Compensating for old-ish hops

[big dave]

Howdy crew, apologies if this has been done before. I did a search under 'old hops' and didn't find much.

It is time to fire up the keggle again. I am looking again towards an APA style, with Galaxy bittering and Amarillo and Cascade later. I have looked in the freezer and found some hops left over from my last brewing about six months ago. They have been stored in their opened foil packaging, with the ends folded over several times, and all stored in a plastic bag.

How much do I need to compensate for six months freezer time? Will they lose their AA%, or flavour and aroma?

[warra48]

That's basically how I store mine, except the foil packets are stored inside another sealed plastic container.
I don't allow much for mine, no more than about 10%.
I'm still using the last of my hops from the 2006 vintage. They smell fresh, with a recognisable aroma, and the pellets are still green, so I figure they're good to go, at least for bittering.
I do use the latest I can get for flavour and aroma and dry hopping.

[jello]

Thanks for bring up that question BD. I was wondering about the aging of hops myself.

I'd like to get a decent supply going so I don't have to buy small quantities.

[emnpaul]

Jello, do you want to go halves in some bulk packs?

[jello]

Sure. You twisted my arm.

What type do you have in mind and where from?

[emnpaul]

Elerslie Hop: ellersliehop.com.au
Hops direct: http://www.hopsdirect.com/store/pellet-hops.html
Nikohops: http://www.nikobrew.com/ . Five pounds of Northern Brewer for $65 plus postage! That's $13 per pound
All seem to have good reputations.

What type do you have in mind?

I suppose it depends what you want to brew. Myself I have a Belgian Wit yeast in the fridge which I am planning on going to town with. I've checked out a number of Wit recipes and Saaz seems to be the hop of choice for this style and what I have left over could "accidently" fall into a pot of boiling Bo-Pils.

What are you thinking? I'm quite happy to compromise in any event.

[bearbrother]

old hops r 4 belgium people!

[Oliver]

In regards to Big Dave's original question about old hops, Beer Smith includes a tool to calculate the reduction in IBUs of hops based on their age and how they have been stored. I recently had a look at the feature and from memory the 2009 (r was it 2010?) Citra that were 11.1% and had been stored in a fridge and vacuum packed in foil were calculated at 9ish %.

I can't vouch for how accurate this feature is.

Oliver