The Cane Island Alers (CIA) is a homebrew club located in the town of Katy, Texas, a suburb that sits just shy of 30 miles (48 km) west of Houston. The club was established in 2003 and has more than 70 members in the Katy area. The Alers are currently leading the Lone Star Circuit, a points-based series of competitions throughout Texas that recognizes the top homebrewers and homebrew clubs in the state every year. The club also added a new accolade to their list of accomplishments in 2017: being honored by the Texas State Legislature for bringing home the 2017 Gambrinus Club Award.

Texas House Resolution 116 was introduced on July 25, 2017, and was sponsored by three members of the 85th House of Representatives of the Texas Legislature: Mike Schofield of District 132, Cecil Bell of District 3, and John Zerwas of District 28. The resolution passed the House on August 16, 2017. CIA president Andy Scherzinger, and club members Durran Dowdle and Eric Worth appeared to receive the honor on behalf of the club, which states in summary: Congratulating the Cane Island Alers of Katy on winning the Gambrinus Club Award from the American Homebrewers Association.

CIA member Ryan DeLaRosa’s “The Olga Milk Stout” won first place in the National Homebrew Competition category 14, Sweet Stout, and fellow club member David Rogers won second place in category 6, Bock, for his “Procrastinator Doppelbock.” Those two medals gave the Cane Island Alers the highest per capita point total of any club in the final round of the competition this year and secured the Gambrinus Award for the Alers.

Rep. Mike Schofield, whose district includes Katy and part of Cypress, congratulated the CIA: “I am proud to honor the achievement of the Cane Island Alers at the largest homebrew competition in the world with House Resolution 116. The resolution is jointly authored by Katy-area Representatives Cecil Bell and John Zerwas. Bringing the Gambrinus Award home is a true testament to their skill, and will add even more depth to the vibrant culture and history of Katy. I have no doubt the Cane Island Alers will continue to bring pride to our community.”

Fellow HR116 co-sponsor Cecil Bell added, “Texas is home to champions and in the forefront of free enterprise and capitalism. The Cane Island Alers represent Texas well. Congratulations on winning the 2017 Gambrinus Club Award!” Rep. Bell’s district includes Waller County and part of Montgomery County.

Both DeLaRoa and Rogers were already accomplished homebrewers before their respective first-place and second-place finishes in the National Homebrew Competition this year. The Olga Milk Stout won DeLaRosa a silver medal at the Port City Plunder homebrew competition in North Carolina earlier this year, in addition to gold medals for his blonde ale, pale ale, and IPA recipes at competitions in Cincinnati, Alamo City, and the CIA’s own Operation Fermentation competition in 2016.

Rogers also has won a number of award-winning homebrews, including a Best of Show at the 2011 Big Batch Brew Bash homebrew competition. It was subsequently brewed in collaboration with Saint Arnold Brewing Company and entered into the Great American Beer Festival ProAm Competition that year as Divine Reserve No. 12 Old Ale.

DeLaRosa got his start homebrewing when he bought his first kit from Katy homebrew shop Texas Homebrewers in April 2014. He joined the Cane Island Alers shortly thereafter and immediately became a self-described “obsessed” homebrewer. He is currently in the planning stages of opening his own brewery in his hometown of Dickinson, Texas, another suburb of Houston.

The club recently began using the shop to host their meetings about once a month, which were previously held at No Label Brewing Co. in Katy.

“In addition to our monthly meetings, we occasionally do ‘brew-ins’ at Texas Homebrewers. During these events we like to encourage people who are on the fence about brewing, or who may just want to increase their brewing knowledge, to come out and ask as many questions as they want. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that pretty much everyone in the brewing community is friendly and willing to help. We also hold occasional BJCP judging classes for those who may want to join the ranks of the beer judging community,” said DeLaRosa on his involvement with the CIA. “In addition to all of that we’re just a good group of friends and drinking buddies.”

You can find the recipe for Ryan DeLaRosa’s gold medal winning “The Olga Milk Stout” in the September/October 2017 issue of Zymurgy.

