The Great Chinese Hop Buy 2009

[townsville]

Be careful with these posts Graham, the Chinese Intelligence Service might see this and think your about to smuggle Hoi Ong & Pui Sui or such out of the country and launch a full scale investigation and we'll never see the bleeding things at all then!!! You've already got the American Intellegence services harassing poor sods in the US after they intercepted your transmissions remember.

Whisper :icon_cheers:

Thats right, its amazing how easy it is to get those called "Intellegence" people calling on some-one with just a few words. And yes Craftbrewer, its true, I did get some Black Tinted Cars following people in the USA with some carefully crafted words.

So be WARNED I dont do the same to you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Craftbrewer

 

[beerDingo]

Thats right, its amazing how easy it is to get those called "Intellegence" people calling on some-one with just a few words. And yes Craftbrewer, its true, I did get some Black Tinted Cars following people in the USA with some carefully crafted words.

So be WARNED I dont do the same to you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Craftbrewer

Did you send some e-mails via Echelon? Yes, it's not hard for him to read your e-mail (well, he reads everything).

 

[Maxt]

That's ok Graham, with the way you spell, the Chinese wouldn't have a prayer of translating. :icon_cheers:

 

[goomboogo]

"with some carefully crafted words."

Craftbrewer

:lol:

 

[InCider]

Wide Goose Chase



Just seeing if our Chinese cousins can translate my Engrish for thread protocol for important messages and spying etc.

 

[OzMick]

Got one of these guys the other day for vacuum sealing mine when they arrive: http://www.grainmills.com.au/category70_1.htm

Basically you put a hole in the lid of a glass jar with a thumb tack, put a one-way valve sticker over the hole, then use the pump to suck the air out, after that the vacuum in the jar ensures that the sticker is held down tight. Has some reasonable reviews around the web from the hippies and the folks who preserve everything for when the apocalypse comes, so for $65 delivered grabbed one. Seems to be holding a decent seal on the couple of jars I've played with, no idea how much air it is actually removing and how it goes with longer term storage but for the price I'm pretty happy, might have to get a few sacrificial jars of baby food or something and force it to go off at room temperature or something to compare with/without the vacuum. Edit: marshmallows might give a good demo of how strong the vacuum is, might grab some on the way home too. A bit bulky to store jars in the freezer, but at least it is better than just sticking opened packs of hops in tupperware, can reapply the vacuum after taking stuff out this way. There are also instructions on the web for how to make your own valve stickers, so not too expensive to use once you've bought it, and can reuse lids heaps of times once they are prepared, so no expensive vacuum bags or tube to have to keep buying.

Just figured someone else might be after a different way of storing such bulk quantities of hops when they arrive.

Edit: can apparently vacuum seal zip-lock bags too, but instructions advise running a strip of vegetable oil inside the bag to form a temporary seal before the zip is finally closed (need to insert a tube in the bag then remove without losing the vacuum, so need that second virtual seal for it all to work if you can get your head around it). I haven't tried it yet, and I think it would work just fine, but I think the oil is necessary so probably not a useful solution for homebrew, would likely kill head retention unless a very fine amount is used on a big bag. Would be awesome for taking food camping/hiking though, which I think is the intention of using ziplocks.

 

[Rodolphe01]

Could use olive oil, doesn't yeast go nutty for it or something?

 

[T.D.]

mmmmm

Just got a quote from ANOTHER SOURCE on a host of European Nobels hops, the complete stable. This years harvest too.

looking at $15.00 a kilo landed in Australia, then say $5.00 to get it thru the the Clearing House to me.

Its amazing the hop businesses crawling out of the woodwork want me to do business with them after this Chinese deal.

Craftbrewer

So are these the genuine Euro varieties? Sounds pretty good. Keep us posted!

 

[brettprevans]

Could use olive oil, doesn't yeast go nutty for it or something?

yeah but its like 1ml in an entire batch. not oil soaked hops.

 

[OzMick]

yeah but its like 1ml in an entire batch. not oil soaked hops.

It probably doesn't take much oil to actually pull it off, like a smear from a fingertip, and not all of it would necessarily ever even touch the hop pellets, but if you need to open and reseal the bag a few times it could accumulate to a not so insignificant amount. I'd rather not have any oil introduced to my beer if I can avoid it, and the jar method is so much quicker and easier anyway. The oil might even oxidise the hops just like air would, don't know and don't really care to find out.

It might be a reasonable idea for sealing a full 1kg bag in bulk that will only ever be opened once or twice to pull out smaller working amounts, but pellets are dense enough that it wouldn't take many jars anyway. But just to be clear: there is no way in hell I nor anyone should expect the packers to do this, and I wouldn't want them done this way anyway.

 

[townsville]

UPDATE

BOY oh BOY, Those lambic predictions may come true

I was warned by some-one that the Chinese cant be relied on when they set a date for something to be exported. I was also warned to expect delays getting them out of the country. BUT no not me, I thought it would be straight away. Not so.

Well I was proven wrong. They have delayed it again

exact words from the exporter

"you might be never imagine how difficult it would be for goods to be passed through the SHIT customs inspection, thanks to God, the inspection is OK, but the flight CAN'T be confirmed, because this is the third time to cancel the flight
---- forwarder promise that goods must be on board by next Tuseday"

So this weekend for a delivery has been put off.

Looks like Christmas is looking good at the moment.

Graham L Sanders
Craftbrewer
Skype 'Craftbrewer'
http://radio.craftbrewer.org

 

[brettprevans]

i renew my debt collection offer.

in seriousness this is sounding so dodgy Graham (from their end, not yours). you dont just cancel cargo flights as there's always cargo to go out. and again why would it be inspected by customs again.

shithouse chinese export agents. timne for them to earn their fees.

 

[chappo1970]

i renew my debt collection offer.

:lol: CM2

 

[Darren]

Ross's hands must almost be "skinless" right now :lol:

 

[Pollux]

Sweet Jesus, so glad I chose to pull out of this one......

They may be cheap, but I'm willing to pay for reliability..........Actually, didn't I predict something like this occurring???

 

[chappo1970]

Ross's hands must almost be "skinless" right now :lol:

In Darrens world....

 

[AndrewQLD]

Not to worry Graham, no rush for me, I've still got 7 kilos of hops in freezer to use anyway.
Realistically I think most people in this buy are there out of curiosity as apposed to desperately needing hops they have never tried before.

Cheers
Happy to wait AndrewQLD

 

[brettprevans]

Realistically I think most people in this buy are there out of curiosity as apposed to desperately needing hops they have never tried before.

+1

thats what im in it for.

 

[chappo1970]

Not to worry Graham, no rush for me, I've still got 7 kilos of hops in freezer to use anyway.
Realistically I think most people in this buy are there out of curiosity as apposed to desperately needing hops they have never tried before.

Agreed :icon_cheers:

 

[Paul H]

In Darrens world....

Yes & I bet I know where the other hand is :blink:

Cheers

Paul