Hop age

[Ren]

Hello!

I was creating a Saaz kolsch ale recipe the other day and I remembered that my previous blond ale wasn't as bitter as I thought it would be so i started searching on the internet for some answers and found hop age tool in beersmith. So as I understand Hop alpha acids degrade with age and if I adjust Saaz alpha acid strength which is printed on the packaging 3.9% (Harvested in 2012) and put it in the beersmith tool it comes up with 2.25 after 24 months in vacuum packed foil pouch stored at 1c.

Does anyone adjust their alpha acid strength or I am being too meticulous?

Thanks

[Charles1968]

It's a good idea, but try at least two different hop age calculators and go with the more conservative one. Although alpha acid levels fall with age, beta
acids don't and can compensate, but the calculators disregard this.

It's probably more useful to follow your own notes and aim for repeatability that way. Bear in mind the minimum IBU increment humans can perceive is 6, so if you adjust a recipe to raise the IBU of the beer by 5 it won't make a perceptible difference.

[Fuggled Mind]

Good question.

It's well known that hops lose their AA's over time and the method of storage has an impact too. A while back I brewed John Palmer's Santa Nevada Porter. It has big flavours and should have a noticeable hop presence. I decided to use up my oldest batch of hops - a pack of WGV (5%AA) that I'd bought from Thriftyshopper (remember them?). They'd been stored in the freezer up till the day I used them. It said 2009 harvest on the pack. I think I bought them in 2010 or 2011. They were vacuum packed and never opened. I was quite surprised to find the aroma was quite strong when I opened the pack and I decided to use the entire 100g. Had the hops been at their best, the recipe would have given me an IBU of 48. The 11g left over went in a 1 hour aroma steep. However, after a month in the bottle, the bitterness is very mellow, certainly not 48IBU.

I never used the hop age tool but checking it now (and assuming that the hops are 3 years old), the hops are quoted as having 3.33%AA which might explain why the hops are so soft in flavour (I thought it was nice but personally, I'd have liked a bit more edge on a porter that should be aged). Running the recipe through Beersmith using the hop age tool adjustments, I get a new IBU of 32. I'd be surprised if it was even that

Now this raises the question - when should I calculate the age of my hops? From 2009 (the year of harvest) or 2010-11 when I bought them?

In conclusion, the hop age tool has it's uses, especially with any older hops that you have in your freezer.

Cheers

Jason

[Charles1968]

Go with year of harvest. Also, always buy the youngest possible hops, and if you have to buy hops more than a couple of years old get pellets rather than cones as they deteriorate more slowly.

[Fuggled Mind]

Go with year of harvest. Also, always buy the youngest possible hops, and if you have to buy hops more than a couple of years old get pellets rather than cones as they deteriorate more slowly.

Making further adjustments to the hop age, that would be 25IBU. For a beer that is supposed to be aged 4 months before it's at it's prime, I'd be surprised if there was any hop flavour at all after all that time. I'd best get supping

Cheers

Jason

[Ren]

Cheers lads

[Charles1968]

Go with year of harvest. Also, always buy the youngest possible hops, and if you have to buy hops more than a couple of years old get pellets rather than cones as they deteriorate more slowly.

Making further adjustments to the hop age, that would be 25IBU. For a beer that is supposed to be aged 4 months before it's at it's prime, I'd be surprised if there was any hop flavour at all after all that time. I'd best get supping

Cheers

Jason

If you use this hop age calculator you'll get an even lower IBU:
http://brewerslog.appspot.com/HopAlphaCalc

Note that the temperature of your freezer makes a difference. The average domestic freezer runs at -15 Celsius, but many are higher.Your final IBU level is very unlikely to be on target if you're using old hops - basically it's a lottery. This is a big problem for home brewers who are trying different recipes all the time and using hops of different vintages from varied sources. Much less of a problem for commercial breweries who just repeat the same recipe over and over and have time to hone and perfect it. I think the moral of the story is stick to new hops and throw out the old stuff in your freezer, or use it all for aroma in something very hoppy.

[Fuggled Mind]

Nice calculator. Thankfully, the porter I brewed tastes good. It'll be worth repeating the recipe with fresher hops to see the difference. As I said earlier, I prefer a hoppier porter and it would be nice to see the hops to showcase their flavours

Cheers

Jason

[DaveSmith]

Thanks for the link to the calculator. If it is to be believed to be accurate then hop merchants should massively reduce the price of last years crop when the new harvest arrives and the 2012 crop like Simply Hops were selling just aren't worth buying when you factor in the massive extra amount of hops required and the resultant copper losses.

[Fuggled Mind]

If it is to be believed to be accurate then hop merchants should massively reduce the price of last years crop when the new harvest arrives and the 2012 crop like Simply Hops were selling just aren't worth buying when you factor in the massive extra amount of hops required and the resultant copper losses.

It might explain why the older harvests are so often discounted. However, as I said before, despite being a 2009 harvest, my WGV, thanks to vacuum packing and never leaving the freezer, still had a pungent hop smell.

I only have the two calculators to go by, not sure which is the most accurate but I can say with some honesty, my beer is underhopped because of the age.

Living in Switzerland, I mostly use pellets which keep longer and take up far less room. It's only when back in England that I buy whole hops

Cheers

Jason