[denny]

Foodsaver users . . how do you vacuum seal your hops in terms of quantity? bulk or batch size . . or some of both?

Since I don't own a vacuum sealer, but am entertaining the idea, I assume once you open a sealed bag and use only a portion, you can reseal and purge the same bag again?

I usually pack them in bulk since I'm lazy.  I leave enough extra bag so that I can reseal them easily.  If I'm not being lazy, I'll just do a few oz. per bag.

[babalu87]

Foodsaver users . . how do you vacuum seal your hops in terms of quantity? bulk or batch size . . or some of both?

Since I don't own a vacuum sealer, but am entertaining the idea, I assume once you open a sealed bag and use only a portion, you can reseal and purge the same bag again?

Yes

I add as much as the bag will hold and just re-seal every time.
You lose around 3/4-1" of bag every time you cut it open so just make the bag a few inches bigger.

A pound of hops gets very small when vacu-sealed

[enso]

I ended up yanking the hops from the keg after about 3-4 days.  It was getting wicked grassy.  My friends thought it was great early in the evening at a competition the other night.  Later in the night one of the same friends not knowing which beer he was drinking said "it tastes like seafood"!

 

 

Ah well.

[dean]

  It tasted excellent before I dry hopped it.  It later developed some oxidation, a salty kind of character.  Now whether that was from the hops or it had been there all along and just became more noticeable later I don't know.

Thats interesting, I've had a couple of batches lately that tasted a little salty, I used some HG hops I bought from someone about a year or so ago... hydroponically grown hops... maybe I need to do a split batch.  I blamed everything, even Oxiclean... I still don't know for sure what it was.

[denny]

I've been dry hopping with homegrown hops for nearly 10 years and never experienced "salty" from it.  I'm at a loss to think of any way that could even happen.

[enso]

The salty flavor I experienced was not directly the hops per se.  It was a function of oxidation (which may or may not have been introduced from the introduction of the hops), or possibly some autolysis.

[denny]

Boy, I've never heard of either of those things causing "saltiness".  Weird, man.

[enso]

 

Sorry, let me rephrase that.  I believe it is from oxidation or autolysis.  I actually never really figured it out for certain.  I have read that oxidation can give a salty flavor and that autolysis can give a meaty or soy (umami) like flavor.  Like I said, not sure if it was the hops.  Not really sure of anything.     Just talkin' out me arse...

I do though now really taste that seafood flavor my friend mentioned.  I can't get it out of my head.  It is not grass anymore it is definitely like shrimp or something.