What do you use? Please provide text on your approach, with pictures and purchase links (I will add these tomorrow).
Here is my current hodgepodge (wish there were better) solution. I remove one frozen bag from my freezer the night before and the next AM decant the beans into small jars that have hinged lids with rubber gaskets.
Ideally you have jars that you can fill to full (after a tap) with minimal airspace between the beans. Ideally this jar will be used up during that espresso making session.
Alternatively you can measure single shot doses into smaller jars. That saves time, especially if you are serving guests; no need to measure twice, unless you are OCD like me. The smallest jars I have found will hold about 18g of beans (it depends upon the roast level). So if you are doing 14g shots, you end up with air in the jar, which is not good. If you are doing 20g shots, there is not enough room in the jar. So measuring into single shot jars is a challenge; it depends….
The easiest thing to do is to vacuum pack and freeze into 2 or at most three day portions; the coffee rapidly stales upon unfreezing, so 2 day portions are better. Then unfreeze and decant into a jar that holds all of the beans, perhaps with a tad left over, which goes into a smaller but full jar. Ideally each jar has no air in it. After an espresso making session, consolidate the beans into full jars. All beans should be used up within 2 days.
Now if I could find very small canisters with lids that decend within the canister, that would be great, as I would use those for my unfrozen beans. But Airscape doesn’t make small enough canisters. Similarly the canisters that have air removal systems are not small enough for my consumption level. I need a say 100g Airscape or other air removal canister. It depends upon your consumption level; the container must hold 2 days worth of beans. I have only seen canisters that hold larger quantities (½ to 1 lb of beans).
So my ongoing challenge is not vacuum packing or freezing; I know what to do there. It’s finding the right jars for decanting the beans after unfreezing, as the significant staling happens literally after 1 day!
