How Long Do Hops Last? Do Hops Expire in a Microbrewery?
- Dec 25, 2021
- 59
- tiantai
You need consider a lot
when you open your brewery like craft brewing tech, brewery equipment cost and price,find a location for brewery, license and regulation of a brewery. This article column is specially to answer some common question during brewing.You need to consider a lot when you open your brewery like craft brewing tech, brewery equipment cost and price,find a location for brewery, licenseand regulation of a brewery. This article column is specially to answer some common question during brewing.Hops are one of the most expensive ingredients in any beer recipe so many brewers want to know how long their hops will last in storage. The answer to this question depends on if they are hop pellets, dried whole hops, or fresh hops as well as how they have been packed.
Properly vacuum-sealed pellet hops can last up to five years inside the freezer and up to four years in the refrigerator. Vacuum-sealed whole dry hops, meanwhile, will last up to two years in the freezer and six months in the refrigerator. After that amount of time, the aroma and flavor of the hops will start to degrade significantly.
It’s hard to specifically answer how long your hops will last because there are so many variables to consider. Under ideal circumstances, you will always store your hops inside a vacuum-sealed container in the freezer for maximum life. Outside of that ideal, the amount of time you can store hops drops quickly. Let’s check out all of those individual situations.
· What makes hops go bad?
· How long do hops last (at full Alpha Acid %)
· How long can pellet hops be stored?
· How long can whole dried hops be stored?
· How long can fresh hops be stored?
Hops are one of the most expensive ingredients in a beer recipe and they are responsible for a significant amount of flavor and aroma in most beer styles while providing the bitterness required for every style. The amount of bitterness and the type of flavor that each kind of hop adds to a beer is largely dependent on the alpha acid content inside the oil of the hop plant. Fresh, whole hops tend to have fairly predictable alpha acid levels depending on the strain of hops in question.
Most recipes will the alpha acid profile of fresh hops (or measure the amount in the pellet version of the hops) to create the best recipe and balance all of the flavors together.
I say all of that to make the point that what we are really asking when we say ‘what makes hops go bad?’ or ‘how long do hops last’ is how long will the hops still provide the flavor and bitterness that we would expect fresh hops to deliver.
In general, there are three things that will cause hops to go bad or lose their potency more quickly:
· Heat – The rate at which alpha acid potency is lost doubles for every 27 °F increase in temperature.
· Oxygen – Oxidation causes a loss of alpha acid potency and creates a cheesy flavor to develop in the hops.
· Light – While not usually a strong factor, light can hasten the oxidation process and increase the storage temperature.
To control for those factors, we will want to keep our hops stored inside a container with an oxygen barrier inside a cold, dark freezer. If we do that, we can expect hops to last for quite some time without having major issues. Of course, the quality of the hops before they are stored also matters quite a bit.
Ideally, you would pick up a small vacuum sealer to minimize your hops’ contact with oxygen. You can pick these up surprisingly cheap on Amazon. This one is less than $25!
For easy reference, I’ve created a table that will let you see at a glance how long hops should last under a variety of circumstances so let’s check that out now.
when you open your brewery like craft brewing tech, brewery equipment cost and price,find a location for brewery, license and regulation of a brewery. This article column is specially to answer some common question during brewing.You need to consider a lot when you open your brewery like craft brewing tech, brewery equipment cost and price,find a location for brewery, licenseand regulation of a brewery. This article column is specially to answer some common question during brewing.Hops are one of the most expensive ingredients in any beer recipe so many brewers want to know how long their hops will last in storage. The answer to this question depends on if they are hop pellets, dried whole hops, or fresh hops as well as how they have been packed.
Properly vacuum-sealed pellet hops can last up to five years inside the freezer and up to four years in the refrigerator. Vacuum-sealed whole dry hops, meanwhile, will last up to two years in the freezer and six months in the refrigerator. After that amount of time, the aroma and flavor of the hops will start to degrade significantly.
It’s hard to specifically answer how long your hops will last because there are so many variables to consider. Under ideal circumstances, you will always store your hops inside a vacuum-sealed container in the freezer for maximum life. Outside of that ideal, the amount of time you can store hops drops quickly. Let’s check out all of those individual situations.
· What makes hops go bad?
· How long do hops last (at full Alpha Acid %)
· How long can pellet hops be stored?
· How long can whole dried hops be stored?
· How long can fresh hops be stored?
What makes hops go bad?
It’s always best to use fresh ingredients for any recipe because they will produce the best flavor and beer is no different.Hops are one of the most expensive ingredients in a beer recipe and they are responsible for a significant amount of flavor and aroma in most beer styles while providing the bitterness required for every style. The amount of bitterness and the type of flavor that each kind of hop adds to a beer is largely dependent on the alpha acid content inside the oil of the hop plant. Fresh, whole hops tend to have fairly predictable alpha acid levels depending on the strain of hops in question.
Most recipes will the alpha acid profile of fresh hops (or measure the amount in the pellet version of the hops) to create the best recipe and balance all of the flavors together.
I say all of that to make the point that what we are really asking when we say ‘what makes hops go bad?’ or ‘how long do hops last’ is how long will the hops still provide the flavor and bitterness that we would expect fresh hops to deliver.
In general, there are three things that will cause hops to go bad or lose their potency more quickly:
· Heat – The rate at which alpha acid potency is lost doubles for every 27 °F increase in temperature.
· Oxygen – Oxidation causes a loss of alpha acid potency and creates a cheesy flavor to develop in the hops.
· Light – While not usually a strong factor, light can hasten the oxidation process and increase the storage temperature.
To control for those factors, we will want to keep our hops stored inside a container with an oxygen barrier inside a cold, dark freezer. If we do that, we can expect hops to last for quite some time without having major issues. Of course, the quality of the hops before they are stored also matters quite a bit.
Ideally, you would pick up a small vacuum sealer to minimize your hops’ contact with oxygen. You can pick these up surprisingly cheap on Amazon. This one is less than $25!
For easy reference, I’ve created a table that will let you see at a glance how long hops should last under a variety of circumstances so let’s check that out now.
How long do hops last (at full Alpha Acid %)
| Storage method | Hop pellets | Dried whole hops | Fresh hops |
| Vacuum sealed in Freezer | Up to 5 years | Up to 2 years | Not recommended |
| Open in Freezer | About 5 weeks | About 5 weeks | Not recommended |
| Vacuum sealed in refrigerator | 2-4 years | About 6 months | Not recommended |
| Open in refrigerator | About 2 weeks | Not recommended | Not recommended |
| Vacuum sealed at room temperature | About 4 weeks | About a week | Within 48 hours |
| Open at room temperature | About 2 weeks | About a week | Within 48 hours |
