To the other folks that buy in bulk and store their beans in the freezer- Whats the longest you would (or have) stored beans in the freezer for. I find that my curiosity for new beans and roasters outpaces my ability to consume them and have quite a “backlog” to get through. I recently took a roast out that reached the 6 month mark in the freezer, and to my dismay was very undrinkable. This is a roast that I’ve purchased dozens of times in the past and always found to be great.

Interesting. I’ve taken to vacuum sealing before freezing but I have some older beans in the freezer that were put there before I started doing this. Some must be approaching the 4 or 5 month mark now. I’ll dig some of the older ones out next time I need some. Do you squeeze out all of the air from the bag and seal up the valve before freezing?

dutchy101 I actually portion them out into canning jars, roughly 200g’s per jar. This has never been an issue as I normally consume them within a few months. This was just the longest I had ever gone, but my understanding was that they could theoretically last much longer.

I used to put 1kg into 100g freezer bags, squeeze the air out and seal. Then I’d defrost and use as I went. Seemed to work, but had a niggle. Was never really satisfied towards the end of a batch. That would only be about 4 weeks. These days I still divvy up into 100g bags but I keep them in an airscape until I need them. 100g lasts 2-3 days. I prefer the taste and for me results are more consistent all the way to the end. I think the defrost can be the issue. A few people have said they grind straight from frozen and that works well.

No issues at my end. Back in January I removed a packet roasted beginning of December and I was happy with it. The setting on the grinder was the same as well. I vacuum pack and freeze in roughly daily amount 60-80g .

prezes 80g a day! I use a fraction of that. I guess so far no one has tested anything frozen that was older than 6 months?

OldGregg I have. I vacuum packed it and froze. Tastes very good as if our of the bag when originally roasted… but it will decay faster once open.

MediumRoastSteam I have. I vacuum packed it and froze. Tastes very good as if our of the bag when originally roasted… but it will decay faster once open. I always wondered why that is?

Fellow Bean Freezers - A question for you

MediumRoastSteam

DavecUK - No idea.

Hotmetal

Sounds like another good reason to skip cryonics then! Get defrosted, wake up in Russia or the US, and start decaying! 🤣

tompoland

Here you go @OldGregg

https://www.ielogical.com/coffee/FrzCalc/FrzCalc.php

I’ve no idea if that will shed any light on the issue for you but there is also a link on that page to a HB thread on the merits of freezing beans.

John_Yossarian

tompoland it is nteresting how does one measure “0.05 g increase for medium roast” when the precision of grinders is significantly less than that?

tompoland

John_Yossarian it’s beyond me John.

DavecUK

John_Yossarian it is nteresting how does one measure “0.05 g increase for medium roast” when the precision of grinders is significantly less than that?

I don’t understand how people can taste 0.5g difference…I can’t?

Cuprajake

Fwiw I didn’t like freezing my beans, I did a batch and wasn’t too impressed. So now I just order what I need

tompoland

Works very well for me.

FWIW there are two things I needed to tweak before I got consistently tasty espresso.

I make sure that the containers are air tight (moisture is not helpful) and very importantly I grind while still frozen.

mathof2

tompoland Works very well for me.

FWIW there are two things I needed to tweak before I got consistently tasty espresso.

I make sure that the containers are air tight (moisture is not helpful) and very importantly I grind while still frozen.

Do you pack them in single shot packs or just open the container, scoop the beans out for a single dose and put the container back in the freezer? If the latter, does that not created a cumulative problem by allowing (warm) air into the container?

Cuprajake

I can see the merit in freezing, it allows you to jump on deals when they come up, I even vac packed, but I did full 250g rather than 89g or smaller

tompoland

I use freezing for overflow. Because I roast, judging the quantity is hard to get right especially when we get visitors or I have a new grinder or machine to test … that chews up the beans. So I roast more than I need and use the freezer rather than have them go stale. Quite useful to have.

mobius

Do you degas for any length of time, before freezing ? I imagine that could also make a difference, due to the carbon dioxide content also being frozen.

tompoland

mobius absolutely. I freeze when they beans hit peak flavor which is typically around 18 days post roast for medium roasted beans. And if I am using frozen beans then I grind them while still frozen because I find that the espresso loses body and flavor otherwise.

JHCCoffee

tompoland And if I am using frozen beans then I grind them while still frozen because I find that the espresso loses body and flavor otherwise.

Just curious. Did you do any grind from frozen vs grind from just unfrozen taste tests? If so, can you share the results. I did some initial tests and passed on grinding from frozen, but maybe I was premature in that decision.

One related issue is when one grinds from frozen, its best to grind from frozen single doses, as one is otherwise opening multi dose bags or jars of frozen beans and subjecting them to moisture; not a good idea INHO. But I’m too lazy to vacuum pack single doses. Nor do I have freezer room for 3 weeks worth of single dose vials.

Time to buy my own coffee freezer; my wife would be simultaneously happy (“great! more freezer room”) and not (“more coffee stuff!; I thought we were going to downsize!”)

So … I vacuum pack (lightly vacuumed) 2 days worth (4 shots). When I open the pack, I decant into very small stoppered jars, that hold up to 18g each. I weigh the beans going into each jar, such that I can just dose directly into my NZ. Theoretically … as I am OCD about this and still end up weighing my doses. 🤪

CristianH

You could try a simple experiment, take a bag of beans and freeze only half of it after 2-3 weeks of roasting. Then brew both fresh and frozen to see if you notice any difference. I tried this some time ago and I noticed there was slightly less flavour in the frozen beans. Still a good shot, and probably if not comparing the two side by side I wouldn’t have noticed any difference just out of memory.

tompoland

CristianH did you let the frozen beans thaw before grinding?

CristianH

tompoland I grind them straight out of the freezer. freezing them didn’t result in a bad shot, just a little less flavour than compared to the fresh beans. But then again I could have missed/messed something when doing the comparison.

The reason why I made this post was to highlight that it can be easy to make such an “experiment” at home and maybe even try out different freezing techniques (vacuum seal, air tight container, small 18 gram containers, etc.) and see which one works best for you. Maybe vacuum seal small dozes is the best but not worth the effort

OldGregg

tompoland I do let my beans thaw as I’m not sealing 18 gram bags like you are. Do you really find it that detrimental to let them come to room temp?!

tompoland

OldGregg yes I found that I lost some body and flavor.

One always wonders if cognitive bias is at play so I felt some vindication when I read this article https://beanscenemag.com.au/big-freeze-theres-no-longer-barrier-coffee-freshness/#:\~:text=Ona%20Coffee%20vacuum%20seals%20its,wall%20structure%20of%20the%20bean.

Its a bit long so here’s the relevant excerpt:

When removed from the freezer, Hugh says the key is to grind the coffee straight away.

“Coffee is extremely volatile and its cellular structure changes very quickly. It can collapse quickly if it’s not treated right,” he says.

tompoland

JHCCoffee Did you do any grind from frozen vs grind from just unfrozen taste tests? If so, can you share the results

It was probably two years ago now. I kept a charts and notes on each pour etc but I threw them out in a clutter-purge a while back. But I’m clear on the conclusions though which were that the fresh ground and frozen ground were very similar, with the frozen ground a litte thicker in the cup but with the defrosted beans distinctly flatter.

tompoland

mathof2 I pack them into theses (from Ali Express)