Stupid idea or not that bad? So I'm about to open a 1lb bag of hops and can't afford a vacuum sealer right now and have no way of creating a vacuum. I have a carbonator cap, would purging a 2 liter bottle, adding hop pellets, re-purging and the sealing under pressure before freezing be any better than just freezing in a zip lock bag?
If you can get temp down really cold AND eliminate most of the oxygen should be great. You could probably do the same in ziplocks. Pour in, fill with CO2, then squeeze out CO2. Now that I think about it, what a great way to store that facilitates dosing onto a scale then into the boil/beer. Just recap and purge.
One potential problem is that neither zip lock bags or plastic bottles are 100% oxygen impermeable, bottles seam like they would be better, but I don't know if either is good enough at a low temp.
that´s a good idea if you plan to storage that hops for a long time, if you´re going to brew weekly it´s not necessary, the ziplock to the freezer works just fine
I would say "yes" . . . if the bottle doesn't explode. And the smallest bottle possible would help (less headspace and/or fewer exploding fragments ) Here's a po-man's way to vaccum seal a Mason jar: http://www.amazon.com/Ziploc-Vacuum...d=1428368085&sr=8-12&keywords=jar+pump+sealer The bags shown with the pumps aren't worth a damn, but if you buy Mason jars and get this attachment you can do a better'n average job of extracting the air and sealing it airtight: http://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-T03...id=1428368086&sr=8-1&keywords=jar+pump+sealer Here's a tutorial (this is for sealing lettuce, but use your imagination and she's packaging hops while wearing a leather bustier with snakes in her hair): If you think this is too "prissy" you can do the same thing with this cap and an auto brake-line vacuum pump. I use a combination of Mason jars and Mr. Foodsaver Bag. I find the biggest problem is the opening and re-opening of the container (jars or bags). When I first open a large bag of hops I try and re-seal in multiple bags of 2 - 3 ounces each for future use. Sometimes I think I'm a puppet for the Homebrewing Accessory Maifia . . .
Storing your unused pellets in a glass jar or plastic container with a tight fitting lid in a freezer with limit alpha loss to acceptable levels. Use a hop-aging index chart / app / formula to adjust your hop bill so you get the right IBUs.
I have had lots of success just manually squeezing the air from my Ziploc freezer bags. I have a deep-freeze that is kept below 0° Fahrenheit, though, which I think helps a lot.
