Advice on buying hops in bulk

I am looking to buy some hops in bulk (1 lb of each variety) when they are next available. How do you store them? Do you get one of those food sealers and break them up into 1-2 oz chunks? If so can you recommend the sealer and give approximate cost of bags and as well as initial sealer itself. The next thing would be recommendation for a scale that would accurately measure the hops. I am the type of person who likes to buy good quality items first instead of buying something cheap and crappy first and eventually upgrading to the best.

Tell me how you do it and what works for you. Thanks in advance.

I have an old foodsaver, so can't weigh in too much on good current models. As far as storage after cutting the vacuum sack they are shipped in for my first batch I repackage them all in the foodsaver then cut open and reseal with each batch. I use an escali scale. The black on is only $21 from amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007GAWRS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

For a scale, google ultraship. Good quality and very accurate.

Pellet hops I get in bulk come vacum sealed. When I break em open, I put what I don't use in a ziplock freezer bag and then in a mason jar in my keezer/kegerator.

While searching for ultraship & escali ($25) I came across this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012N1NAA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

$10.79 with free shipping after $25

Read some reviews of Foodsaver and signed up for their email newsletter. According to a poster they sometimes email 30-50% off coupons. Worth checking out.

See what kind of stuff we accomplish when working together

i scored one of these guys for $5 during a promo
http://www.foodsaver.com/product.aspx?pid=7076

works great for this type of application

i use an "eatsmart" scale from amazon that was ~$25 - my LHBS uses a very similar model

Hops are best stored in the freezer, sealed within the metallized mylar bags. A vacuum sealer is great, but I just have a commercial heat sealer unit that I picked up from Ebay without any vacuum.

Purchasing hops in the 1 lb packs is a good way to go. Carefully slice the bag and pour out all the hops you need for the day's brew. Push the hops down to the end of the bag and apply the heat seal as close to the hop mass as possible. Vacuuming would help, but I find that you don't really loose that much if you're storing the hops in the freezer. I've had 1 lb packages last for a couple years with proper sealing and storage.

Be sure to pick up a scale that can measure down to a tenth of a gram. It is useful for hop measurements and mineral measurements for your water.

Be sure to buy your hops in the cold weather months so that you won't have to pay for expedited shipping to avoid overheating your hops. If you buy them in the hot weather months, those hops will be exposed to way too much heat during shipping.

Enjoy.

I have a food saver and an escali scale love em both. food saver has many other homebrew uses. Odd amounts of crysta 60? food saver. red currants for my wine. food saver. lol bags also strong enough that after thawing the currants i was able to take a rolling pin to it and crush all the berries.

I put mine (pellets) in quart size canning jars, flood with CO2 and then vacuum seal the jars with the foodsaver jar sealer($6) using a brake bleeder as that's what I already had. 1 quart jar easily holds a pound or more.

Thanks for the suggestions. My only option to buy whole hops by the pound is to wait for the next season which is Fall / Winter.

why is that your only option? lots of places sell by the pound year round. try fiftypoundsack.com

Bulk hops is a great way to save money and have hops ready for brewing when you are.

I weigh out and foodsaver hops in packages that meet my recipe needs, so that means I weigh out and save hops in 3 to 6 oz packages.

tchuklobrau said:

why is that your only option? lots of places sell by the pound year round. try fiftypoundsack.com

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Thanks for this store, I didnt know about it previously. I am looking to buy whole hops and breaking them down into smaller chunks like Edwort does. My point to buying hops is to experiment more with individual variety. Yesterday after I posted this topic I did more searching and found that Rebel Brewer had Sorachi Ace in stock. I bought last 6 oz of that and Brambling Cross hops which I never heard of before. They are supposed to have black currant & lemon aromas and I am hoping to use both Sorachi & Brambling Cross in my upcoming Lemongrass Wheat. Places I was going to buy from are sold out for the season and they sell whole hops, not pellets.

Pivzavod said:

Thanks for the suggestions. My only option to buy whole hops by the pound is to wait for the next season which is Fall / Winter.

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My suggestion was going to be to wait until the new harvest. You will see whole hops up in Hops Direct's store in probably 2 months or so. At this point why not wait 2 months to get hops a year fresher than what is for sale now? Prices will probably be about the same.

I use a foodsaver (cheap on ebay) and the jar sealer. Works just fine, and they're re-sealable.

What kind of hops are you looking for? i have about 8# in my keezer, all getting old. Lemme know what you're looking for and I'll dig them out.

B

I just ordered 24 oz of hops from RB. I should be good for a while.

If you have vacuum package capability, that will be a plus, but it is not necessary.

Store hops in freezer.

Open bag and weigh out hops, close bag and get rid of as much air as possible, keep in original bag, but bag in a ziplok bag too and re-store in freezer.

I usually break a bag, and re-vacuum pack half of the hops, and just store the rest in ziplok bags.

For reference. Using Beer smith. Citra hops stored for a year at 0F. Original AAs = 1%.

Vacuum sealed = 11.41% AAs
Barrier package/Jar = 11.13% AAs
Plastic Bag = 10.85% AAs

Pivzavod said:

While searching for ultraship & escali ($25) I came across this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012N1NAA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

$10.79 with free shipping after $25

Read some reviews of Foodsaver and signed up for their email newsletter. According to a poster they sometimes email 30-50% off coupons. Worth checking out.

See what kind of stuff we accomplish when working together

Click to expand...

I have the 100g .01g precision version of that. I got it primarily for precisely measuring out water mineral additions, but it also works great for hops. The escali scale is not precise/accurate enough for measuring out fractions of ounces of hops, particularly for high alpha hops in 5 gallon batches.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012LOQUQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I never pre-weigh hops. I just put them into a bag and vac seal. Every recipe is different so why pre-weigh? Some calling 1.5 oz, others want 2 oz. You often end up with extra hops when weighing out the recipe and these need to be resealed anyway. I make long bags that hold many ounces and re-re-re-seal them until empty.

Also I always buy hops in early fall as some as they offer 'new crop' for sale. Guaranteed fresh.