dutchy101 So just cracked it all open and had a go. The smallest bags, which do hold 250g are probably a little too small to hold 250g and work properly with the vacuum pump, so I’ve split 500g between 3 of the smallest bags and put 250g each in bigger bags. I’m going to freeze the 2 × 250g bags and one of the smaller bags and keep the other 2 smaller bags in the cupboard where I keep my coffee. Looking forward to seeing the results.
Will pick up another pack or 2 of bags as well.
If it’s a standard vacuum sealer, you can get bags in rolls. They have a set width of course, but you can cut them to the desired length and seal both ends to a custom size.
From my experience, vaccum bags + freezer (defrost in the bag before opening) gives excellent results and the coffee can be kept for a really long time (months and longer). I read somewhere that someone did an experiment and found that deterioration in 90 days in the freezer equals 1 day at room temp. Not sure how accurate this is, but I had coffee that was vacuum frozen for 9 months and it flowed and tasted like fresh to me (much better than 4 weeks old coffee that wasn’t frozen).
I may be wrong on this, but common sense is to rest the beans to the begining of their peak and then freeze them. This way they are ready to go when you want them.