This is the coolest thing. I want one.

[soccerdad]

We had a club brew day yesterday for the first time since the onset of Covid 19. Just three of us as we knew these 3 would not eschew masks or social distancing. I had not brewed with our host in a while and he showed me the coolest thing ... a mason jar vacuum sealer. Turns out this is HARD TO FIND AT A REASONABLE PRICE. It's actually two items, but Gary says he got then together for under $50. Item one is a small hand held cordless vacuum pull machine - about the size of a cordless screwdriver. Gary's was a "freshsaver" from Food Saver. The stores that have them for $30 are out of stock and it looks like they have been for a while. Mr Dick Rocket - excuse me, Amazon I mean - wants 100 bucks. The item easily fits in a drawer or in your "brew day box." Part two of the unit is maybe 4 inches around - 100 millimetres - and maybe half that in height. It sits down over a wide mouth canning jar, and the hand held pulls a vacuum from a small hole. A typical large wide mouth jar easily hold a pound of pellet hops and he keeps his yeast in a jar as well. Any of you have experience with this? In the video here she uses a packmate vacuum puller, but this idea is exact same.

 

[FrostyBeach]

Any of you have experience with this?

I use mason jars vac sealed like that to store my hops in the freezer. It works great.

 

[soccerdad]

@FrostyBeach - can you say the brand names?

 

[Craigerrr]

This is interesting. I use a vacuum sealer, and the bags. I start with large bags so I can reuse them, but I do find that I am going through a fair bit of plastic. I would be interested in something like this, but would want to figure out a way to first purge the jars with Co2, or Nitrogen.

 

[soccerdad]

Me too Craig. I would love to reduce the plastic waste. I think if you had a bottle filler that fills from a keg, you could purge with co2 before sealing the jar. That is my understanding of how the bottle fillers work .. 1) purge with co2. 2) fill bottle and beer pushes co2 and any o2 out 3) cap on the foam. I could be wrong. I was once.

 

[HighVoltageMan!]

I have a Food Saver with an external vacuum output. Now I know what to do with it! Thanks, very cool!

Edit: This would work really well for long term DME storage.

 

[soccerdad]

I wish I had that port on the cheap bag sealer that I pretty much don't use.

 

[Donoroto]

I have a Food Saver with an external vacuum output. Now I know what to do with it! Thanks, very cool!

Edit: This would work really well for long term DME storage.

I have the same one. So now I have to make a small vacuum chamber - some 6" pvc pipe and sealable ends, one with a hole for the sucker - and seal stuff in jars. I will shoot it with co2 first.

 

[Zambi]

I found a couple of thingy things on amazon, started off with googling vacu vin as it looked like something they might do.
I found this https://www.amazon.nl/-/en/dp/B08HG...e-7f319476a0fa&ref_=pd_gwm_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_m

If you check further down you see a whole lot of vacuum sealers it is compatable with.
I'm happy to check further for you, if this is close to what you would like.

Or this
https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B08R9564F8...er&qid=1632739826&sprefix=vacuum+seal&sr=8-16

 

[Minbari]

For all that want to purge co2 and don't have a keg setup. Paintball co2 cylinders work. I have a small one just for that purpose

 

[soccerdad]

Do you have a picture Minbari? It would be nice to see how your set up looks.

 

[Minbari]

Do you have a picture Minbari? It would be nice to see how your set up looks.

I take a pic when I get home.

 

[soccerdad]

This is what mine looks like .. without the gas bottle, but easy to see where it connects. I can just spin off the gas QD, set the gas to one or two psi and toggle the switch to allow gas to flow. I bought the pin valve regulator a while ago. Maybe 50 or 60 $. I had the tubing, clamps and QD already.

 

[Minbari]

Here is what i use. Can purge my fermentor or anything small

I also use it to push the recirc wort back into the boil pot after mashing. (Out of the herms coil)

 

[FrostyBeach]

@FrostyBeach - can you say the brand names?

Yup it's an old food saver brand one that I inherited. It had the port so I just found the jar lid kit at the hardware store. if you're careful prying, you can reuse the jar lids.

 

[Ward Chillington]

Here's the one I use...the bags are a little pricey but they work better than the Food Saver brand which is not made for freezing. I have a set of the jar sealers which get regular use. I think mine is about 2 years old...keep liquids out of it and it works great!

https://www.amazon.com/LOVISIDA-Aut...ild=1&keywords=Lovisida&qid=1632878502&sr=8-6

 

[soccerdad]

I have the same one. So now I have to make a small vacuum chamber - some 6" pvc pipe and sealable ends, one with a hole for the sucker - and seal stuff in jars. I will shoot it with co2 first.

@Donoroto - the first part of my purchase came in the mail today. I believe a 4 inch pvc clean out would do it. Affix flexible weatherstrip on the inside of the clean out to reduce down to about 3.5 inches. Need it to snug to the jar. Then drill a hole in the square wrench grab in the top. Prox 1/4 inch. Might take a little futzing around, but not much.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

Here's the one I use...the bags are a little pricey but they work better than the Food Saver brand which is not made for freezing. I have a set of the jar sealers which get regular use. I think mine is about 2 years old...keep liquids out of it and it works great!

https://www.amazon.com/LOVISIDA-Aut...ild=1&keywords=Lovisida&qid=1632878502&sr=8-6

@Ward Chillington, do these bags hold a vacuum? I ask because the Food Saver reusable bags had a 50/50 chance of holding the vacuum.

 

[Ward Chillington]

@Ward Chillington, do these bags hold a vacuum? I ask because the Food Saver reusable bags had a 50/50 chance of holding the vacuum.

Yeah, I had the same experiences with foodsaver and for a cheap bastard starts like me, not getting a second life outta anything is painful! And when I read that they did not recommend using their premade bags for freezing then, no go! The bags in using as after buys is this one

https://www.amazon.com/FOYO-Storage-Reusable-Double-layer-Designed/dp/B07NV7JGY7/ref=sr_1_2?
dchild=1&keywords=Foyo%2Bbags&qid=1633050015&sr=8-2&th=1

And I do get the occasional dud but it's liveable. Keeping pointy things like my mash rolls out of them helps keep them in multiple use shape!