The inspiration for David Rogers’ Procrastinator Doppelbock comes from a vacation to Germany several years ago when he and his wife stopped in to the Andechs monastery on the recommendation of a friend who promised a “life-changing experience.” It was here that he was first introduced to a beer that can still be found in his refrigerator year-round, Andechser Dopplebock. Upon returning from vacation, Rogers began designing a clone recipe of the beer since he knew that it would be difficult to find locally. The beer he submitted in this year’s National Homebrew Competition was his third iteration of the recipe.

“My intention was to make a doppelbock that wasn’t too heavily bodied, so I kept the OG down to 1.084. The mash temp was held at 153, my standard temperature for mashing. Only one hop addition was made to get me to about 20 IBU. The wort was boiled for 120 minutes, longer than my typical boil of 90 minutes due to the amount sparged from the large grain bill. I used a 5 L starter of White Labs Bock Lager yeast and let it ferment at 53°F for about a month, after which time I kegged and lagered the beer for four months.” Rogers said of his brewing process, “These beers take a little more time to develop, and if you have the patience, you are rewarded with a great result.

Named for King Gambrinus, the (unofficial) patron saint of beer, the Gambrinus Club Award is awarded every year by the American Homebrewers Association to the club that garners the most points per total club entries in the final round of the National Homebrew Competition. Six points are awarded for every gold medal, four points for every silver, and two points for every bronze medal in each style category. The award was presented to the Cane Island Alers during the NHC Awards Ceremony at Homebrew Con 2017 in Minneapolis.

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In this recording of a panel discussion from Homebrew Con 2017 in Minneapolis, MN, representatives from three former Radegast Award–winning homebrew clubs—the Carolina Brewmasters, Maltose Falcons, and the Hogtown Brewers—discuss what makes great homebrew clubs. Expect to learn new, exciting ways to engage your membership and take club events to the next level.

To view all Homebrew Con seminar recordings, visit the Conference Seminars section of Let’s Brew on the AHA website.

About our panelists

Drew Beechum has been brewing and writing about brewing since he picked up a kettle in 1999. He is author of The Everything Homebrewing Book, The Everything Hard Cider Book, and The Homebrewer’s Journal, and co-author of Experimental Homebrewing and Homebrew All-Stars. Beechum has written for Zymurgy and Beer Advocate, and he is co-host of the Experimental Brewing podcast. He lives in Pasadena, Calif., with his lovely wife and a loyal army of dogs and cats.

Jason Randall been a member of the Carolina Brewmasters since 1999. He directed the club’s Charlotte Oktoberfest craft beer festival three times and has helped organize the festival, which supports charitable organizations in Charlotte, many other years. Jason has held the offices of treasurer, vice-president, and VP of membership and currently serves as an at-large board member. He began brewing in 1989 and brews all styles of beer using a RIMS keggle system.

Ron Minkoff has been homebrewing in the comfort of his driveway since 2003. For three years he was president of the Hogtown Brewers, the 2016 Radegast Homebrew Club of the Year. He is a BJCP Certified judge who enjoys brewing the occasional seasonal and one-off recipe at Gainesville’s local commercial breweries, one of which was an entrant in the GABF Pro-Am in 2016. He has co-hosted Grow Radio’s Homebrew Talk podcast since 2010, where along with co-host partner John, First Magnitude Brewing Company‘s co-owner, they spread the homebrew gospel one carboy at a time.

Martin Brungard [Moderator] is chairman of the AHA’s Club Support subcommittee, which compiles and develops ideas and content to help homebrew clubs flourish. He is an officer for the Foam Blowers of Indiana and a former member of the North Florida Brewers League. He also regularly contributes to the collective body of brewing knowledge with information on water chemistry and treatment.

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In Zymurgy Spring 1995 (Vol. 18, No. 1) “Club News,” we learned that clubs may apply for not-for-profit status through the Internal Revenue Service. Once clubs are established as not-for-profits, they are considered tax-exempt and are able to make money (tax-free) for club events as well as accept tax-deductible donations. Clubs may also choose to become incorporated not-for-profit entities. Here’s the story of how one club became incorporated.

