in a while. So we started double sealing each bag and that corrected the leaking.
We process hops and usually if they are nitrogen flushed and vacuum sealed they will last around 3 years. The oxygen is what makes the hops go bad but it takes time. I would say you should be fine with a small bag. If it was a larger 11# bag then that would be different. CTZ is for Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus which is the same hop with 3 different names.