Vacuum packing beans

dutchy101
I roast my own and only do about 400g green/340g roasted and that lasts me about a week.
So I vacpac and leave for a week and then use.
Some beans, eg yemeni, need a bit longer ageing.

In your circumstance I would pack into 250g lots when I get them and then pop three of the bags in the freezer.

its always interested me this, very tempted,

how much was the sealer from lidl?

Cuprajake 20 quids.

Has it come back in stock ?

https://www.lidl.co.uk/p/kitchen-kits/silvercrest-vacuum-sealer/p54623

oh, not sure,

just sent the mrs out for one

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.

Doram

Thanks - my kit is a hand held pump and bags with valves - so a little different to the sealing kits others have. It seemed to do the job well. The beans I’ve just vacuum packed were roasted on 14th September, so just over a week ago. I will definitely leave to defrost in the bag before opening - I do this with the bags I freeze already, although these are standard coffee bags, which I squeeze out as much of the air as possible from and then cover up the valve with sellotape before freezing. To be honest - this method has always seemed to keep the coffee fresh, but I am sure the vaccuming will take it all up a notch.

I am keeping my vacuum packed parcels in the freezer although some say it’s not necessary and could sit in a cook cupboard etc.

started packing into around 80g bags as it’s roughly our daily use. So just remove next days supply in the evening and pop it into a vacuum container and next day split into dosed vials.

So not in stock. Just been to Aldi

Can anyone recommend one from Amazon?

Meldrew Good find. The zwilling looks good. Pump a bit pricey. You would have to look at it as a reusable investment

I am reviving this thread again.

I happily vacpac! It serves well. A bag of 125g lasts a week as I always have 2 different bags for me, one for my wife and another one, if we have quests.

The problem is I start seeing it going south within a couple of days. I don’t freeze anymore as it is often produces turbo shot. Freezer space is a premium.

Has anyone tried storing the beans in a cupboard as is - plastic or paper bag delivered ? This would be after getting all the air out, seal the one-way valve and throw the bags in the cupboard. How long does it last?

I only buy 250g bags.

I am lucky, in as much as I am not very demanding when it comes to bean storage. A bean should stay in good condition, regardless of roast level for 4 weeks and if darker, up to 10. Why squeeze all the air out? CO2 is used as a preservative. If you take your weeks needs out leaving the bag sealed out of the sun, then just use the second half the next week. I have a variety of Airscape tins and only buy 1kg bags and have never had a problem

For normal coffee I tend to buy in 1kg bags and then vac-pack that into 200g pouches before freezing.

For rarer more expensive coffee I pack it into 18g doses; it feels like the effort is worth it for these.

I then freeze as much as I can get into my allocated freezer drawer!

I stopped freezing and vacuum sealing my beans - couldn’t tell any discernible difference and felt wasteful. Still buy 1kg but its gone in a ~month.