Our road to incorporation began more than a year ago when the board of directors became increasingly concerned about liability at club events. In addition to providing a forum for local homebrewers, Paumanok United Brewers Inc. (PUB) sponsors pub crawls, bus trips to microbreweries, a summer beer picnic, and our flagship event, the Northeast Craft Brewers’ Festival. Because alcohol is involved in all of these events, the board and I, as president, decided that some form of protection was needed.

Alcohol liability insurance available to all homebrew clubs, though it can be prohibitively expensive. We made extensive inquiries and came up empty-handed. To give an example of the cost, a one-day policy for our Craft Brewers’ Festival cost more than $1,200 and did not even cover alcohol liability, just general liability. Insurance companies are reluctant to write these types of policies, particularly when they learn what a homebrew club does. (Editor’s note: The American Homebrewers Association now partners with a leading insurer to offer affordable club insurance)

On the advice of several attorneys, our next-best course of action was to incorporate and take out a general liability policy for the officers and directors. Generally, a corporation provides a layer of insulation to the officers, directors, and members against being sued individually. Keep in mind that the corporation can be sued, but members, officers, and directors cannot be sued individually, except in extreme cases such as gross negligence, or if a board member or officer acts as an individual and not on behalf of the club. Incorporation is not a substitute for good insurance and judgement, but rather a supplement.

The steps to incorporation differ on a state-by-state basis. However, if your club is interested in pursuing incorporation, a few basic steps are usually similar. First, a club member should contact your state’s Secretary of State or equivalent. This office can advise which forms are needed for that state’s process of incorporation. Second, as there are different types of incorporations, it would be useful to contact an attorney to determine what type of incorporation the club wants to pursue. In PUB’s case we are a domestic, not-for-profit incorporation, Type A, under Section 402 of the New York State Charter.

Because PUB Inc. incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation in the state of New York, we are subject to the provisions in Internal Revenue Service Code Section 501(c)(7). This section deals with membership corporations, which is the closest fit for a homebrew club. Since PUB’s purpose is to promote a better understanding of the joys of homebrewing (an educational role), we decided to incorporate as not-for-profit. Applicable restrictions and regulations vary by state.

Aside from a shield against personal liability for the officers and directors, incorporating as a not-for-profit corporation instead of a regular corporation enables the organization to apply to the IRS and State for letter rulings on not-for-profit status. If approved, the not-for-profit corporation need not file income tax forms if the source of all revenues is from membership dues and/or permitted fund-raising activities, and if total revenues do not exceed $25,000 per year. If total revenues exceed $25,000 per year and/or the source of revenues is not exclusively from membership dues and/or permitted fund-raising activites, then IRS Form 990 must be filed and any applicable taxes must be paid.

If approval is not given, then the corporation must file the appropriate Federal and State Corporate Income Tax Forms and pay all applicable taxes. (Note: after IRS approval, the corporation must apply for State approval). We are awaiting our letter ruling, which could take months. The form to request the ruling is a 25-page document, Package 1024, that asks everything except the officers’ shoe sizes! Our next step is to acquire officers’ and directors’ liability insurance as an additional layer of protection.

On a more mundane level, being a not-for-profit corporation gives the homebrew club more respectability and credibility—many banks offer free checking accounts to such organizations. The downsides to being a corporation are that much more record-keeping is involved, the process itself is time-consuming and expensive ($500 to $1,000 depending on legal fees and state filing requirements), minutes must be taken at member and board meetings, and all requirements and regulations of the not-for-profit law must be strictly followed. In essence, a corporation imposes a certain degree of formality and rigidity on the homebrew club, which can be at odds with the original intent of the organization (it’s no longer possible to simply “relax, don’t worry, and have a homebrew.”)

