Vacuum ziploc bags

My family has started buying and sharing a side of grass feed beef and we just had to make room in the chest freezer for a mountain of meat.  It seems like a lot upfront, but my wife and I hardly bought meat over the summer last year so it feels like it makes sense for us.  While I was re-arranging the freezer I saw my huge pile of frozen pumpkin and frozen blackberries.  I had meant to put some of the berries into one of the hard cider batches I have going, but with 8 gallons waiting to be bottled and a boat load of beers I want to brew I don't see this happening soon.  Maybe I'll make a fruity session ale for the summer heat, but before that I have got to make my Pumpkin Cranberry sour ale.  This beer needs to happen, those that have been following may have read about it a while back.

Any way this rambling ass post was really about the pumpkin and blackberries I have stored in Ziploc vacuum storage bags.  I read about them on a Lifehacker post about sous vide cooking, and was excited about a lower cost vacuum sealing product.  My aunt and uncle claim to have ruined 3 of the fancy ones you see at Costco was they tried to seal up fish for storage (my uncle fishes a lot).  The beauty of the pump that comes with the Ziploc product is it's manual and when I bagged the blackberries I just stuck a paper towel down between the flap and the pump to catch the excess liquid from the berries as I tried to work the air out.  It worked great and the pumpkin and berries both looked good when I checked them recently.

I can only find the gallon size bags at my grocery stores, but Amazon has the quart size.  I like them and they are way cheaper than the electric ones, and so far are holding up well in my freezer.  I'll try to remember to get pictures when it comes time to thaw them for beer making so see if they kept fresh.  I know they are doing better than the standard freezer bag we put our yearly blueberry picking harvest into last June.  The berries that are left all have ice in the bags, vs the blackberries I froze in August have none.

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