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"#p37950 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"#p37979 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"#p37992 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"#p37997 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?

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

Here you go @"OldGregg"#822 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.

Fellow Bean Freezers - A question for you

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.

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?

tompoland

mathof2 I pack them into theses (from Ali Express)

tompoland

Product link here

https://a.aliexpress.com/_m0WGWoO

tompoland

Previously I used vacuum sealing but the local supermarkets stopped recycling soft plastic. You can see how I pach here although nowadays I use the tubes as per above instead of the bags…

I use a funnel to channel the beans into the tubes.

mathof2

Tlhank you. I’ve been packing roasted beans (5-14 days after roast, depending on the beans) in small preservative jars that hold about 70g and taking them out of the freezer to defrost before using (I usually dose 15g). I’ve never done an A/B taste comparison between espressos made after grinding beans defrosted and frozen; but I’ll try one soon.

tompoland

mathof2 I’ll be very interested in your opinion.

mathof2

tompoland I’ve been comparing frozen and defrosted beans for about a week, using a quite light (Tonino 121) single origin from Brazil, roasted in London by Assembly. I’ve compared the two versions using an IMS 15g basket and the Weber Unifilter (again with a 15g dose). To make the preinfusion and extraction times roughly equal I’ve had to grind the frozen beans slightly coarser than the defrosted ones. I attribute this to frozen beans shattering into a wider distribution of particle sizes that room-temperature beans.

If I grind for the same shot parameters, the frozen beans produce an EY about 1 percentage lower and consequentially milder. Dealing in for the same EY, the tastes are still different, but equally striking. As to preferences, with these beans I’d say the frozen version is slightly sweeter, particularly after the defrosted beans have been out of the freezer for a few days.

OldGregg

I’ve been doing what @mathof2 said which was the impetus of the initial question. I’ve had good results but frankly never tried an alternative, such as what you are doing @tompoland .

One question I have, are you keeping dozens of tubes in your freezer? Or what is your workflow when buying coffee in bulk? It made sense when you were dosing and vacuum sealing, but not sure i follow with the addition of the tubes.

tompoland

mathof2 super interesting, thanks. did you notice any difference in viscosity between them? With medium or darker beans I thought that the frozen were thicker and tastier but that might have been different with a light roast (and 121 is certainly light).

JHCCoffee

tompoland
Just curious. How do you address freezer space?

My wife complains when my frozen coffee starts to take up freezer space. So I split the beans between the upstairs fridge/freezer and the basement freezer. She then complains about lost space in both. So I am pondering getting a small freezer just for coffee. Following which I will hear complaints about coffee equipment taking up too much space.

mathof2

tompoland I didn’t notice any difference, but then I wasn’t looking out for that. My brew ratio was a little more than 2:1, which doesn’t lend itself to much texture with beans this light.

tompoland

JHCCoffee that’s what I did, a seperate freezer and set up in the garage. Seven shelves. One of those tall ones, not a chest freezer - much easier to see what is in there.

My wife rolled her eye balls and said something about how unecessary it was and then a month later was begging to use some of the shelves for dog bones/food. So she now commands the botton three shelves and every now and then tries to steal space from the top four green bean shelves 😀

Conclusion #1 is that however much space we have, we’ll find a way to need more.

Conclusion #2 is that it is better to have a completely seperate freezer for coffee. A nice bright shiny line, no arguements. Life is too short to fight over freezer shelves. “Happy wife, happy life. Grumpy wife, bumpy life”.

I’m offer to buy another freezer 😁

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