Is this bad for harvested hops?

Here is an dried ounce and ready for vacuum sealing:


Here is a dried ounce packaged:


Comparing the volumes between one ounce before and after packaging:


Here is two dried ounces packaged:



Is this too much compression? My vacuum packager won't seal until ALL the air is removed so I don't have much choice, but I would like some advice if this is incorrectly packaging them!

The more air removed and more compacted they are, the better.

mkling said:

The more air removed and more compacted they are, the better.

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Exactly- that's the point of vacuum sealing. It removes the air to keep the hops from oxidizing and staling.

mkling said:

The more air removed and more compacted they are, the better.

Click to expand...

Yooper_Brew said:

Exactly- that's the point of vacuum sealing. It removes the air to keep the hops from oxidizing and staling.

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Thanks for the reassurance guys. I got a little freaked out when a gallon bag of hops compressed to the size of a TV remote!

It looks like you use food saver bags. I use the pint bag and it will hold one ounce if you push the hops all the way to the bottom. I point this out because it's handy to have your hops premeasured on brew day. Also, the bag is a better size compared to having a larger bag mostly empty. Last point, the bags are slightly pourous, so I think the aroma will stay in the bag. I think they can be reused, but I would only use them with the same hop. Items to consider.

Your hops are ruined, send them to me for disposal.
Just kidding, those hops look great sealed up!

Retrofit said:

It looks like you use food saver bags. I use the pint bag and it will hold one ounce if you push the hops all the way to the bottom. I point this out because it's handy to have your hops premeasured on brew day. Also, the bag is a better size compared to having a larger bag mostly empty. Last point, the bags are slightly pourous, so I think the aroma will stay in the bag. I think they can be reused, but I would only use them with the same hop. Items to consider.

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Thanks for the tips! I have them measured out in 1 or 2 oz packages. I used my last quart size bag for the ounce bag I posted a pic of, and now I just have a roll of make my own bags.

dunleav1 said:

Your hops are ruined, send them to me for disposal.
Just kidding, those hops look great sealed up!

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Thanks! I'm eager to get my final weight. I have half of them dried but not packaged and the other half drying as we speak. I should get about 2-3 pounds with my first harvest!

(Note I omitted the word "year" in the last sentance. I was given fourth year plants so my first harvest is a spoiled one)

Cool pictures. Answered several of my questions. Thanks.

Baled whole cone hops are compressed 10 to 1. Pelletized is like 22 to 1 or more. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

OK, let me throw something out there. I've started my next brewing project by growing hops and barley on a small scale.

The barley is harvested and in the barn. The hops are being harvested and dried.

I live on a farm with the opportunity to try this and so I figured I might as well do a scratch brew that's really "from scratch". No, I don't have any experience with all grain brewing, but I'm using the tools/materials I have on hand and I can produce plenty of raw material to practice with. The information here is helping me along.

So...

I've dried a batch of hops and stuffed the cones into canning jars to put in the freezer.
Maybe not as elegant as vacuum packed and sealed but where I live, canning jars are cheap, plentiful, airtight and easy to handle.

Just thought I'd pass that along.

i say go for it. before i bought a vacuum sealer a couple years ago, i used to pack my harvest in pint mason jars and was able to get 4 maybe 5 oz crammed into a jar. of course i utilized a special flashlight as a ram to compress the cones. the one and only time i made malt was while i was working and living at a state run farm. it's a very natural process but it's nice to have an area you don't mind getting messy during the process. final kilning temps were around 210F and i made a bock with the malt. it came out alright - but it was a lot of work. decided to leave the malting to the maltsters. one way to 'ballpark' the alpha of your hops is to look at the amount of lupulin present and make guesstimate of the alpha value compared to store bought hops. my last batch i was using some chinook for bittering which i guessed at 9. i had some that i had bought and were tested at around 12. with these numbers, 1/3 ounce of mine would give me 3 AAU - and 1/4 ounce of the 'known' would give me 3 AAU also. so i took 1/3 oz. homegrown and 1/4 oz. of 'known' and added each to a pint of boiling water until the hops were equally saturated. at this point, i quickly strained the hops out of each pan and tasted the liquid after it cooled a little bit. that's a good thing to do so you don't burn your tongue. i was close, but decided to round my guesstimate down to about 8 and the brew came out fine. it takes a little time but you can figure it out if you're willing to brew a couple 'experiments' in the process. have at it!

Thanks for the tips.

I wondered about how tightly I could pack them. Now
where did the kids put the flashlight?

Your method for estimating alpha is also useful.
and taste testing will help me on an individual small batch basis.
I'm a long way from "consistency" being the primary goal.

I have hallertau and cascade. I don't currently have a bittering hop in production.
Any thoughts about a longer boil to get acceptable bittering?

as far as i know a 60 minute boil will get you about 100% utilization (bitterness extraction). i just kept them in the boiling water for a short time in order to save my taste buds for another day. 3AAU's/pint = 24 AAU's/gallon x 5 gallons = a tongue that doesn't work properly for about a week. ask me how i know this.

I like to fill a large foodsaver bag with as much as I can pound in and then vac it with the machine but stop before it seals. Now you can move the crushed hops to smaller bags. I tend to go with 2oz pouches on the homegrown stuff because I'll never use it for bittering.