Hop Storage, whats best.

[Hugh Grierson]

I have read a bit on long term storage of hops, Luke did a bit on it late last year, and there is heaps of similar info on U.S forums.

So what the consensus seems to be is, cold good, oxygen bad. What I am thinking is chest freezer filled with CO2, if its cold it should be very heavy and exclude any warm air.

Is freezing hop pellets damaging, or are they so dry no worries?

opinions please.

[JackoNZ]

Chuck em in the freezer, best place for them. I use tupperware boxes to store the bags in.

[Tilt]

Agree with Jacko - at the bottom of the freezer in an airtight container mine don't noticeably deteriorate until they're over 18months old.  Good enough for me - and if I haven't used them in that time I'm not brewing enough!

[Chad Keven]

i am going to harvest hops for the first time soon; i was thinking (as all brew nutters do) maybe i'll store mine in those big milo tins (in freezer) then i had an idea maybe i'll try back-flushing with nitrogen?! 

go to a tyre shop that does nitrogen filling and see if they'll do it; the silver nz hops packets contain nitrogen.

thoughts?

[Ralph]

The critical step is drying them I think? I am sure packaging them with Nitrogen or CO2 is probably fine. Only thing with home gas flushing is how do you know that you have managed to actually get totally your other gas in and have no oxygen?? If there is even a small amount of oxygen then gas flushing at all may be a waste of time?

[Chad Keven]

just to elaborate; i'm thinking of drilling a hole in the tin, inserting a tyre valve and basically blasting the crap out of it sending as much air/o2 as possible out gotta be better than not doing it right? dunno just my over reacting imagination again...............

[MrC]

CO2 is heavier than O2 so if you add CO2, let it settle and then repeat a few times, the CO2 will be all that's left. Also, in theiry, you only need enough CO2 to cover the hops.

For the record, I just freeze my hops in an airtight container.