BeerBorg

I noticed this morning that I have a lot of leftover hops just sort of floating around in my freezer. This comes from doing recipes that use 3/4 oz. total, or some such.

They're all in little plastic bottles, so they've been sealed and kept in the freezer for however long, but I don't like the idea of having them all around.

I think I need to inventory everything, consolidate what I can, and then come up with a plan/recipe for them. I need to be careful, though. Some of these strains may not play well with each other. I want to use them, but I don't want weird, unclassifiable, undrinkable beer.

I'm a hop pusher. What is it you need? I have it! I have my agents in 180 major cities ready to dispatch anything requested within 10 minutes.

Last year I bought a vacuum sealer that has worked well for me. I'm glad I did that.

I don't know what I need, because I don't really know what I have on-hand, nor do I know what recipes I may want to use them in.

I have a vacuum-sealer, too, but I use it for leftover DME. I don't worry as much about the hops, since they're in the freezer, and in sealed containers.

FedoraDave wrote:I have a vacuum-sealer, too, but I use it for leftover DME. I don't worry as much about the hops, since they're in the freezer, and in sealed containers.

You mean a deep freeze, or your fridge? I don't want to be taken wrong but, in case you don't know. With the fridge going into defrost several times a day(personally, the fewest I found was 3 times a day). Long term storage will actually dry meat out. I have no idea how hops will react so I store my hops in the deep freeze. with the exceptions being the hops "on deck".

I also use vacuum packing, but the cheap kind. A hand pump with vented ziplocs. And I keep a hop, grain, and yeast inventory on paper. But it's not always accurate.

I was in a similar position as FedoraDave when making a Belgian Pale Ale during the summer. In this style, complexity was welcome, with some strategy about length of each hop boil. So with between 0.1 and 0.3 ounce each in the LBK-size batch, I used up the remnants of 5 different hops. Now with an American Wheat coming up where there is no specific need for type of hops, my answer among my inventory in the freezer is to use what's already open: Centennial and Mosaic.

I have open packages of Simcoe, Stella (Ella), and Topaz.

I've never mixed that combo before, but I am going to make an ESB out of them I think. Why not.

I might just mix them all together and then do a T-30 to T-0 continuous hop schedule. So a little bit of everything gets added the entire boil. Why not.

EDIT: I keep all my hops in my chest freezer in the basement, sealed in bags.

We keep ours in the freezer as well.

We'll have a list of want to brew recipes and might schedule them based on open hops packages based on variety sometimes.

We will check if any open hops would be a possible substitute for a bittering addition and use them that way.

Often we just add a little more to the hop stand and a little more to dry hopping to use the whole package.

But we won't just add a hop variety to a beer just to get rid of it; I'll just leave them in the freezer and if a small amount of an opened package gets thrown out its not that big of a deal.

The quality of the finished product should always come first and that, at the end of the day, will always depend upon the quality of the ingredients.


This should read "Give Me Good Beer".

I agree that it should work, BB. But I'll sub pretty much anything for bittering, and I use wide latitude in substitutes.

Good comments and observations, folks. But then, I expect nothing less from The Borg

I just don't want to mix hops that might not play well together. Most of what I've got I imagine are the C hops and the noble hops, so that probably wouldn't be an issue. But I've used some that are more citrus/floral, and I'd prefer to work on styles rather than just make a Mulligatawny Stew and take my chances. Even if I just make a pale ale or a blonde, that's cool. I just want it to taste good.

I have five ounces of hops left over from each of my previous brews some Cascades and Northern Brewer pellet hops. Anyone used these in a beer before, if so how'd it turn out?

I use Cascades all the time but never have with Northern Brewer. But, my sub chart shows Northern Brewer is close to Centennial and Columbus and I've used Casades with those 2 in many, many IPA's. Love them all.
I'd so go for it.

Beer-lord wrote:I use Cascades all the time but never have with Northern Brewer. But, my sub chart shows Northern Brewer is close to Centennial and Columbus and I've used Casades with those 2 in many, many IPA's. Love them all.
I'd so go for it.

Your right, any of the C hops together definitely make a nice IPA, 7% Crystal 40L, 93% Pale Ale malt fermented with wlp-001.....Thanks for sharing.

I can't imagine that Northern Brewer used as the bittering hop and Cascades to finish wouldn't make a really nice beer if you like the grapefruit best.

If you like CTZ or Simcoe as a late hop then using some of them late along with cascades would be good I'm sure. To me NB are sort of like CTZ or Simcoe but with some mint replacing the citrus - but the cascade would make up for that.

I've used Northern Brewer as a flavoring addition in recipes in which I had a C hops for the bittering and aroma additions, and I was pleased with the results.