hops by the pound

trying to keep costs down I want to buy hops in larger sizes. How do you split them up and keep them fresh?

vacuum seal and a freezer. :rockin:

^ and add a few grains of rice

I just use my foodsaver and pop them in the freezer. I have 7 pounds coming on Tuesday- I need more foodsaver bags!

jaycount said:

vacuum seal and a freezer. :rockin:

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Vacuum sealers are also handy for keeping specialty grain fresh.

jaycount said:

vacuum seal and a freezer. :rockin:

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+1

I just tightly roll the 1lb bag shut, tape it tight and keep it in the freezer, and call it good.

Temperature is a much bigger issue than oxygen exposure, but definitely put them in a sealed bag and try to remove as much air as possible. Then store in the freezer

Ziplock mylar bags.

i'm using hops that are about 2 years old now that still work fine with the old foodsaver.

Yooper said:

I just use my foodsaver and pop them in the freezer. I have 7 pounds coming on Tuesday- I need more foodsaver bags!

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I have a Rival, but same diff. I quickly went through the original that came with the unit and some rolls I bought at Walmart or Target. I found these at newegg. They work pretty good (except they aren't as easy to write on for some reason with a sharpie marker). http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16896180032. 54 feet of 11" roll (in total) for about $20.50 shipped. Newegg used to also carry the 8" rolls, but the item seems to no longer be available. [I've used newegg for thousands of $ of computer and audio equipment.]

I've sealed up a bunch of hops I bought at rebel brewer, about 4 pounds of locally grown hops (I got for free ), and at least 50 pounds of grains from a group buy I participated in. (I sealed up about half of the grains this way, the rest are in food-grade, air-tight containers for first use.)

Just start with keeping them in the freezer.

I find it a lot of effort to vacuum seal the bags. Usually, when I open a bag, I'll split it into two and vacuum pack half, but I can't get into re-sealing every time I take some hops out.

FYI, I just checked hop aging in BeerSmith. Centennial hops with an AA of 10%, kept 12 months in the freezer and vacuum packed will end up with an AA of 9.15%. If kept in a plastic bag in the freezer it will be 8.35%.

Foodsaver, but with the ball jar attachment. This way I can reuse the ball jar over and over.

hey everyone thanks for the good tips,with costs going up I'm also looking into 50# sacks of base malt. I figure specialty malts I'll still buy by the pound.Just like everyone else here I'm brewing for the holidays, just bottled a mild ale for Thanksgiving and am brewing a fin du monde clone this Saturday for Christmas.Happy holidays to all.Keep on brewin!!

Lenny

I'm not sure that a vacuum sealer is needed. I use a regular impulse heat sealer that I picked up off of ebay inexpensively. That has allowed me to reseal the original 1 lb mylar hop bag over and over again. I just shift the remaining hops into a tight mass and then make sure little air remains in the bag. The bag is then resealed. The metallized mylar reseals nicely. I've used hops for 3 or 4 years and they still smell great. Of course, they are stored in the freezer.

Sure a vacuum sealer would be better, but this works acceptably.

mabrungard said:

I'm not sure that a vacuum sealer is needed. I use a regular impulse heat sealer that I picked up off of ebay inexpensively. That has allowed me to reseal the original 1 lb mylar hop bag over and over again. I just shift the remaining hops into a tight mass and then make sure little air remains in the bag. The bag is then resealed. The metallized mylar reseals nicely. I've used hops for 3 or 4 years and they still smell great. Of course, they are stored in the freezer.

Sure a vacuum sealer would be better, but this works acceptably.

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+1 on a vacuum sealer being nice but not essential. I have one. If I didn't I wouldn't buy one just for hops. I rarely use mine for hops.

I try and buy hops that are packaged in mylar or other bags that can be sealed with heat. I use a hair straightener to reseal. A hair straightener is Teflon coated and convenient to use. I picked one up at Goodwill for $5.

I also use the foodsaver, albeit a generic one I got from amazon for like 20 bucks. I've found the key is to use a loooong bag when first storing your high alpha bittering hops. Otherwise, if you just cut it to size, there won't be enough to reseal when you only pull out an ounce or so.

ChickenHops said:

+1 on a vacuum sealer being nice but not essential. I have one. If I didn't I wouldn't buy one just for hops. I rarely use mine for hops.

I try and buy hops that are packaged in mylar or other bags that can be sealed with heat. I use a hair straightener to reseal. A hair straightener is Teflon coated and convenient to use. I picked one up at Goodwill for $5.

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If you put an oxygen absorber in it, Mylar is even better than being sealed with a foodsaver.

tlaps said:

hey everyone thanks for the good tips,with costs going up I'm also looking into 50# sacks of base malt.

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That's the way to go, IMO. Through our brew club, we group-order 100 to 500 pounds at a time and split it according to how much each individual bought. I put my uncracked base malt into five-gallon jugs (which hold about 25 pounds a piece), seal them tight, and the malt will last for months. Not that it ever sits around that long.

Separated into 1oz packages and vacuum sealed then stored in freezer.

mabrungard said:

I'm not sure that a vacuum sealer is needed. I use a regular impulse heat sealer that I picked up off of ebay inexpensively. That has allowed me to reseal the original 1 lb mylar hop bag over and over again. I just shift the remaining hops into a tight mass and then make sure little air remains in the bag. The bag is then resealed. The metallized mylar reseals nicely. I've used hops for 3 or 4 years and they still smell great. Of course, they are stored in the freezer.

Sure a vacuum sealer would be better, but this works acceptably.

Click to expand...

copyright1997 said:

If you put an oxygen absorber in it, Mylar is even better than being sealed with a foodsaver.

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This is what I do. Cheap impulse sealer with mylar bags and oxygen absorbers.