Just received my 70 oz order of hops. Got 7-8 sort of hops. 6oz , 8 oz to a pound, they putted in a kinda aluminium foil bag. I know ill have to open these bag for my next brew, would like to know the best way to keep it fresh?
How you guys store your hops?!
- Thread starter Beerbuck
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You can probably find one at Target, WalMart, amazon.com, etc.
I found mine on eBay. I think I paid $65 or so for it. You can get cheaper ones, but I highly recommend you look for an actual FoodSaver brand machine.
I found mine on eBay. I think I paid $65 or so for it. You can get cheaper ones, but I highly recommend you look for an actual FoodSaver brand machine.
DocBrown
Well-Known Member
From what I've seen, vacuum packed and stored in a freezer is ideal, but the most important of those two is keeping your hops in the freezer. Once I've opened my 1lb bags of hops, I just keep them in 1gal freezer bags with as little air in the bags as possible. I keep them way in the back of my freezer though.
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As you have probably found out, high temps and air have the greatest negative affect on your hops causing them to stale and lose bittering quality quickly. If you don't have a vacuum sealer, just do the best you can to squeeze all the air out of them. Then keep them in a freezer until ready to use. If you can find a vacuum sealer cheap, it will save you a lot of headaches and allow you to purchase in bulk and know that your hops will stay usable for many months.
HarkinBanks
Well-Known Member
Mason jars vacuum sealed with a foodsaver and stashed in the freezer.
The Alvin Sealer Method stored in the freezer. I bought the hand brake bleeder pump at Harbor Freight for approx $27 and Wide and Narrow mouth FoodSaver mason jar attachements from Amazon for roughly $26 for the pair. IMHO, vacuum sealing mason jars are the way to go no matter how you do the actual sealing due to the ability to reseal over and over. The downside is they don't store as compactly as bags do. A pound of hops fit's nicely in a quart sized mason jar.
HarkinBanks
Well-Known Member
I tried the Alvin method and the brake bleeder broke within a week. Really cheap product from harbor. Save your money and buy a foodsaver on sale with a coupon that come around a lot.
I have been using mine for close to a year now, probably 50 times or more. No problems yet.
Budzu
Well-Known Member
I don't have a foodsaver, and tried one of the little ziploc hand pumps and their vacuum bags. They aren't good for anything but teasing you for a few days.
If you keg and have a CO2 tank, you can try how I do it. I keep my hops in large mason jars which I fully flush with CO2, then freeze. No oxygen and easy open and close. They just need to be re-flushed with CO2 after pouring some hops out for your batch. I didn't like dealing with bags in general.
If you keg and have a CO2 tank, you can try how I do it. I keep my hops in large mason jars which I fully flush with CO2, then freeze. No oxygen and easy open and close. They just need to be re-flushed with CO2 after pouring some hops out for your batch. I didn't like dealing with bags in general.
archiefl98
Well-Known Member
This. Works. Wonders.
1 lb hops = 1 quart mason jar vacuum sealed and re-sealed and re-sealed with no cost of bags
1 lb specialty grains = 1 quart mason jar vacuum sealed and re-sealed and re-sealed with no cosf of bags
If you can fit it in a mason jar, you can seal it and re-seal it and go on and on.
There's a post on this site somewhere for a 40% off coupon for foodsaver.com. Since you can also use it for storing food (allegedly) you can convince SWMBO that it's not a "beer" purchase but rather it's a "home" purchase.
I buy the off brand vacuum seal bags from WalMart for 11.00. I used to individually weigh out hops in 2oz and 4oz increments.....I DID THAT ONCE what a PITA!
I now just make two larger bags and 1 1lb bag yields two vacuum sealed bags. On brew day I wait until the hop addition, cut it right below the seal line, take out what I need and reseal it....back in the freezer. This works the best, unless you like to tediously weigh out whole leaf hops and get them all over the floor.
FWIW I stored a few ounces of left over pellet hops in the freezer in a zip loc...within a month time they lost all aroma....trash.
I now just make two larger bags and 1 1lb bag yields two vacuum sealed bags. On brew day I wait until the hop addition, cut it right below the seal line, take out what I need and reseal it....back in the freezer. This works the best, unless you like to tediously weigh out whole leaf hops and get them all over the floor.
FWIW I stored a few ounces of left over pellet hops in the freezer in a zip loc...within a month time they lost all aroma....trash.
BendBrewer
Well-Known Member
I boil mine in some wort, ferment and bottle.
+1 on the foodsaver. I got a cheap Seal-a-meal and it worked ok. Then the thing just quit. I'd hardly used it, and it was many years old, so I got another. Then before long the sealer strip started screwing up (the anti-sitck coating came off so the melted bag stuck to the strip). I fixed with some very inexpensive teflon tape when the company refused to replace it or supply parts.
Then my grandma gave me her old Foodsaver and even though it's a much older model, it worked flawlessly for me. I've heard others say the foodsaver is a better machine than the rival.
Then my grandma gave me her old Foodsaver and even though it's a much older model, it worked flawlessly for me. I've heard others say the foodsaver is a better machine than the rival.
