UPDATE: I want to thank you all for your input. Much love and respect!
First of all, I ask that you kindly forgive me if this question has been answered before. I have used the side bar, search box, and googled the google out of google about this, but didn't really find a helpful answer to my question.
I move on to mixing larger quantities, above 1L at a time, had to resort to some kind of unconventional method, that being mixing and steeping in large 3L (which are more like 3.25L) mason jars.
So, I poured all my stuff right into the jar (no nic), frothed the living soul out of it, then sealed it with that tool which attaches the lid and secures it around the rim of the jar, making it airtight. This was done without vacuum sealing. My concern now is wether or not the exposure of the mix to the air in the jar would affect (read: mute) the flavors over the steeping duration. I was wondering if anyone here has done vacuum sealing to a mix, maybe you guys can help me?
TL;DR: Is vacuum sealing my ejuice for the steep duration a good or bad idea?
EDIT: typos. :)
Find jars that are just barely bigger than the batch you want to make (without nic added). Measure everything into the jar on the scale. Place lid on. Screw ring over lid. Shake the fuck out of it like it owes you money. Let it steep. Then, you can decant into unicorn bottles that have the correct amount of nic in them, again shaking the shit out of the capped bottles.
Frothing a mix is asking for the lighter flavor volatiles to run like hell. You don't want that, especially if you're mixing a lemonade flavor. tl;dr - you aren't 'vacuum sealing' so kinda irrelevant. Mason jars are 'vacuum sealed' by heating the contents prior to sealing, then being cooled such that the pressure inside is less than atmospheric pressure.
Call me weak, but the batch is 15 liters and shaking each of the 5 3L jars would be difficult. I should probably try to blend on a low setting or invest in a magnetic stirrer. But yeah, I agree with you on the jar size and bottling means.
Now back to vacuum sealing, what I wanted to do is remove the current lids and use vacuum sealable lids (the ones which come with a pump) instead. Thanks for the input buddy!
Do you have a orbital sander?
Take the sandpaper off. Press a bottom corner of the jar into the sponge/foam/rubber base of the orbital sander, and power it up. It should generate a tiny vortex inside the bottle. A minute or so of that will do the job. Alternatively... Get a paint shaker. (I actually just so happen to have one. Never used it for mixing juice tho.)
Now, as to the lids with the pump... put the jars in the fridge for a couple hours first, so you minimize the amount of volatiles you may pull out, and it should work.
Beware magnetic stirrers. I thought it was a great idea too. I've tried a few different ones and it can't stir thick liquid fast enough to mix anything. Just my experience.
Two thoughts from me. First, the small amount of air in the jar should reach something like a saturation point for any of the volatiles in the juice, the idea being that you want to avoid 'changing out' the air in the jar.
Another thing to note in this is that vacuum sealing the jars will (obviously) create a low pressure environment in the jar, lowering the boiling point of any volatile compounds in the mix. This might lead to higher loss of volatiles.
All in all though, as long as you're using this juice within a reasonable amount of time, and not exposing it to lots of air multiple times (and even then), pre-nicotine I think the difference would be negligible.
You could experiment and see if there's any noticable difference between a vacuum sealed mix and the one that isn't.
Either way I don't think muting will be a problem (from the trapped air, anyway) and you won't have to worry about the nic getting harsh since you didn't add it.
A rotary tumbler might be a good option.
You could spray argon gas into the headspace of your container to displace the air.