Use Fresh Hops

Beer Brewing With Fresh Hops

When you cook or bake you want everything to come out tasting just right. Having the right ingredients isn’t enough; the ingredients need to be fresh. The same is true for making beer. It’s important to use the correct hops for your brew but it’s even more important to use the freshest hops you can. If you are brewing with old or stale hops, you could be making up a really bad batch of beer.

The freshness of the hops is critical to the outcome of the beer. To keep you hops fresh it’s important that you store them correctly. To store them correctly you need to keep them packed in nitrogen or oxygen barrier bags and refrigerated (or frozen) for long term storage.

How do you identify the fresh hops from the stale ones? The first indicator of a hop’s freshness is its color. Fresh whole hops have a light green almost lime color. Pelletized ones are of a darker shade of green. The pelletized hops may also have a shiny exterior due to the dried hop resins. Bad hops will look brown, dried out and are curled. If the hops lupulin glands are orange instead of yellow, the hops are oxidized, these are bad hops and you need to get rid of them.

Another good idea is to check your hops for aroma. Fresh hops have a piquant aroma that you may describe as piney, spicy, herbal and even citrusy. Another indicator of bad hops is if they smell like Parmesan or Romano cheese.

Hops can also be graded on their stability, which is how long they can keep storage. Unless you are buying them in large quantities, you don’t need to be concerned with their stability. Just make sure you buy them fresh, store them correctly and use them soon.

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