Storage of Hops and leaf vs pellet

[kimosabby]

Gents,

couple fo quick questions sure this has been slugged out before so can you point me in right direction or quick comment.

Currently doing boil in the bag and about to transition to all grain. Have been using some leaf hops for the boil, can the remaining hops be stored without loosing too much of their potency and for how long would be reasonable? I have previosuly frozen pellets but pretty sure they lost alot of aroma over time? Best way to store pellets and hops?

Also for dry hopping whats best - leaf or pellets. Typically doing big USA IPA so using the usual Cascade, Cent, Simcoe etc.

Many thanks in advance

 

[IainM]

For both pellet and leaf you can push out as much air as possible and tape the packet shut. Or better yet, use a vacuum sealer. Then put the packet in the freezer. I try to use hops from the most recent harvest if possible, but the harvest before that is ok too as long as they have been stored correctly. Old hops are cheap for a reason. The guy at my local homebrew shop buys them in bulk as soon as the harvest becomes available and stores them in a freezer at home, then moves them to the fridge in his shop during the course of the year. His hops are ace.

Personally, I find that dry hopping with pellets works best. I get more aroma from them and they drop to the bottom of the fv and compact when cold crashing. Others prefer leaf.

 

[-Bezza-]

If you don't have a vacuum sealer available, get some zip-lock sandwich bags, put the hops in there and then lower into a large bowl/jug of water (keeping the top of the bag out of the water - you don't want water in the bag). The pressure of the water will force the air out, so quickly close with the zip-lock so that you don't fill with air as soon as you remove from the bowl. Should look like it's been vacuum sealed when you're done.

 

[kimosabby]

Cheers gents some good suff in there.

after opening and the resealing and keeing in the freezer as described, how long would you expect to keep in freezer without to much loss in quality?

 

[IainM]

Cheers gents some good suff in there.

after opening and the resealing and keeing in the freezer as described, how long would you expect to keep in freezer without to much loss in quality?

I've used hops up to 2 years old stored this way, and they were still pungently fragrant with no cheesy/musty/sweaty/garlic/grass/earth or other defects.

 

[GerritT]

Lidl has a good value vacuum sealer (£20-ish). Not sure how to order them in the UK but on the continent is can be ordered at their online shop.

 

[MrRook]

Cheers gents some good suff in there.

after opening and the resealing and keeing in the freezer as described, how long would you expect to keep in freezer without to much loss in quality?

When amarillo first came out they were hard to find and I bought a bunch when I'd located a source. I used the last of them almost 5 years later and they were still good.

 

[Oneflewover]

Definitely agree pellets are best for dry hopping for the reasons IainM mentioned.

I tend to use whole hops directly into the kettle for bittering as I think that they help to filter out break material. After a bit of experimenting I think I'm settling on pellets in a large nylon bag for later additions. Hop spider gets hopelessly clogged with pellet and I think that pellet gives up flavour / aroma more readily later in the boil