Resealable Hop Packaging -- Too Much To Ask?

[mac_1103]

Foodsaver bags are made of nylon-reinforced polyethylene, so I would assume that they should have the same gas permeability properties as any other polyethylene film of comparable thickness. Airtight does not mean impervious to diffusion.

 

[esdill]

Dusted off my wife's old vacuum sealer when I retired and started brewing more often. Actually didn't just dust it off, but gave it a very thorough cleaning. Only to find out when I plugged it in that it doesn't work anymore. And those suckers have gotten pricey 30 years later.

I found one at the Goodwill store, like new, for $1.99. Check second hand stores ...

 

[HopSing]

I've stored my open hops bags in mason jars with vacuum seal lids for a year or more without any noticeable change to hop characteristics, at least to me. When you pump the air out of the jar, if the hop bag has been opened you can watch it compress much like you would see with a vacuum bag, so I'm pretty sure all of the air (O2) is being pulled out. The hand pump makes it easy and convenient to use and store. No plugs or batteries required.

I could not find the exact one's I bought a few years ago, but it is very similar to this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B9T26LBW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A20BO23F68DEX5&psc=1
Once sealed and pumped out, I put the mason jars in the freezer.

~HopSing.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, when I grew hops for seven years I dried and vac' bagged them using Foodsaver standard bags. Inevitably there would be a bag that got punctured by a stem during the process so I'd have to rebag those, and occasionally there'd be a bag with a bit of leaf in the seal which would slowly fail and be easily found, but otherwise they'd stay sucked tight for literally a year or more before they got used up...

Cheers!

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I would like to know more about the permeability of the Foodsaver bags. If they are not tight then the purpose is defeated. I know the jars are not 100% the best solution but they do offer glass as the barrier and they are easily resealable. And reusable.

There is this thread here with some mixed info. This linked post seems to have the best information:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/vacuum-sealing-oxygen-barrier-bags.303070/post-6426502

 

[MaxStout]

Th

I would think bags would be much better than jars. Evacuating a bag has the benefit of reducing the air volume as the bag collapses. With a jar, you've always got the full volume, and the advantage of vacuum sealing is only as good as the strength of the pump ... for household devices, this means you're probably leaving ~20% of the air in the jar.

The vac sealers don't pull a very high vacuum, something around 20" Hg, so you have about 1/3 atmosphere left in the jar. Unless the jar is packed tightly with hops and filled to the top, you have lots of air left. With the bags there's still 20" vacuum, but it's collapsed and much less air volume left inside.

 

[Bassman2003]

Thanks. I think the bags are probably good enough from a barrier perspective along with the jars if they are both stored in a freezer. I purchased some very small jars for single recipe loads which helps with the amount of atmosphere to begin with.