flying with hops?

So I'm traveling at the moment and found that the LHBS has cheap hops, so I load up. I also buy some lactose (thinking of a sweet stout in the future) so they'll sell the hops...The only downside is that I've got to fly home at the end of the trip. Just to poll the membership, how much s**t am I going to have to deal with if I take both items back with me? I'm not looking for a cavity search because I decided to pack white powder in my suitcase. Also as a corollary, do I put them in checked baggage or my carry on? I'm leaning toward dumping the lactose and packing the hops in my carry on, so that I'll at least have a chance to explain before they confiscate the smelly green vegetable matter in sealed 1 oz bags........

thanks for your opinions....

b

Domestic, checked baggage, you should be fine. Keep the Lactose. It does say lactose on the bag, right?

International you should have a hard time importing the vegetable matter past the beagles in customs.

go to the ups store and ship the stuff to your house. it will get there before your lost baggage i imagine

Yeah, I was gonna say fedex.

+1 on shipping it to yourself. Airports are enough of a hassle as it is without taking white powder and green plant material with you.

I use to travel for a living, and if it were a domestic flight, I wouldn't think twice about it. Put it in your checked baggage, and if you feel weird in anyway, mention it to the attended when you're checking in at the ticket counter, and/or the baggage check and ask them to inspect it and make some sort of note about it if they have any kind of concern.

Last time I checked there's no restrictions about how much food/sugar/whatever you can carry in your checked bags, only your carry on luggage. I definitely would not try to take it in your carry on. Not with the restrictions on how much lipstick a woman can have in her purse, and the clear baggies everything has to be in.

+1 on putting the hops and lactose in your checked in luggage or shipping them to yourself. As long as everything still sealed in its original packaging I have serious doubts they would do anything about it even if they found it. Just don't go opening up the bags of hops to put your WEED in there, man!

Hey everyone - thanks for all of the advice. I am flying domestically, so no international borders or customs agents to worry about there. I think I've opted to put them in my checked luggage and declare them to the check-in attendant. I'll let everyone know if anything interesting happens...

b

Even on domestic flights though, they still randomly open and search luggage (I'd say that my luggage has been rummaged through with the "we searched your stuff" notice inside, at least 50% of the time.) If that happens, I don't know what the inspectors would make of a bag of hops...

I would make a few copies of your receipts. Rubber band a receipt around each of the most suspicious packages. As the others have said, put your purchases in the checked baggage.

Just don't try smoking them in the airplane bathroom and you should be okay.

I'm pondering this too - I'm going to Berlin in May and would LOVE to bring home some hops from Germany providing I can find some considering the "global hops shortage" we are enduring. I can't help but wonder if this is a commodity play to jack up the prices but I digress. Gotta love conspiracy theories.
So if I can locate hops in a German LHBS and they are vacuum sealed and I include the receipt I wonder if I will run into any hassle with customs. The last time we came back from Germany the only questioning I got from customs was whether or not I was carrying goods for resale - I had four cases of German beer in my luggage. I laughingly advised them that, no, this was all for personal consumption. That raised a few eyebrows so I quickly added "not all at once". This satisfied them and away I went.
I will try to bring some back providing they are available and will follow up with the result.

I would probably consider shipping hops from out of the country myself.