Look into any spice cabinet and you’re sure to find ingredients long past their expiration dates (bay leaves from the Civil War era, anyone?). Many brewers find themselves faced with the same problem of leftovers. If you buy in bulk to save money, you’re guaranteed to have some things sit around for a while. But even if you purchase ingredients on a batch-by-batch basis, you can end up with leftovers because not every recipe calls for a whole number of two-ounce hops packages.
You can keep this under control if you know two things: how best to store each type of ingredient and how long each is likely to last.
Breaking It Down by Ingredient
There’s a common set of reasons why things go stale: heat, moisture, and oxidation. Sometimes light can also create chemical and physical changes that hurt the flavor and viability of your brewing ingredients. So the simplest storage advice is to avoid all of those conditions as much as possible. But each ingredient has its own sensitivities and shelf life, so let’s look at them a little closer.