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**thadius856** · 01-30-2013, 05:14 PM

Have 12# of hops arriving tomorrow. Yeah, I went a little overboard. I need to package them all, but I'm running into a problem: I can't find a FoodSaver I like for a price I like. Sure, there's plenty of stock at retail prices, but I've seen some pretty slick deals and would prefer to wait for a sale before buying one of my own.

To that end, I'm going to borrow a friend's for a few days and put some wear on it. I think I'll have to break down and do it by the ounce. I don't see any other viable way to store the hops so that I can use them in all of the recipes I have, plus be able to trade them later on. That is, without having a FoodSaver of my own to re-seal larger packs later.

eBay has 6", 8" and 11" wide rolls, 50' long each. Which size width should I pick, and about how many rolls will I need to pack 11# of pellet and 1# of whole leaf hops 1 oz at a time?

Biohazard · 01-30-2013, 05:58 PM

I would make baried packs, 4 oz, 2 oz and 1 oz. But I would still get the 6" and 50' should do it.

bknifefight · 01-30-2013, 06:06 PM

For 1 ounce of pellet hops, regardless of the width of the roll, you would need a section of bag about 1.75" - 2"
Biohazard has the right idea, I think you should seal them up in variable weights.

Jhenjum · 01-30-2013, 08:13 PM

Pellet or leaf? One pound of pellet hops fits in a quart mason jar. With the mason jar attachment you can open the jar, use what you need and reseal the jar and put back in the freezer. Saves $ on bag material and waste

**rjd** · 01-30-2013, 08:33 PM

Foodsaver bags are not Oxygen barrier and it'd the oxidation of the hops that kills them

food bags protect the food from freezer burn, oxidation not much of an issue.

the bags the hop purveyors use are metallic barrier bags.

They seem to be the same as the anti-stat bags chip/pc component manufacturers use.

most purge with nitrogen, but they can be vacuum sealed:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/vacuum-sealing-oxygen-barrier-bags-303070/

I got some bags from austin, but at most they'd only hold a couple oz.s of pellets.

Hope you find any of this info useful,
RJ

**jww9618** · 01-30-2013, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jhenjum

Pellet or leaf? One pound of pellet hops fits in a quart mason jar. With the mason jar attachment you can open the jar, use what you need and reseal the jar and put back in the freezer. Saves $ on bag material and waste

That's exactly what I have done for over a year. 2011 hops are still super fresh.

**thadius856** · 01-30-2013, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjd

Foodsaver bags are not Oxygen barrier and it'd the oxidation of the hops that kills them

food bags protect the food from freezer burn, oxidation not much of an issue.

the bags the hop purveyors use are metallic barrier bags.

They seem to be the same as the anti-stat bags chip/pc component manufacturers use.

most purge with nitrogen, but they can be vacuum sealed:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/vacuum-sealing-oxygen-barrier-bags-303070/

I got some bags from austin, but at most they'd only hold a couple oz.s of pellets.

Hope you find any of this info useful,
RJ

If you don't purge with nitrogen, then I don't see what could make them any better. You're still leaving O2 in there, even if you're blocking some from coming in.

**weirdboy** · 01-30-2013, 10:17 PM

Don't get a FoodSaver. Get a Rival vacuum sealer and save yourself 50% or more. It performs the same function and even takes the FoodSaver attachments. I have been using the same one for 4+ years now.

If the vacuum bags are oxygen permeable, why don't they inflate over time?

**thadius856** · 01-30-2013, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jhenjum

Pellet or leaf? One pound of pellet hops fits in a quart mason jar. With the mason jar attachment you can open the jar, use what you need and reseal the jar and put back in the freezer. Saves $ on bag material and waste

Quote:

Originally Posted by jww9618

That's exactly what I have done for over a year. 2011 hops are still super fresh.

Mason jars are attractive for their ease of use, but the point of individual packs is that I don't have a vacuum sealing machine of my own yet. I wouldn't be buying one until I see a good sale (could be months), so I wouldn't be able to re-seal the jars until then.

Also, I don't have the freezer space for mason jars of hops. We sold our upright freezer to make space for the fermentation chamber.

I can get away with individual bags in the freezer because I can toss them on top of the wife's frozen stuff and in the crevices between. It was rather had to get the space for 12 quart mason jars (for premade starters) and 15 preforms (for yeast bank) as it is. She won't let me have much more space.

Last, when I bought the Kerr mason jars for the starters, they were freezable only in the 4 oz, 8 oz, and wide-mouth pint (not narrow-mouth pint) sizes. The box said that all of the quart and half-gallon jars were not freezer safe, so I took them all back.

**thadius856** · 01-30-2013, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by weirdboy

Don't get a FoodSaver. Get a Rival vacuum sealer and save yourself 50% or more. It performs the same function and even takes the FoodSaver attachments. I have been using the same one for 4+ years now.

If the vacuum bags are oxygen permeable, why don't they inflate over time?

No idea. I see this argument is rampant on survivalist/prepping sites. These guys are upset because FoodSaver bags can't keep rice white for 15 years. I guess I just don't understand why that's a big deal. Plus, I'm only wanting to store hops log enough that I can buy them by the pound to save on cash, not by the 11# bag per variety or something.