I'm formulating a recipe at the moment and I have recently started to take into account hop age. I was wondering what other people are doing with regards to this?
My example:
Columbus hops adjusted to 10% Alpha from 14% as they are more than 14 months old.
Cascade hops adjusted to 4.5% from 5.5% as they are more than 6 months old.
This was done with the hop age tool in BeerSmith assuming vacuumed foil pouch storage and these are the same hops as the group buy. I'm regarding these numbers as being more optimistic but I don't really know for sure.... :-?
Its a whole technology in itself
I am guessing you read this
http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/04/15/brewing-hops-storage-preserving-precious-hops/
I prefer this
http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue2.1/garetz.html
and some really good tables if you click on the links in the article.
Judging by Stan Hieronymus' new book on hops, it is almost impossible to estimate the freshness and potency of hops unless you oversee their processing, packaging, delivery and storage. This is especially true for the volatile oils but can also be true for the alpha acids. I think the best us homebrewers can do is to buy hops soon after the harvest and store them in airtight containers in the freezer. Vac packs work best but for extra protection I also put my vac packs in zip bags, mainly to keep opened packs in a largely oxygen free environment. This will ensure that the hops deterioate very slowly.
The only way to get a feel for how potent the hops are after taking all these steps is to try them out in test batches. I use Beertools and I have found that I need to add between 5 - 10 IBUs to the recommended hop additions in each recipe to achieve the level of bitterness I think appropriate for each beer I brew. That might be because I am not getting very good utilization but I doubt it. I don't use hop bags and my boiler maintains a good vigorous boil, even on batches up to 50 litres. My guess is that the data stored on Beertools (which I update as much as possible based on the data supplied from the hop wholesalers) is only an approximation of the characteristics of the hops that make their way to my boiler.
One other thing that might be helpful. Recently I wasn't happy with the level of bitterness in one of my IPAs so I boiled some fresh columbus hops in water for an hour to add an additional 10 IBUs. It worked a treat and gave a lovely vibrant bitterness that I rarely achieve using the usual methods. I'm thinking I might use this method in future to adjust the bitterness level post fermentation - a bit like adding seasoning to a finished dish. It gives you great control over the finished product and would allow to correct for any mistakes in the original recipe - useful if you're not sure what the AA level is in older hops.
QuoteBuy (or borrow) a UV/Vis Spectrophotometer and some toluene. Then you'll have no doubts!
I actually considered buying one at one stage. Typically in the €500 range second hand, but the odd one comes up on ebay for maybe €150.
Group buy:
1. Will_D: €100 for my share
You find it we'll buy it
Ps: Despite the last post about Sodium I am serious here