www.nthba.org

Though, I have made a crappy beer before.

I have not used fresh hops, but have used whole hops in the fermenter for dry hopping. The fresher the better would be my opinion. I would not worry about breaking them up. It will be easier to siphon the beer out later if you leave them whole. Store the rest in your refigerator in airtight bags or ...

Just saw on CNN.com that there was a huge fire at a hop warehouse

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/03/hops.f ... index.html