I bought my first bulk order of hops last year. I was really impressed. Now, I'm kind of in that gray area where I don't know if I should reorder or not. I've still got half of the freezer space that I'm allowing myself full of hops. I've run out of Cascade, Centenneal, and I'm low on Simcoe. When do you justfy the shipping cost of reordering bulk hops? Is there a poundage, or percent of your hop stock that you look at before pulling the trigger?
I buy a year's supply when the new crop is released to the home brewing market - usually November or December. No point stocking up now on hops that are nearly a year old. Make do with what you have for now.
I dump all of my hops before the new crop year is released, especially if I have questions...just in case. Sure, it may be incredible, but why take chances and tie up all those old hops while waiting to stock up? It'll only postpone buying the next batch.
Lately, I've been buying almost year old hops...I figure the supplier stored them at least as well as I have. I find myself using a lot of AU and NZ hops...probably 1/3...with another 1/3 U.S. proprietary and the rest homegrown.
I just buy a half a pound of each variety I know I'll use for the next few brews. I try not to let them get too old.
Now would be the time to order some NZ hops for your IPAs until late fall/early winter when the fresh US crop is released
Bought a pound of whole leaf Centennial recently from Crosby Farms near Portland and they are still incredibly resiny and produce a great beer even though they were from last years crop. I think the main thing is how the grower/producer stores the hops originally...these were sealed up tight in a vacuum sealed bag and seem to be much better in brews than the usual pellettled hops I get at my local brewery/home brew shop.
And I second the fact that with harvest season recently finishing in the southern hemisphere, NZ and AU hops are a nice way to go until the US harvest comes in.
Watch when the farms announce the new crop, around the start of October. The European hops show up around the holidays - shipping and customs hold those up.
I ordered bulk last year for the first time too. Being the first time, I didn't really understand how I would use them. As a result, I'm out of simcoe, citra, and nearly out of cascade and centennial. I do still have a bunch of amarillo, mosaic, galaxy, nelson, chinook, and a bit of warrior, apollo and jade. I'm refraining from ordering new hops until the next harvest. I'm just changing up my hop bills to use up what I have. Replacing simcoe is proving to be a chore though. I'm interested in opinions about what is a decent substitute. I'm not trying to replicate simcoe but looking for ideas for substitution to make a decent hop combo without it. I've been mixing a blend of amarillo and centennial but I'm almost out of centennial now.
