Can wood chips lose their aroma?

[3montes]

I have been remodeling my garage. I found alot of things I thought I had lost and and of course bought again. Way back behind a shelf I found a open bag of mesquite chips. I stuck my nose in the bag and there was no aroma whatsoever. I was smoking a couple of butt roasts at the time so I threw a handfull in some foil and set it off to the side of the coals. A few minutes later I was getting a nice thin blue. But it didn't smell like anything.

Normally I can smell whatever kinds of chips or chunks I am using. Can wood chips go stale

 

[meat hunter]

They sure can. I too just found a opened bag of Mesquite I had when I used my big chief smoker. Nothing, no mesquite smell at all. The larger the piece of wood, the longer it holds is odor so to speak. If I have to buy wood for flavor, I now get the large chunks, about fist size. But even those will loose their aroma after a while but not as fast as chips.

 

[richoso1]

been there and done that. Now I only use chunks.

 

[3montes]

One can never stop learning here. Wish I would have known this before. I just bought a bag of apple chips the other day. So now once I open the bag they are going in a airtight container.

 

[mballi3011]

You sure can use them but they may lose alittle of the smell but the inside of the wood on the inside shoud be good. It should still smoke and give you flavor.