I started buying hops by the pound. Looking for storage ideas. I have a vacuum sealer but to do all those 1 oz packs seems a little much. Can I just throw them in a mason jar in the freezer door? Im not storing anything for more than 6 months tops.
I do both vacuum sealed bags and mason jars (have a mason jar attachment for my vacuum sealer). Either work fine.
I vacuum seal the whole pound in a large bag with a lot of extra space. When I need hops I cut open the top, take out what I need, then reseal the bag. One of the reasons why I like bulk hops is that I brew smaller batches and don’t often use even numbers of ounces in a recipe. If my hop bill is 1.6 ounces of one hop, 3.5 of another and 2.25 of a third I don’t need to worry about wasting hops. If I broke everything down into smaller bags I would.
I prefer to vacuum seal in bags but have used mason jars before for hops that were not gonna stay in the freezer long. Both work fine in that case.
[quote=“erockrph, post:3, topic:18040, username:erockrph”]
I vacuum seal the whole pound in a
Same here.
Jars are good too, but with jars .5oz takes up the same amount of space as 4oz.
+1
Unless you’re vacuum-sealing the jars, that’s no better than a zipper bag. Probably worse than a zipper bag with the air squeezed out.
Personally, I just double-bag them.
After reading similar threads on here before, I started buying in bulk pounds and bought a vacuum sealer. One pound per large bag, lots of extra space. I pull out what I need and re-seal. The savings in per oz hops for a years worth of batches more than paid for the sealer

Unless you’re vacuum-sealing the jars, that’s no better than a zipper bag. Probably worse than a zipper bag with the air squeezed out.
Personally, I just double-bag them.
Back before I bought a vacuum sealer, I used to at least purge the jars with a 2.5 lb CO2 tank before filling and closing. No comparison to a vacuum sealer though. Wouldn’t trade my sealer for anything.
Another vote for seal the whole thing, use some, reseal
I use mason jars and flush with CO2 after each use. A buddy of mine showed me this and it works great.
They make an attachment to vacuum seal canning jars. That would probably do a good job.
A lot of the hops are in mylar packaging now. These are super easy to seal with a hot iron. I simply purge the bag with Co2, push as much gas out as possible and seal them on a cutting board.
Edit: I should say, maybe it is not mylar but its the silver packaging that HopUnion ships its hops in.
+1 Vacuum sealer
Since I didn’t own a vacuum sealer, and was looking for an alternative that wouldn’t require one, I found these:
http://www.amazon.com/20-8-75-Seal-Mylar-Storage/dp/B004JG1SNY
I was double bagging them in ziplocks, but could smell hops whenever I opened the freezer, so I knew that wasn’t working. Since switching to these, I smell nothing but empty freezer. I purge with CO2 when I reseal them.