Old Hops

[towser]

Hi all, I want to do a brew tomorrow, but only have old hops. They are leaf hops, still sealed and have been kept refrigerated. Looking at the packs, they say best before 11/2010. One says best before 06/2010.

I'm thinking they should still be ok. Would you agree? I suppose I'm going to have to adjust the IBU calcs for the age though.

Any help/advice appreciated.

[L2wis]

I reckon if they smell alright they'd be fine to use.

[Buzz]

Ditto. They'll be fine if they've been stored well.

[Normski]

Hi towser

I'd use them. They say best before, not rotten after.
You may want to use a bit extra though. I'd add about 10%.

When I was starting out and experimenting as we all do. A shop near me used to give away the out of date hops for free.
All that I tried were fine. I did add extra.
Generous to a fault me. Especially when it’s free.

[towser]

Cheers everyone!

I will give them a go tomorrow then, also adding the extra 10%

Many thanks once again

[196osh]

If you havn 't got it already beersmith has a handy alpha acid loss calculator, so you can figure out how much alpha your hops are likley to have lost. You can get a 21 day free trial of it.

[towser]

I bought Beersmith in Jan 2010 but switched machines and forgot to re-install it as I know my favourite recipes.

Off to re-install :-p