2015 Hops group buy

[krockett]

 Considering the price of hops here now should we look at doing it this year?

I see the 2015 hops are starting to get listed now on Yakima - we wont see these here until April/ May 2016 if last year is anything to go by.

Anyone involved in the 2012 hops group buy - was it worth it? Any advice on shipping etc?

Thanks,

[molc]

Personally, I'm waiting on the interesting varieties to appear on the Yakima website and then going to do a single order from them for my american hops this year, unless the irish homebrew stores get supplies before November/December.

[Leann ull]

Yep I just threw out the last of my 2012 leaf hops even though they were vac packed and in freezer.
I really don't see the point in group buys in consumables any more because the shops have lowered their prices, but more importantly I want the freshest of ingredients in my beer and even though i vac pack and freeze pellet only now it still doesn't have the punch or zing after 6 months
I did buy some direct last year and missed the duty radar, this year I will get a relative to bring me back some to brew over Christmas but only what I need for 3 months.
Might be good for something like cascade where the potency tanks in 6 months and you got 10 guys buying 500g each

[Taf]

Totally agree with CH in relation to getting too many hops via group buys, as I cleared out a full freezer as well recently. I had a look at the Yakima site, but notice they only ship pellets internationally and not leaf. I think pellets obviously last better, but I think fresh leaf beat fresh pellets, so I might order some leaf from Yakima and see if I can persuade a work colleague to bring them back. Otherwise I will just order fresh as possible from Irish/UK homebrew companies, and try not to wince too much at the price, and consider the lack of waste.

[LordEoin]

The compost heap doesn't seem to appreciate hops as much as we do.
Yeah, and the amount of work that goes into splitting, packaging and distributing makes it a bit of a false economy.
That said, if you were to start up a group buy I'm sure you'd get plenty of interest.

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

Get'er Brewed have some 2015 pellets available now

[LordEoin]

there you go, fresh hops at your door by monday

[krockett]

I suspected there was a reason this hadn't been repeated since 2012!

[Leann ull]

The guys in NCB did a pellet one in 250's or five hundreds, it was great crack to do the original and we were all mad keen.
Picture the scene, I did it in my office over Christmas which is in the middle of a residential area, white sheets on floor and 8 shifty looking fellas bagging out green leaves with 2 scales and 2 vac sealers
They were fresh hops as well via the office girls though a Tom Cat got in over Christmas from the residual smell of cascade and citra.

[krockett]

Must look and smell pretty illegal! That could potentially be hilarious...

[cruiscinlan]

Must look and smell pretty illegal! That could potentially be hilarious...

May be of interest: http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/forum/index.php/topic,14691.0.html

[Shanna]

I suspected there was a reason this hadn't been repeated since 2012!

Well there was another one done in 2014 for 2013 hops. It was delayed due to some hops being sent to various locations. We went exclusively with pellets and got everything bagged in a few hours. Key thing is to have a lot of vacuum packing machine and people to pack and label. I think we had two weighing & packing & two sorting & labelling the packed hops. We included the price of the bags in the group buy cost. Sean who ran the group buy bought vacuum bag rolls and cut and presealed one end of loads of different cut sections to form pouches to fill and seal. It was not insurmountable but I would echo what others said you probably will end up chucking a lot. If your going to do it stick with a small number of hops that you will use a lot of.

Shanna