Fresh Hops (Homegrown)

I'm using home grown hops from last season on a beer tonight. These were picked, placed in vacuum bags and vacuum-sealed, then stored in a freezer up until now.

First question - does anybody see a problem with that or a reason I should not use them? Somewhere else suggested fresh hops are do or die, use them or dry them or game over, but I think the immediate air tight seal and freezing would preserve them just fine. Thoughts?

Second question - as far as hop ratio goes, I'm basing my additions off of the following: 4 to 1 ratio wet to standard dry (pellet). Does that sound about right to you guys?

Thanks,

I don't know that I'd classify them as "fresh" if they'd been frozen, but I don't see any harm in giving it a try. I've never tried freezing them without first drying them. I know that freezing fresh fruit changes their texture quite a bit, but as long as they smell ok I'd say go for it.

P.S. Usually it's recommended to use them for your aroma and flavor additions rather than your bittering as the AA can vary quite a bit from year to year.

I was thinking that being fresh frozen,they might come out thawed like frozen greens or peppers. Mushy.

unionrdr said:

I was thinking that being fresh frozen,they might come out thawed like frozen greens or peppers. Mushy.

Click to expand...

Yeah I was thinking that too. Might be a little messy.

I'm not sure how your ratio will work out because hop plants aren't matured until their 3rd season. And even then, you have no way of telling their AAUs. Not saying I wouldn't try it, but maybe before doing a 5 gallon batch you do a 1 gal test brew?

Not an expert on the subject but I have read that freezing hops before they are dried is not a very good practice because the crystallization damages the lupulin glands.

ACarver said:

Not an expert on the subject but I have read that freezing hops before they are dried is not a very good practice because the crystallization damages the lupulin glands.

Click to expand...

I'm not trying to sound like a ******, but do you have a source for that? I'm just trying to understand how that would be more damaging than pulverizing and pelletizing, so I'd like to read up on it if you have one. There's gotta be someone out there that has tried this before that could chime in.

Good input guys, thanks. I'm going to use my Amarillo stock and hold off on the fresh.

These are second year btw, we first planted back in 2011.