Beer Forum

I have a fridge full of partial bags of old hops. i thought someone recommended on a show awhile back that these "cheesey" hops are great in a specific beer. I thought it was a Belgian, but i could be wrong. Anyone have a reco? I'm assuming either way it would be a big beer that would age a long time so i'd be looking to do a 3 gallon batch. I'll list the hops in a bit that i've got, but its a mix of bittering and aroma.

Cheesy hops are used in lambics and some other sours. The reason aged hops are used is because they lose their aroma and flavor for the most part but retain the very important preservative qualities. The hop bitterness would clash with the sour and it's really a terribly nasty combo (try it one day. mix a IPA with a gueuze ... gross). The "cheesiness" is not a desired flavor either however. That's why you'll see lambic brewers doing 3-4 hour boils to drive off that flavor. I'd say it's a misconception that "belgian style" beers use aged or cheesy hops. Trippels, dubbels, the Trappist beers, etc. use fresh hops (i think). Those styles want some hop character and not the cheese.

Personally I would throw them out and not risk wasting your time. I'm expecting that you want your beers to taste good and why risk it? I live next to Belgium, go to lots of breweries/tastings and have never heard of what you are referencing. Just my humble opinion; if you're like me, your time is precious. But again, if you really are wanting to do this, you could do a small 1 gallon batch like they do occasionally on basicbrewing.com and see what happens if you want to experiment. I would be curious on your tasting notes once you open a bottle. I thought cheesy meant stale and that can't be good for brewing right?

bottom line, use them in a lambic/sour or chuck them.

Lambic brewers do use aged hops. They don't want the aroma, flavor, or bitterness from the hops, just the preservative qualities. HOWEVER, they do not use cheesey hops. If your hops do actually smell cheesey you should just get rid of them. That most likely means that some moisture got into the hops over time. Thats no good. The aged hops that are used should basically just have a bit of a grassy smell.

I think of it more like a Hay smell.

i'll take a smell. does anyone have a simple lambic recipe to try? I've still got my buckets (not scratched) that i'd like to designate for "wild" brews. I'd probably start with a three gallon recipe or so. any thoughts would be great.

i'd go 50/50 wheat and pilsner, 1.055 SG, 3 oz aged hops at 90 minutes, ferment with the lambic blend + the dregs from lambics ( not that really sweet liefman/lindemens? stuff though)