Thoughts on Hops

Grains, malts, hops, yeast, water and other ingredients used to brew. Recipe reviews and suggestions.

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Monkey Man
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Thoughts on Hops

Post by Monkey Man »

I found some hops in my closet that I know have been there for two weeks at room temp, sealed in a ziploc bag. I am debating whether to use them as finishing hops for a Belgian ale. They are Tettnanger @ 4.2% AA. I will be using oher hops as well. Any thoughts as to whether or not to use them? I'm just trying to save a drive across the city.
BillyBock
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ProMash Says.....

Post by BillyBock »

Brewsage: Save your gas. Personally, I'd still use 'em. Others may disagree. Judge for yourself...I ran the #s for you using the ProMash hop degradation calculator. I started @ 4.2%AA, storing at 72F in a no seal/poly bag. The beginning of the curve is fairly linear, so you can extrapolate if needed. However, at one month, it drops to 3.8%AA. At 2 months, it's 3.4%AA. And at 3 months, it's 3.1%AA. So I reckon at 2 weeks your hops are at about 4%AA. Hopefully, this gives you some basis with which to adjust your recipe. If you haven't done so allready, stick 'em in the fridge until they're used to preserve their shelf life.
Cheers!
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Mesa Maltworks
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Well... That's great if the use is for bittering...

Post by Mesa Maltworks »

From the original post, I derived that the question centered around the FINISHING addition, not the bittering addition. Alpha acid calculations are only valid for the purpose of bittering contribution calculations and do not relate to aroma contributions. This attribute of hops is always the first to degrade either by disappearing or staling. If you desire a nice aroma from this addition, don't use these hops, get some fresh ones !
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