The detailed regulations that govern not-for-profits are beyond the scope of this article, but simply stated, a not-for-profit corporation may not distribute any of its net earnings to members, directors, officers, trustees or any other individual (except reasonable compensation for services and goods). It is strongly recommended that any club considering incorporation consult with an attorney who can explain the various types of corporations and the myriad restrictions and regulations.

Incorporating may not be for every club, but our club decided that it was a necessary evil. Even with the growing pains, it was the right choice for us.

Marc Arkind is the president of Paumanok United Brewers Inc., Long Island’s largest homebrew club and the president of Alpine Computer Technologies Inc., a Long Island-based computer consulting firm. Marc has been an avid homebrewer for eight years; his interest in homebrewing is an offshoot of his passion for cooking. Marc is also a Certified BJCP judge.

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A step infusion mash is employed to mash the grains. Add 7 quarts (6.7 L) of 140°F (60°C) water to the crushed grain, stir, stabilize, and hold the temperature at 132°F (53°C) for 30 minutes. Add 3.5 quarts (3.3. L) of boiling water to raise the temperature to 155°F (68°C) and hold for about 30 minutes. Raise temperature to 167°F (75°C), lauter, and sparge with 3.5 gallons (13.5 L) of 170°F (77°C) water. Collect about 5.5 gallons (21 L) of runoff. Add 60-minute hops and bring to a full and vigorous boil.

Once you’ve added all of the hop additions, you’ll want to add 0.75 oz. (21 g) of crushed coriander seed with 1 minute remaining. After a total wort boil of 60 minutes, turn off the heat and place the pot (with cover on) in a running cold-water bath for 30 minutes. Strain and sparge the wort into a sanitized fermenter. Bring the total volume to 5 gallons (19 L) with additional cold water if necessary.

Pitch the yeast when the wort temperature is about 70°F (21°C). Ferment at about 70°F (21°C) for one week or until fermentation shows signs of calm and stopping. Rack from primary to secondary and add the remaining 0.5 oz. (14 g) crushed coriander seed. If you have the capability, “cellar” the beer at about 55°F (12.5°C) for one week.

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Access the newest issue of Zymurgy magazine from the comfort of your computer or mobile device!

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Conduct a multi-step mash with the following rests: acid rest at 111 for 15 minutes, protein rest at 122 for 15 minutes, saccharification rest at 154 for 60 minutes, and mash-out rest at 168° F (76° C) for 10 minutes. Sparge at 168° F (76° C). Boil for 90 minutes, adding hops as indicated above.

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Single infusion mash at 152° F (67° C) for 60 minutes, followed by a 10-minute mash-out at 168° F (76° C). Boil for 60 minutes, chill, and ferment. After fermentation, age on Spanish cedar in secondary for 10–12 days with the dry hops.

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Mash at 154° F (68° C) with 4 gal. (15.1 L) of brewing liquor for one hour. Sparge at 172° F (78° C) with 2 gal. (7.6 L). Volume of wort pre-boil should be 6 gal. (22.7 L). Boil for an hour, adding hops, sugar, and brewer’s caramel as indicated. Ferment at 68° F (20° C), removing early head and allowing final head to consolidate well before racking off.

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Situated on a gentle slope in the upper Big Santa Anita Canyon northeast of Los Angeles, Sturtevant Camp is a survivor of a bygone era. During Southern California’s “great hiking era” and gold rush of the late 1800s, many camps and hikers’ hotels were built in the canyon. These remote mountain retreats were accessible only on foot, with provisions delivered by teams of mules. Carrying up heavy casks of beer wasn’t an option, but with a pristine mountain stream flowing alongside the camp, brewing beer on-site became part of the culture.

Almost 125 years later, Sturtevant Camp has returned to its homebrewing tradition with occasional Beer Making & Tasting weekends. The camp’s mule train still brings up food and packs for campers, so guests can pack away ribeye steaks and brownies to pair with beers at the top.

