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Can any one suggest a good vaccum sealer?
I'm wondering if anybody can suggest a good vaccum sealer for preserving hops. Granted, all of my plants are 1st year plants, so I may not need it this year, I'd still like to get some ideas just incase. Some of the cones that I did get this year are getting close to being ready to harvest.
I did some research on my own, especially through Amazon, and if you listen to the reviewers all vaccum sealers suck. If you check out one of the other brands, a lot of people will tell you that it doesn't work right, worked for awhile or never worked at all. Then they'll tell you that they're gonna get a Foodsaver.
You check out the reviews on the Foodsavers, and the reviewers are saying the same things about them. I know that they can't all suck completely, some of these products have to work at least to some degree. A couple of reviewers say that they work fine once you learn the trick to using the properly.
So what do you guys think? Is there a trick to it? What makes & models would you recommend?
I have had a Black & Decker VS200 for several years and it still does a good job. I have a suspicion that many of the problems you read about most brands are due to the fact that people don't read directions. (myself included)
After using it mine with varying results for a while, I finally discovered that it makes a difference which side of the bag needs to be against the heating element in order to get a good seal consistently. Regardless of the brand you select, the smooth side of the bag goes toward the heating element. Also, take into consideration how many times you will be opening and resealing a bag of hops and consider that when you size the bag .
Aside from sealing hops and resealing smaller bags of grain, I also cure meats using dry rub and vacuum sealing them. Sometimed a pastrami will sit in the fridge for a couple of months curing and the bags never lose their seal.
If I were going to buy a new vacuum sealer I would seriously consider one that also does containers other than bags.
I got mine used at Savers, it was $8, the real expense is the special bags. It came with about 10 of them, so I should be good to seal up this years harvest. Although when I finally get a chance to brew a batch I think all of them are going into 1 HUGE mfing IPA. Maybe I will call it a triple IIIPA Kinda like my "Pliny My Ass" recipe on roids.
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