Whole Leaf Hop Storage?

I got a great deal on whole leaf hops, about 8 pounds for $25. The hop bricks are wrapped in brown paper.

What is the best method for storage? I suspect a zip lock bag and freezer.

Zip lock bag in freezer=good, vacuum sealed (food saver etc)=better

Definitely vacuum sealed in the freezer, they will keep for a long time. I bought a seal-a-meal about a year ago and the thing works great. The machine was about $50-55 and two rolls of bags was another 8 or 10 bucks. I just started using the second roll.

Food savers are awesome. You can reseal the bag as you work your way down. I usually seal mine with a good extra bit just so I can keep resealing.

Food saver. I grow my own hops and this is how I store mine. No issues.

I don't have a food saver and the blocks are larger than a 1 gallon ziplock bag. To fit the block in the bag, I will have to break it apart. The blocks are tightly compressed.

In all, there are 8 blocks.

With that being said - no vacuum sealer, should I break them apart and at a minimum, put the smaller blocks in ziplock bags?

I see others use Mason jars vacuum sealed. The investment is much smaller but is this a good way to go?

If kept in the freezer, possibly double bagged, will the ziplock solution work or should I make the investment in a vacuum?

Are there any current deals on an inexpensive food sealer?

How soon are you planning to use these? If you're not going to use them all soon I'd invest in the foodsaver. Putting whole hops in mason jars will require lots of jars, and without a vacuum sealer you won't be able to get all the air out so that will decrease shelf life. If I were to get another vacuum sealer I'd get THIS so I wasn't locked in to channel bags.

What type of bags do you use with that vacuum? Are the materials readily available?

http://www.google.com/products/cata...sa=X&ei=byQbTtb3JYaZOq2egPYI&ved=0CEQQ8wIwAw#

I would make the investment

ultravista said:

What type of bags do you use with that vacuum? Are the materials readily available?

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http://www.sorbentsystems.com/vacuum_bags.html

Or any mylar bag (The ones you get hops in) will work fine. This particular vac gives you the ability to vacuum seal almost any bag you want.

wyzazz - I've read mixed reviews of the Sorbent model. It seems like a hit-and-mis with their customer support. The survivalist boards like them though.

As have I, but I've also read mixed reviews on the FoodSaver products. If my FoodSaver ever kicks the bucket I'll get the Sorbent machine, I really would like to have the ability to vacuum seal any bag I want as opposed to just the channel bags.

I am curious how it uses any bag. Any bag, does that include store bought ziplock bags or must it be a vacuum type bag?

It's a snorkel vac, it can use any bag (including zip locks) that it can heat seal. For example; I purchase most of my grains from Brewmasters Warehouse & their grains come in a heavy duty plastic bag. I can reseal these bags with my FoodSaver but not vacuum them. Same thing with my hops, I can reseal the bags but I cannot vacuum them. With this device you could vacuum them without an issue.

This machine sticks a little metal "straw" in to the bag to vacuum it and retracts that after the vacuum is created and then seals the bag.

thats a great deal on the hops, i thought i just scored when i got 4 lbs of pellet hops shipped for 45, but 8 lbs for 25 wow. where did you purchase them from?

On the BN board, a member had a group buy that fell through. He had a a$$load of hops.

ultravista said:

On the BN board, a member had a group buy that fell through. He had a a$$load of hops.

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Mine showed up today