Four Miles and a World Away

I started Sturtevant’s Beer Making & Tasting weekend with high hopes of enjoying every moment of the hike and breathing in nature. But, as I ascended the mountain, my attitude descended into a “WTF did I get myself into?” sort of disposition. I didn’t have hiking boots, just old sneakers. My backpack was far too heavy, and my legs stopped working at one point.

But, the downhill was great! At the start of the trail, you get to steeply descend a good quarter mile into the valley, and it gets cooler and cooler the lower you go. The brown manifestations of Los Angeles County’s drought disappear, and flowers and greenery emerge from underground springs nestled in the mountains.

Alas, what goes down must come up. And up, and up, and up. My breath labored, and my legs started to burn. It felt like one big loop, with lots of twists and turns that could very well lead you in a circle if you didn’t know where you were going. I am a city girl who relies on a GPS, which doesn’t work in the mountains (bring a map if you go).

I began to seriously question my decision-making around mile three when my party became a little confused on the trail. I was tired and lost, and I needed ibuprofen and IPA. Fortunately, at around 3.5 miles, I spotted a call box and desperately cranked it in hopes of getting airlifted out to a moderately priced three-star hotel. The original telephone system has been in operation for more than 60 years and is a single-line, hand-cranked, 6-volt-battery-operated system that runs between Sturtevant Camp and Chantry Flat below.

Deb answered the phone, laughed, told me I was only a half a mile away, and encouraged me to keep going—up. By the time I limped into camp, I was delirious from dehydration. My sneakers were toast and so was I.

Deb greeted us with well wishes and a tidy cabin only a few yards away from a working hot shower. After a nap and a shower, I emerged to happy hour and a beer tasting.

Deb had gone to four different LA breweries and gathered nine outstanding local craft beers for our first night of tasting. The night of beer drinking and zip line rides eventually settled into a friendly game of ping-pong. By friendly, I mean “viciously competitive,” and by settled into, I mean “became an insanely long game with backwoods brewer John Wood.”

Brewing off the Grid

John and Ruth Wood are an interesting couple who spend their weekends living off the grid and brewing beer. Soon after they bought the camp, John developed a craving for cold beer after the long hot hike up the mountain, but the propane fridge used too much gas when they weren’t there. And after starting it up, the fridge took almost an entire day to cool beer to a reasonable temperature. So, John decided year-round refrigeration was in order.

Solar made sense, but sun exposure was poor, so John bought a cheap chest freezer and rigged it to a cheap PID temperature controller (you can get a perfectly good one for $15). This allowed John and Ruth to run the chest freezer at refrigerator temperatures at a fraction of the power consumption (0.16 kWh per day). Now they can have a cold homebrew anytime they walk into the cabin.

On Saturday morning, John discussed basic beer recipes and ingredients with our group. He had brought in an array of hops with a broad spectrum of bitterness and aroma, as well as malts roasted to varying degrees of Lovibond. One thing he hadn’t anticipated was the old sink fixture that couldn’t take a hose adapter for the wort chiller. So, after we brewed, they cleared out one of the propane refrigerators and left the wort to chill till Sunday morning before we pitched the yeast.

John and Ruth then showed us how to sanitize the bottles and bottle beer. Obviously, ours wouldn’t be ready for a while, but John had previously brewed a batch of IPA and had everyone take turns filling and capping to demystify the process. He and Ruth had also hauled up a keg of extra special bitter that was an easy-drinking crowd pleaser. It was hoppier and bigger than a standard English bitter but never in your face.

The weekend demonstrated that by keeping things really, really simple, anyone can make great beer anywhere. Humans have been brewing beer “off the grid” since before recorded history, but the chance to participate in this timeless tradition and enjoy the outdoors was tremendous.

As Will Thrall, San Gabriel Mountains historian and protector, put it, “There is no exercise so beneficial physically, mentally, or morally, nothing which gives so much of living for so little cost, as hiking our mountain and hill trails and sleeping under the stars.”

I think Will forgot to mention the cold ale at the end of that hike.

