Hops degrade due to 02, heat, and UV. Here is something unusual.
I was given a bunch of old hops. They are over 10 years old! I think they were purchased in circa 2004.
They are LD Carlson vacuum sealed. I have Cascade, Willamette, Tettnanger, northern brewer leaf, and Kent Goldiness (UK). I’ve been reading about making some sort of Lambic beer, but I don’t know if this may be worth it.
Do you recommend anything with these “seasoned” hops?
Also, the box included some salts, citric acid, other acids, gypsum and one step no rinse power. Does the powder expire?
You could probably find some local sour brewers in your area who would take those old hops off your hands. You could probably get something useful in exchange like some small pieces of equipment you need or some fresh ingredients. You could brew a sour beer with them if you enjoy sour beer and you have the time and space to dedicate to a year or more of aging.
I definitely would not trust the hops to be of good quality for brewing anything else. If they were kept at or below 0F for the entire time then maybe they would be okay as late hop additions but I doubt you know their history well enough to roll the dice on a whole batch to find out. I guess you could open some and smell them and see how they compare to the smell of fresh hops.
I haven’t opened the bags, but will do later today. I’m still going through the stuff.
I guess I could spare one carboy for a year just for fun, but I’m not into sour beer.
How about the LME, there are (6) 3.3 lbs containers of LMB gold malt? Pitch or boil?
If they were vacuum sealed and cold the whole time, they may be fine. Smell should tell you something about their condition. If they smell good and you don’t trust the alpha rating, use them for late additions or dry hopping.
The hops used in sours are not just old, they are oxidized. I kind of doubt they use pellets either, but I really don’t know. I have a good sized bag of 10 year old whole hops in my shed if anyone is interested. Just right for a lambic.
You can brew with old LME. I’ve done it. You can even use bulged cans, though people get very spooky about botulism.
The LME will have darkened and the flavor may be a bit oxidized, but you can certainly ferment it.
Someone, I want to say John Blichmann but my memory could be wrong, did an experiment with old LME a few years back. My recollection is that you needed to overpitch your yeast to get attenuation, but that overall the results were not bad.
I doubt you’ll make award winning beer, but if I had the time I’d probably brew with the old hops and LME and call it an old ale. Pre-aged.
The plastic jars look in pristine condition. They are not bulged out. I don’t want to go blind after drinking this beer, but the idea sounds fun. I will google the experiment.
I never worried about botulism with old LME. I’ve made beer with old LME and it didn’t taste very fresh. Using it for yeast starters is a good idea though. I think there is something to be said about using the freshest ingredients possible. If you want to use it to make some batches then I say go for it. Just my $0.02.