Aged Hops

[sheikyerbouti]

Okay, I have heard jamil and others say you need aged hops for a Lambic, but I'm having no luck locating them.

I have Amarillo and centennial whole hops-probably not the best choice, and EKG pellets. Can I heat up 2 ounces in the oven for a couple of hours, mash hop and boil like hell for 90 mins as a reasonable substitute?

[NHBrewer]

I don't think either of those is a good solution. Try locating another local brewer that may have some in the back of the freezer from a few years ago. If you're close to me I can hook you up.

Chris

[Bellmer]

Check out Seven Bridges Brewing Supply at http://www.breworganic.com/ under their closeout hops. I've gotten a variety of 2 and 3 year old hops from them (Belgian Saaz, Spalt, and something else that escapes me at the moment). And they're organic!

[SacoDeToro]

I prefer to use aged Hallertauer in my lambics, but I think aged EKG would work fine. You can artificially age your hops in the oven. 200 degrees for 1-2 hours will work, but be warned, it will stink up your house like a motherfucker for hours. I have some old Hallertauer pellets that I keep in a open bag in an upper corner of my garage - they're constantly getting cooked. I'm not entirely sure what conditions, say, Cantillon ages their hops under, but they're pretty yellowed and cheesy (smelling) by the time they make it to the brew kettle.

FWIW, I believe it was the '06 vintage of Cantillon Iris that was dry hopped with Amarillo in the barrels.

[sheikyerbouti]

Thanks for the help guys.

I have one more local store to try, then I may hit up seven bridges.

Julian- you were right. I tried drying them in the oven. At first, it smelled like hops, then it got a little too warm and.....well, it smelled like burnt cardboard then the smoke detectors went off.

[yellowthere]

I tried to age 4 oz of willamette in the oven at 200 degrees for about 1.5 hours. I may have over done it. I had to run an errand, and I turned off the oven, but kept them in there. I came back over an hour later and they were all very, very brown. The house smelled like funky-woody carmel sweetness.

I baged these up. I don't know whether or not I should try to use these in a lambic. What do you guys think?

[AndrewD]

I recently called Seven Bridges and they were very helpful over the phone. The woman was busy but she took my number and called back 5 minutes later. Seems like a cool place.

[mediumsk]

i don't think you need aged hops at all if you have clean sanitation practices. just use some really low alpha hop to get an appropriate bitterness. Think about it, traditional lambics are brewed with SPONTANEOUS fermentation which requires massive hop amounts to retard unwanted bacteria, if your just pitching bugs from a vial there is no need to retard wild bacteria..