I expected the stats to vary, but the nearly 2% difference in alpha acid was rather surprising to me. I received the old hops from Mike in late June, at which point I ordered 1 lb of 2014 Willamette from Hops Direct. To evaluate the differences between old hops and fresh hops that have been stored well when used in separate beers of the same recipe. Both of these articles, along with quite a few others I found, provide fascinating information about the impact improper storage over a relatively short period of time has on hops, but what about properly stored hops that are just really fucking old? Much of what I found focused on the impact of secondary variables such as oxidation on hops over time as opposed to age alone. For example, in his 2008 Brew Your Own article, Behind The IBU, John Palmer references a study where researchers found a beer brewed with hops stored for a year in a “punctured oxygen-barrier bag” to be notably different in many ways than the same beer brewed with fresh hops. I also found a post at the Beer Sensory Science blog where the author discusses how poorly stored old hops can produce grassy character in beer due to the presence of cis-3-hexanol, a “grassy” compound that arises from the breakdown of particular unsaturated fatty acids present in hops. Prior to embarking on this xBmt, I dug around for more details on the commonly accepted claims regarding the impact age has on hops. And how often does the opportunity arise to play with 10 year old hops? Mike was curious how much a beer made with these old hops might differ from a beer made with fresher hops of the same varietal, as was I. Cool, free hops! He then explained he purchased these hops in 2006, they were from the 2004 crop, and he kept them stored in a vacuum sealed bag in the back of his freezer where he forgot about them… for 9 years. I was contacted by Brülosophy reader Mike Gutenkauf back in June 2015, he offered to send me 8 ounces of old Willamette hops for an xBmt. I can say from personal experience these methods work well, but I’ve never actually done a side-by-side comparison. Naturally, some of these ingredients are going to be around for awhile, certainly long enough to fall off of the spectrum of “fresh” in some minds. While there’s little we can do to stop the impact of time, homebrewers have employed some clever techniques for storage of ingredients to help prolong their life such as keeping unmilled grain in sealed containers, leaving harvested yeast under starter beer, and perhaps the most popular, storing vacuum sealed hops in the freezer. On the professional level where ingredients are blown through in a matter of a few weeks due to production volume, freshness may not be nearly as big of a concern as it is for homebrewers, many of whom have begun purchasing in bulk to save some coin. Grain stales, yeast dies, and hops lose their oomph. When it comes to brewing beer that tastes good, it is often highly recommended to use fresh ingredients.
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