Hop Shots

Anyone know if this stuff is supposed to keep frozen? Just realized I didn’t do so over the past week or so while waiting to brew my kit.

Solid question. I would email the vendor and ask what they do.

I didn’t freeze mine for a couple years and recently used it and it turned out fine.  I think it keeps for a really long time in its concentrated paste form.  One of its advantages perhaps.

I have frozen them…in fact I have one in the freezer now.  I understand that they will turn color when they go bad.

About the color…mine are certainly not clear and golden like the pics show online. Mine are dark green. Called NB and they said that’s normal. Further looking around and I learned it depends on how they extract them.

Mine remained a yellow paste for like 3 years.  No noticeable color change.

Do they really leave everything sticky?

Yep.  Very very sticky.  Oily.

Bummer. I’ve been wanting to order some from yakima, but that doesn’t sound too fun. I am a rinse only guy when it comes to my kettle and chiller. Once or twice a year I’ll scrub with barkeepers friend.

It is not hard to get clean the kettle.  It does tend to clog up my scrub sponge though.  It feels like pitch, but cleans much easier.

The real value is that it doesn’t add the volume of hop material that pellets do.  I want my IPAs maxed out on IBUs and flavor/aroma additions, and that takes a lot of hops (my latest 5 gallon IPA batch took 13 oz. of hops in addition to the hop shot for bittering).

I use one of these stainless filters: http://utahbiodieselsupply.com/brewingfilters.php
(BTW, this filter also doubles as a lautering filter)

I use a plate chiller, so I want to eliminate as much of the hop material from the wort as possible so flushing doesn’t take  too long.

And to clarify, 5 oz. of the above figure is dry-hopping in the fermenter.