Old hops - getting back on/off the homebrew wagon

[sven945]

Hello! I had an 18 month period when I always had something on the go, then real life got in the way (Open University course, if you must know) which took all of my time for a year, now having taken a year off that I’m keen to have another go. I’ve got a load of hops that have been in my freezer for the past year, sealed in ziplock bags so away from moisture. Here’s what I have left:

Bramling Cross: 80g
Amarillo: 75g
Citra: 45g
Columbus: 40g
Goldings: 35g
Mosaic: 55g
Hallertau Hersbrucker: 80g

I brew in 11 litre batches. As tempted as I am to just throw everything in to one brew to see what happens, I’d quite like to make something that has a chance of being drinkable, hopefully getting me back into the swing of brewing. I was thinking a simple grain bill (probably just pale malt), starting off with a bit of the columbus at the start for bitterness, then throwing in half the Amarillo, citra and mosaic at 5 minutes, then the other half for dry hopping. Anything dodgy looking with all that? I know the hops won’t be as good as fresh, but after a year will they be worth using, or should I just chuck them and start again?

 

[MarkBowie]

Nothing in the recipe that looks offensive to me (in my very limited experience) and should be tasty. As for the hops, you will get very different opinions on freshness of hops, how long after picked they get dried/frozen etc. Just use them and see what happens. In my personal opinion I think there is a reasonable amount of leeway as long as they were good quality in the first place. Let us know!

 

[Hoppyland]

I moved house a couple of years ago, and brought with me some hops I'd part-used and then frozen. It took longer to sort things out than I'd planned (Surprise, surprise ), so the hops stayed in the freezer for over a year. Like you, I wasn't too sure about using them, but they still smelled strongly "hoppy" so I did. The couple of beers that I made with them were perfectly drinkable. I'm sure that they weren't exactly the same as if I'd used fresh hops, but I enjoyed them all the same.
So - if your hops were in good nick when you froze them, and are still nice and green with a good aroma, then I'd go ahead and use them. The varieties you suggest should combine very nicely!

 

[sven945]

Thanks both. I reckon worst comes to the worst I’ll just get a fresh bag of hops and dry hop it and drink it fast...