To reach Sturtevant Camp, take the Santa Anita exit (exit 32) from Interstate 210 and head north. Stay on N. Santa Anita Ave. until it ends at Chantry Flats. If you can find a parking spot at the trailhead, snag it and display your Adventure Pass. Adams Pack Station has overflow parking, but you’ll have to pay $10 even if you already have a pass. This is a well-traveled, well-maintained route with plenty of clear trail signs. With all the “upper and lower” versions of trails, it might get confusing, but if you have a map and know where you’re going, you should be able to find your way. For more information, go to sturtevantcamp.com.

Tracy Hammond grew up on the mean streets of Bangor, Maine and learned early on that she had to fend for herself in the kitchen. She’s the first to admit she isn’t an internationally renowned chef or self-help guru, but Tracy has successfully tamed many alpha males over the course of her lifetime. The author of Feed The Beast: Cooking For Your Alpha Male, she currently lives in Sierra Madre, Calif. with her daughter, dog, and alpha male husband—comedian and writer Joe Bartnick. Connect with Tracy at linkedin.com/in/tracyhammond.

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This homebrew experiment was originally published on Brulosophy.com.

One of my first purchases when I started buying my brewing ingredients in bulk was a vacuum sealer to remove oxygen from the bags I stored hops in. It’s commonly touted this step, particularly when combined with cold storage, can prolong the life of hops in terms of both bitterness potential as well as flavor and aroma. While I can’t be too sure I ever experienced the perils of poor hop storage, the fact that hop suppliers often made it a point to ship their product in the most oxygen-free manner possible was enough to convince me it mattered enough, and the relatively low price of a vacuum sealer was at the very least good insurance.

But not everybody owns, or has a desire to acquire, a vacuum sealer, and I’m aware of some homebrew shops who sell hops packaged loose in plastic baggies. Furthermore, I recall reading a post in a brewing forum about a person who received bulk hops in which the package had been compromised, allowing oxygen in, which had him worried they were ruined. I immediately thought back to the times I used to keep leftover hops in a sandwich baggie stored in my freezer for weeks, and while I often thought the character changed over time when smelling them fresh, I can’t say it ever seemed to have a negative impact on the finished beer. Needless to say, I became curious as to how these different storage methods impact hops and designed an xBmt to test it out!

Purpose

To evaluate the differences between a beer made with hops stored in a non-purged plastic baggie and the same beer made with hops stored in a vacuum sealed bag.

Methods

I received a sealed 1 lb/0.45 kg bag of fresh Motueka hops on November 16, 2016 and immediately split them up, placing half in a vacuum sealed bag and the remainder in a standard sandwich zipper bag that was not purged of oxygen.

The hops were placed in my freezer where they remained until May 31, 2017, nearly 6 months, which the crew and I agreed was long enough for any impact of storage to occur. Given the nature of this xBmt, I thought a fairly hop forward beer using notably flavorful hops was appropriate.

Tight Squeeze Pale Ale

Recipe Details

BATCH SIZE	BOIL TIME	IBU	SRM	EST. OG	EST. FG	ABV
5.5 gal	60 min	32.0 IBUs	4.0 SRM	1.054	1.012	5.4 %
			Actuals	1.054	1.009	5.9 %

Fermentables

NAME	AMOUNT	%
Pale Malt (2 Row) US	11 lbs	91.67
Weyermann Vienna	1 lbs	8.33

Hops

NAME	AMOUNT	TIME	USE	FORM	ALPHA %
Motueka	46 g	60 min	Boil	Pellet	3.4
Motueka	28 g	30 min	Boil	Pellet	3.4
Motueka	28 g	5 min	Boil	Pellet	3.4
Motueka	28 g	3 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	3.4

Yeast

NAME	LAB	ATTENUATION	TEMPERATURE
Flagship (A07)	Imperial	75%	60°F – 72°F

Notes

Water Profile: Ca 69 | Mg 0 | Na 8 | SO4 104 | Cl 49

I made a starter of Imperial Organics A07 Flagship yeast a couple days ahead of time, enough to split between two 5 gallon batches. The night before brewing, I weighed out the grains and collected the RO water for the following day’s brew.

