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Aged Hops and Alpha Acids for Lambic

brett

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Oct 19, 2011
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Maine
I noticed that BeerSmith does not support aging in open air in it's Hop Age Tool. Anyone have an idea how to calculate the AA of hops stored in the open at room temp specifically for aging.

I am going to use some local Tettnang that spent that last six month as a decoration in a friends brewery/pub for a lambic I am brewing and I am trying to figure out how much to use or if I need more.

(Maybe something to add in the future, Brad.)

Thanks!
 
Under the 'tools' drop down menu, there is a 'hop age tool'.  Is this something that you were looking for?

The tool allows you to set the hops, storage index, age and temperature of storage.

 
Thanks Oginme, but no, the tool only supports three methods of protecting the hops, each with different aging characteristics, and not just leaving them open to the air.
 
Firstly the HSI is the degradation of hops at 68F in an open environment. So your numbers are kind of right there. Tettnangs average HSI is 40%, although there's some research out there that shows that hops degrade exponentially. So if you're using the Built in BS calculator in the hop tools, this would be under "poly bag" as a plastic bag is roughly equivalent to open storage.

but if they're local hops, unless they were tested, you've got no clue the AA, BA, or HSI of the hops in question. So no calculator could possibly come up with an accurate representation of what you're using unless you had those numbers.

for funs sake, lets say you're AA was 5%, after 6 months of sitting at 68F it would be approximately 3%. but this also doesn't factor in light exposure. Were they sitting in the sunlight? Is there smoking in the bar? Do you want a cheesy/skunky flavor in the beer from the bad hops?


I'd say toss them out. IMHO hops are cheaper than my time.
 
dtapke: That is very helpful. I had no idea that the polybag and open storage are roughly the same. The air in the pub is reasonably fresh, it is Maine after all and there is no smoking certainly, and no direct daylight exposure. I was figuring on rough numbers of 4.5% so that gives me a very good idea and I can feed the tool my best guesses. The argument against throwing them out is finding aged hops on short notice. The hops smell fine, I just have to worry about excessive AA excessively inhibiting bacteria as the Lambic ages. Much thanks for the clarifications and information.
 
Um, reasonably fresh in Rumford has a completely different connotation from reasonably fresh in Blue Hill or Jackman.  But your point is well taken.
 
Yes, Basing the number that BS gives me, he's giving "poly bag" the simple HSI calculation. And one never knows what the air in a pub could be like... I've noticed the my Hallertauer Hersbruker from 2018 seems low in AA at around 1.8%, I'm unfamiliar with brewing lambics currently, but if you're looking for low AA those may easily accessible and wouldn't have as much potential for being adulterated from pub life. A bit cleaner and less spicy than tettnang though
 
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