I hate throwing stuff in the trash

[hennesse]

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I hate throwing stuff in the trash.

An acquaintance gave me a bunch of whole leaf hops - still sealed in the original oxygen-barrier bags. He was cleaning out his refrigerator (kinda like a lawyer does during discovery). The good side is that they're all two years old, but at least they've been refrigerated all this time. The bad side is there's 10oz of Willamette, 4 oz of Cascade, and 2oz of Northern Brewer.

So I'd like you to vote on what I should do with them.


Candidate A - Throw them all in the boil kettle and call the batch "Who's Hoppy Now?"

Candidate B - Use them for dry hops. They're basically dead, so you won't taste any difference, but it might make you feel better....

Candidate C - Oh, get real - throw them in the trash.


Thank you for your support,

Candidate D: Dave Hennessey

[perogi]

I vote for Ron Paul... oh wait wrong election

Candidate C - because I would hate to waste 6-8 hours on a brew and have it turn out crappy. I've smelled old hops before and they smelled like wet sneakers.

[crush]

Take a look at them, look at the color, smell the aroma. That's your best indicator as to how they would be in a brew. You can also try filling a soda bottle with a light/amber beer and add some hops and leaving for a few days - an experiment to try to see how dry hopping might come out.

I've used 2 year old hops before. Of course, they are better fresh, but unopened, they may still be very good. Just use an additional 30-50% if bittering.

If they really are old and cheezy, then make a lambic.

[hennesse]

Thank you all for your suggestions.

The subtle, yet complex characteristics of combining the three distinct hop varieties would have required a balancing complexity of the specialty grains. Flying Dog Brewery markets "Farmhouse IPA". Following their lead, I was about to throw a pound of chicken scratch (to add "notes of cracked corn and whole wheat") into the Mash Tun.

The result would have been a new entry in the BJCP Style Guide - Bier de Barnyard.

Then I opened one of the 2oz Cascade packages, and found no hint of Eau de Toe. In fact, it smelled pretty good, although a little weak compared to this year's crop. So I did a batch of American IPA today, and used it for 10-minute aroma, doubling the original recipe amount. I did get a little heavy-handed with the 30 minute hops, and plan to dry-hop with some of this year's Cascade in the secondary.

I hadn't noticed before, but all of these 2-year-old hops came in re-sealable (like zip-lock) oxygen-barrier bags! So I can toss the hops, re-use the bags, and feel good about reuse-recycle-repurpose.

I'm saving the environment - 5 gallons at a time!

Dave

[perogi]

Tell us how this one turns out!!