I’ve been long overdue for a freezer cleaning, so I finally decided to go through my hops. I had to have at least 50 pounds in there. This is what I have left after I threw out the unsalvageable ones (had some ice cream melt on them during a power outage years ago). The sad thing is, as I’m looking at this pile I’m finding a few things that I need to buy [emoji38]
The top section is my keeper pile. Keep an eye on the classifieds section in the next week or so. I’ll be dividing the other pile into a few random lots and I’ll send them for the price of shipping. Some of it is as old as 2011, but they’ve all been stored frozen, most of them vacuum sealed, and many still unopened since I bought them.
I have gone through my hops in the freezer and was ashamed I spent so much money on them and then forgot about them. I have formulated recipes based on my extra hops. Some were good and some not so good. I was disappointed by some citra that 3 years old, it didn’t make as good of beer as it did when it was fresh. The best hops are freshest hops.
I just ramped up my supply and I have more hops on hand right now than ever before. In the last few months I have gotten Goldings, Edelweiss, Ultra, Santiam, C148, Hallertau, Tettnanger, Northern Brewer, Saaz, Hersbrucker, Amarillo, Glacier, Simcoe, Citra, Mt. Hood, Sterling, Loral, Spalt and some I can’t remember. I did toss some older Crystal, Styrian Goldings and Willamette. I’m not really a HOPHEAD so it takes me some time to go through them. But when the price is :o you just can’t say no.
That’s the thing. I buy in bulk because the price is right, but I rarely use it all up. And I was always looking to try something new; some varieties I fell in love with and became staples. Others not so much and I ended up with half a pound just taking up freezer space.
This year I’ve started back up after a few years of not brewing much. I’ve moved from every beer being a hop bomb IPA or a single hop brew to try new varieties, to brewing more lagers and balanced ales. Also, Cryo hops are so much better than their traditional pellet versions for my purposes, that I can’t see myself wasting freezer space on T90s if there is a cryo version available.
When I hear about a hop that others are using and it sounds good to me, I want to try it. But sometimes I can tell when I’m not going to like it so I don’t bother. Every time I use a new hop that I don’t like that’s another batch where I’m not using a hop that I do like!
A question: are you guys vac-sealing your hops? I picked up an El Cheapo sealer on Amazon and it’s been fantastic so far. It creates a very good seal and the hop bags are as hard as a rock. My hops are staying much fresher much longer.
I have had the occasional bag look very solid when I put it into the freezer only to find it “soft” later. As a result, I double and sometimes triple seal it. Since then I have not had issues.
I only buy the bags that are recommended by the manufacturer of the sealer. That said, if you don’t make sure that the bag is completely sealed on both ends, they will leak in air (I occasionally run them through twice, especially on the bottom end). Doesn’t happen to me very often, but every once in a while I have to re-seal a bag that has leaked.
The idea of double bagging is a a good one but if you have good quality bags, you might not need to spend the extra time and money on bag material
Got my Hop Heaven order today. It’s like Christmas! It couldnt come soon enough too. I was dowwn to 1 # of azacca, 1/2 # Idaho Gem and a couple ounces of Mt. Hood.
