Hop Score

Ingredients
1

A poster on another forum about 30 mins from me was looking to off load a bunch of hops, mostly pellet. So, me being cheap and curious, I make the trek to his place. 30 mins and a cup of coffee and I am there. Cool. He has a nice place in a great area, just saying. Meet up, shake hands and start BSing. Great guy and has a really cool backyard with a brick pizza oven. LOL. OK, so now the fun starts. He starts to off load the hops from a freezer, and the packets and jars just keep coming. Total take is as follows (all were either frozen in vacuum sealed jars or in the original packages, some sealed and some not, but all were frozen:

All are pellet hops unless indicated:
2 Mason jars with about 2 lbs of pellets each (He said they were cascade)
1 ounce of full cone hops of Cascade as well
12 ounces of Idaho 7
5.5 oz of Chinook
7 oz of Simcoe
7oz of Amarillo
4 oz of Citra (2 2 oz packets sealed)
1 oz of Perle
1 oz of Magnum
2 oz of Centenial
3 oz of Hallertau (sp?)
7.5 oz Columbus

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Now, if this wasn’t enough, he gave me at least 7 or 8 vials of US05 frozen yeast and about the same in a British strain I believe as well. These were in insulated jars and submersed in Rubbing Alcohol (I need to get a couple of thermos jars for these still.

All of the items were put in bags and transported home, 30 mins with the air conditioning on in the car to keep it cool. The yeast was put in a cooler with some ice packs to help keep it frozen. When I got home, all the items were placed in the freezer right away so as not to thaw out. The next night, all opened packages not in vacuum sealed jars were taken from the freezer, weighed, labled, vaccum sealed (using an Ink Bird Vacuum sealer that my wife absolutely loves) and put back in the freezer for long term storage. The vacuum sealed containers were immediately put into the freezer section of my kegerator where they will stay until I can use up all the other stuff. LOL.

As I sealed the opened packages, I gave them a quick smell. Nothing smelled odd or out of the ordinary, so I am good there I think. The 30 min ride taking them home should not have had any ill effects and they went right back into cold storage. So, all is good I think.

First off, thank you to the poster, and I am horrible with names so I apologise in advance, for giving me a huge amount of supplies that will be used for months if not years to come. LOL

Next, i will be doing a bit of research on cultivating yeast as I now have about 15 to 20 vials to work with. Why not give it a try, right?

This being a hobby I must say that I have not found a more generous group of folks. You all are free with info, advice and in at least two occasions for me, a ton of equipment and supplies to keep me going. I thank all of you for the input in making this hobby so much fun. I hope at some point I can start to pay it forward.

Any input on any of this is welcomed and encouraged. Any suggestions on what to do with this much or what to do with the yeast vials when I am ready to use.  Once again, I really cannot thank you all enough for being such a great group. Rock On!!!

2

That’s one of the really cool things about brewing. Brewers’ brains work a little differently than other people’s.

3

About 10-12 years ago, my standard IPA hop bill was either Columbus or Chinook at 60 minutes for bittering, followed by a combination of Simcoe, Amarillo and Citra at the end of the boil, and again as dry hops. I’ve gone back to this combo a few times recently, and it’s still as good as I remember. It makes a classic West-Coast style IPA.

4

Frozen yeast can be sketchy

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My son has a similar story about driving up into Minnesota from Cedar Falls to look at and buy something off Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace (a kettle or floor capper or something). It was a 3-ish hour drive but ended up being well worth the trip. If I recall correctly he spent $100-$150 for what he drove up fo,r but before he could leave his Honda CRV was stuffed full of anything brewing related you can think of. Crony kegs, carboys (glass and plastic), 2 10gal Gott coolers with 1/4 turn valves, refractometers, hydrometers, bottles, racking canes, you name it.

It seems the guy was done brewing and just wanted his storeroom empty. My son finally had to say no to anymore stuff because the only space left was the drivers seat. In one night a homebrewer gave him more equipment than I’ve bought in 26 years. :slight_smile:
As said earlier, homebrewers are good people who think a little different than many other folks.

Enjoy the hops! Share the love!

Paul

6

I have a very similar story.  Met up with a guy about an hour away.  He said he was getting rid of all his stuff so my brother and I took a ride.  Dude gave me a truck full of stuff.  10 cornies of different makes, 2 converted kegs into boil kettle and mash tun, all the connections, 2 or 3 boxes full of misc parts, including o rings, assorted valves and a couple of manifolds for multiple tap setups.  4 or 5 faucets.  I still have to go thru it all.  I went back a week or two later cause he found more stuff, and his girlfriend was making dumplings so I got a few of those to eat while I drove home.  He ended up to be a great guy, and I still try and keep in touch.  Funny how this hobby has been so good to me and people are so eager to help.

7

Still reading up on it, but can you elaborate?  I have about 10 vials of S05 and about the same of a british yeast that he wasn’t sure about but was going to try and find out.  My hope is, once the vials are done, I can use them to start harvesting and keeping my own supply.  Any info on this would be most appreciated.  If a PM is better I would love to hear your opinions and info.

8

If they were recently and correctly frozen, using glycerin, you might be able te revive them in a starter. Otherwise I wouldn’t bother.

9

A starter is a relatively low risk way to test it out, so I’d say go that route if you’re interested in trying out that process. Otherwise, US05 is a relatively cheap dry yeast, so I don’t think I’d personally spend the time and energy to get it restarted.

10

I agree and was thinking of doing just that.  I will have new yeast available, but what the heck, some DME and water, a jar that I already have and a day or two just to see what happens.  Can’t hurt in my opinion.  Thanks to all who replied.