HOLY $HIT Hop Order

[Roadie]

Just for reference, you don't have to put them in mason jars as soon as you get them. I just recently opened 4 of my 14lbs of hops I ordered last September when I did a brew last weekend. what was left over of the lbs that were opened were put into mason jars and vacuum sealed. I already had a food saver and had ordered the wide mouth mason jar attachment because I knew that I would need it for this exact purpose. It works right out of the box, but do yourself a favor and read the instructions that come with the wide mouth attachment so you don't waste 30 mins trying to figure out why your jars aren't sealing, like I did. LOL

To save you some reading, don't put the screw on part of the lid on, just the cap. Place the jar attachment over that and seal, then carefully pull the attachment off and screw the lid on

I was wondering if I had to put the hops right into vacuum jars as the bags they come in don't seem to be vacuum sealed at all.

Can you get a pound of pellets into 1 jar?

 

[fpweeks]

thanks for the idea! I've been toying with a vacuum sealer...but haven't pulled the trigger. i have a ton of mason jars. what a great idea!!

 

[Thedutchtouch]

You could always squirt a bit of CO2 into the mason jar to displace oxygen prior to sealing if you're really worried.

 

[passedpawn]

You can easily store 15# of hops in a freezer.

So your saying when I open my Mason jars with hops and getting the same vacuum sound from my home canned meats, stock veggies when I open them that there is o2 in there?

Yes, of course. What did you think was in the empty space?

I looked into it and the foodsaver pulls an admirable vacuum. It gets the jar down to about 6 in.Hg. Atmospheric pressure is about 30 in.Hg. So, using the Foodsaver on a jar will leave 6/30 or 20% of the original oxygen.

20% would be perfectly fine for me... if the bags weren't available. The bags allow you to remove all of it.

 

[passedpawn]

I was wondering if I had to put the hops right into vacuum jars as the bags they come in don't seem to be vacuum sealed at all.

Can you get a pound of pellets into 1 jar?

Hops Direct used to vacuum seal them. A year or two ago they started packing them in nitrogen. So, no vacuum but also no O2.

 

[brewcephus]

I was wondering if I had to put the hops right into vacuum jars as the bags they come in don't seem to be vacuum sealed at all.

Can you get a pound of pellets into 1 jar?

If they aren't properly vacuum sealed in the bags, then absolutely transfer them soon. As to my knowledge, I believe that you could in fact fit a whole pound of pellet hops into a quart jar.

 

[Roadie]

I ordered a Foodsaver GameSaver Duluxe today for my hops.

 

[dyqik]

I think he meant that to remove all O2 via a vacuum, the jar would implode therefore since it has not, there is still O2 residing in it. Whereas a bag will collapse and allow more gas to escape and provide better O2 protection.

No, the jar won't implode if you remove all the air from it. It'll just sit there, containing a very low pressure air (so low that no sound will be transmitted). Same as all my vacuum cryostats, which will happily sit below 1 billionth of an atmosphere without imploding. A complete vacuum only exerts 15psi on the outside of the jar.

 

[johngaltsmotor]

Hint: when you seal them in the foodsaver bags, cut open the 1lb packs and just repackage the pellets. Then make the bag extra long. When you use them just cut off the corner to pour some out and seal that corner. This way you get more use out of the bag. Otherwise you run out of usable bag before you use all the hops.

 

[Roadie]

Hint: when you seal them in the foodsaver bags, cut open the 1lb packs and just repackage the pellets. Then make the bag extra long. When you use them just cut off the corner to pour some out and seal that corner. This way you get more use out of the bag. Otherwise you run out of usable bag before you use all the hops.

Thanks. I may still buy the lid attachment for jars.

 

[kh54s10]

Hint: when you seal them in the foodsaver bags, cut open the 1lb packs and just repackage the pellets. Then make the bag extra long. When you use them just cut off the corner to pour some out and seal that corner. This way you get more use out of the bag. Otherwise you run out of usable bag before you use all the hops.

This^^^

I make my vacuum bags a little bigger than needed. I cut the end off, measure out what I need, then there is plenty of bag left to reseal. I also save any larger bags after being emptied, so I can put smaller amounts in them.

I some times re-seal a bag 5-10 times depending on how big it was at the start.

Actually I don't think even with the bags you will get ALL the o2 out. There is still some small nooks and crannies between the pellets. The only way to get it out totally would be to flush with co2 or nitrogen.

 

[AlCophile]

Don't screw around with vacuum. Even if you don't plan to keg-carb, you will find a million uses for a small cylinder(NOT a tank) of CO2. Buy it from local compressed gas dealer, as they may refuse to accept one of the new aluminum ones from HBS. Call and find out first!!! CO2 is cheap and half again as heavy as air.

 

[kh54s10]

Don't screw around with vacuum. Even if you don't plan to keg-carb, you will find a million uses for a small cylinder(NOT a tank) of CO2. Buy it from local compressed gas dealer, as they may refuse to accept one of the new aluminum ones from HBS. Call and find out first!!! CO2 is cheap and half again as heavy as air.

I doubt that co2 is cheaper than vacuum bags, especially if you reuse the bags as much as possible.

Add in the cost of whatever you are going to use as a container.