After adjusting the water to my desired profile first thing the following morning, I turned the element in my kettle on and began recirculating the water. While waiting for strike temperature to be reached, I milled the previously weighed out sets of grain.

With strike temperature reached, I mashed in one batch then did the same to the second batch about 20 minutes later to make my brew day less hectic. Both batches were mashed for 60 minutes at the same temperature.

At the end of each mash rest, I removed the grain bags and let them drip until the same pre-boil volumes were reached.

As the first mash rest was coming to a close, I dug up the hops from my freezer and weighed out the additions for each batch.

Each wort was boiled for 60 minutes with hops added as noted in the recipe.

Following each boil, I quickly chilled the wort to slightly warmer than my groundwater temperature before racking equal amounts to identical fermentors.

Hydrometer measurements confirmed both worts were at a similar OG.

The fermentors were placed in my chamber and allowed to finish chilling to my target fermentation temperature of 66°F/19°C, at which point I evenly split the decanted starter between them and dosed each with the same amount of pure oxygen.

The beers was showing similar signs of fermentation just 12 hours later.

I noticed decreased fermentation activity 3 days later and added the dry hop charge to each beer.

Hydrometer measurements taken 5 days after dry hopping showed both beers at reached the same FG.

I proceeded with cold crashing the beer, fining with gelatin, and transferring them to kegs.

The beers were burst carbonated overnight, after which I set the gas to serving pressure and let them sit another few days before presenting them to tasters. The beers looked exactly the same… condensation sucks.

Results

A total of 16 people of varying levels of experience participated in this xBmt. Each participant was served 1 sample of the beer made with vacuum sealed hops and 2 samples of the beer made with hops stored in a non-purged baggie then asked to identify the sample that was unique. While 9 tasters (p<0.05) would have had to correctly identify the unique sample in order to reach statistical significance, only 4 (p=0.83) picked the odd-beer-out, indicating participants in this xBmt were unable to distinguish a beer made with vacuum sealed hops from one made with hops stored loose and non-purged in a standard zipper baggie for 6 months.

My Impressions: When I opened the hops for this xBmt after being stored for 6 months, I expected there to be a difference in flavor and aroma between the beers, as the vacuum sealed hops smelled fantastic and fresh while the hops store loose in a baggie had a noticeable “freezer” scent to them, a mix of meat, plastic, and freezer burn. In 6 blind triangle test attempts, I was able to tell the beers apart 5 times, perceiving the subtlest hint of that freezer flavor in the beer made with loose stored hops. I’m convinced my performance likely would have been worse if I hadn’t smelled the hops beforehand, the difference was just that slight.

Discussion

The focus of this xBmt was specifically on whether vacuum sealing hops helped to preserve quality as compared to hops stored in a regular sandwich baggie without having the oxygen purged. Oxygen is absolutely present in any normal freezer, which led me to believe this xBmt would lead to easily distinguishable beers, but apparently I was wrong, as tasters were unable to reliably tell apart a beer made with vacuum sealed hops from one made with hops stored in a plastic baggie, even after a whopping 6 months.

Well, there you have, vacuum sealers are a waste of money, hops can be stored in baggies without issue.

Except that’d be a really stupid conclusion to draw from this single xBmt result, particularly since oxidation is very real and vacuum sealing hops, at the very least, provides cheap insurance against staling. My hypothesis at this point, admittedly influenced by my ability to detect a very slight difference between the beers, is that the non-purged hops had begun to oxidize but that the cold temperature of my freezer slowed the reaction down. If this is the case, a future iteration of this xBmt where both sets of hops are stored at room temperature ought to produce a different result.

I certainly have no intent to ditch the incredibly simple process of vacuum sealing my hops, as it not only lends me some peace of mind knowing they’re less exposed to oxygen, but it also allows me to store more in my freezer because the bags take up less space. That said, I no longer believe storing hops loose in a baggie for a few days is anywhere near as detrimental as I used to think.

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