My LHBS has a great selection of hops, mostly from Hop Union. However, they are stored at room temperature. As I understand it, the most important factor in keeping hops fresh is keeping them cold. The store has a fairly good turnaround on ingredients. But I know some varieties may sit there for months. Some of the one pound packages may be there even longer. Is this a great concern as far as freshness goes? I can’t seem to find any markings on Hop Union’s packaging to indicate what year they are from.
I would think it would be an issue. The only thing that may help is how they are sealed ( airtight, nitrogen flushed, etc).
I buy my hops in bulk from either www.nikobrew.com or www.hopsdirect.com and then store them in my freezer. I’m not sure I’d go with hops stored at room temperature for months.
Mine has bulk hops stored in a freezer that can be measured to order. And the same pre-packaged hops you’re talking about at room temperature. I’ve been wondering if the shelf life is OK because of the packaging. Maybe someone at hopunion can answer that?
According to Hop Union, the two most important variables are heat exposure and oxidation. And: hops should be stored in a cold, airtight environment to ensure optimum freshness and quality. According to Charlie Bamforth, staling reactions in beer are greatly increased as temperature goes up (can’t remember the exact numbers). Not sure exactly how this applies to hops but I’m sure the higher temperature must have some effect. The hops smell good coming from a freshly-opened package, but I can’t help but wonder if they could be better.
Two great makers for the quality of a homebrew shop is how they store their raw materials and how fast they turn over their raw stock.
I LOVE the individually packaged hops from Hop Union - I wished more Homebrew Shops carried them.
HopUnion suggests storing unopened packs in the refrigerator. The HOPS book goes into great detail on the degradation of hops at certain temps in certain packaging. Bottom line - hops should be refrigerated, especially by a LHBS, who aims to teach new brewers how to care for their equipment and ingredients.
It is the Arrhenius equation that says that for every +10C the reaction rate doubles, or a little more than doubles. So hot hops degrade faster.
I’d call them out on that. I’ve never seen a shop store their hops at room temp, although the number of shops I’ve actually been to is limited.
My hops stay in the freezer except when I take them out on brew day.
+1. Never seen that either. They wouldn’t get my $$.
My hops live in the freezer as well, but what’s the point if they were stored warm for months? Maybe it’s time to buy in bulk from a hop supplier.
I have mentioned his storage before but it seems to fall on deaf ears. He recently expanded his shop and put a LOT of money into it so, perhaps there’s nothing left in the budget for a dedicated hop cooler. But at $2.50-3.50 per ounce and $20-28 per pound, I would expect them to be better taken care of.
Agreed. I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise.
I’m actually sort of paranoid about the length of time they’re out on brew day. I pull them out, measure what I need, re-vac seal the bag and put it in the freezer. I also try to weigh out the 1 lb bags into ounce or two ounce packages so that I don’t continuously handle hops that I’m not brewing with.
Didn’t take it otherwise… it just seems like I am paying top dollar for, and putting the utmost care into, less than fresh hops. And that is frustrating.
I’m also paranoid about the length of time hops are out on brew day. I use mostly pellets and I keep mine in 4 ounce portions, in mason jars, flushed with CO2.
A drug store that carries some homebrewing supplies near me also has their hops unrefrigerated at room temp. It’s not good. I don’t buy from them. Just the random pound of specialty malt if I need it. They have their dry yeast out as well next to the hops. Also not good.
I don’t brew a lot of hoppy beers but lately I’ve really been craving some hoppy goodness. I brewed a pale ale and an IPA and they both had that onion/garlic thing. I blamed it on Apollo hops and moved on. Well I just kegged another IPA hopped with Horizon at 60 minutes. Then Citra, simcoe, centennial, and columbus at flame out and steeped 20 minutes. Dry hopped with the same in very clear beer for 3 days at 65f. Well I just had my first sample and it has the garlic/onion thing again. This really sucks. The common hops in all 3 beers were centennial and simcoe, which came from 1 pound packages. All other hops came from 1 ounce packages. Could this garlic/onion flavor be coming from improperly stored hops? I have a DIPA in primary. If it has the g/o thing I think I might cry.
Wonder if they mislabeled some Summit
I’ve never gotten onion/garlic from centennial or simcoe. That’s interesting…
These were hops you bought that were sitting out on the shelf?
Centennial is one of the most consistent hops I’ve ever used. Haven’t gotten that from Simcoe either. Thinking the warm storage could be the culprit.
I wouldn’t purchase hops not stored cold. Nor would I purchase yeast not stored in a fridge.
I think it’s time to move toward buying my hops in bulk from suppliers like these. I assume they store their hops cold! 
I would discuss it with your LHBS… Maybe they honestly don’t know any better. If they do know and choose not to believe/care then I would shop elsewhere. Honestly even if the reason is they can’t afford a cooler I would shop elsewhere… at least for hops.
I have mentioned it to him. He doesn’t seem to think it’s important enough to invest any money into. He’s been absolutely awesome for the local brewing community and I want to support his business as much as I can but if it’s gonna compromise the quality of my beer, that’s where I gotta draw the line. Probably cheaper in the long run to buy several pounds at once…or more likely, I’ll just end up tossing more hops in my beer. ;D