Been a fan of this method since picking up a cheap second hand vac sealer a year ago. If you buy in bulk which can reward with useful discounts, it’s well worth considering. My second hand machine died so I picked this one up from Amazon Warehouse - was around £30.00. Has a powerful 140 watt motor - probably overkill. Great for keeping beans from staling.

This morning’s work

How much do you spend on the vacuum bags themselves?

I am really trying to resist getting this involved in bean storage, but my freezer solution does need work.

Zwilling looks like a decent piece of kit but it’s pricey. Like the idea of reusable bags.

Bags are recyclable at the local supermarket

    Meldrew I started with the vacuum thing after reading an article about grinding frozen coffee. Apparently the trick is to not let it defrost prior to grinding because all sorts of chemical reactions start up, the end result of which is a less than full bodied, full flavored pour. Therefore, trialling freezing meant, for practical purposes, trialling vacuum sealing too.

    I started with a pair of Acaia Orion dosing machines which were cool but slow. When I saw the packing machine for AU$400 I took a punt and bought it off e-bay. It works incredibly well and is as accurate as the Acaia’s.

    My method is to roast, let the beans rest for eight days or so and use them from the zip bag with the one way valve, each day until I think they have hit peak flavor. Then I vacuum seal them.

    These days though I don’t freeze them unless I roasted too many.

    Through a lot of trial and error, I have found that a medium to dark roast will hit peak flavor around the 14 day mark (some as early as 8 days though) and will stay at peak flavor if vacuum sealed with a good machine, for another three weeks. But after that they decline surprisingly quickly.

    I’ve tested over 100 roasts now and kept a flavor log on the majority of those roasts, day by day as I sampled them. I write the “Best Between” dates on every bag of roasted coffee, typically being between 14 and 35 days, assuming that they are vacuum sealed at the 14 day mark.

    That’s the story behind the vacuum sealing machine and the weighing/packing machine.

    Not that I am obsessed :-)

        Systemic it can be. but you can dial down the pressure too. some people believe you can suck too much air out of the bag and in doing to suck a lot of the oils out too, especially with dark roasts where there is more oil on the surface of the beans. I’ve had a look and to my eyes at least (not always the best!) this doesn’t seem to be a problem with the smaller doses I bag.

          Meldrew The reusable bags get variable reviews on places like Amazon. They lose their vacuum.

          I’ve thought about them and then putting them in another bag, but it all gets to be a bit of a faff.

          Interesting to read what @tompoland says about freezing. I started freezing as it was better than not, but if there is a better alternative, should probably explore it.

              PortafilterProcrastinator If the reusable bags lose their vacuum then its got to be the non reusable system which is a shame as I was trying to be more environmentally friendly. Might look at the luvele system again.
              tompoland Thanks for the explanation. I am only just returning to my coffee journey you might say. So all the knowledge and information on the forum from everyone is so helpful. As @DavecUK states the friendliest forum.

                    PortafilterProcrastinator I prefer grinding frozen beans. The pour feels a bit thicker and the flavor, maybe, a bit fuller. And of course instead of the beans lasting up to three weeks after vacuum sealing alone, they are still producing peak flavor after months. Now if only I could convince my wife to move the freezer next to the coffee island …

                    These days I mostly have the pouches of beans (18g doses) in a small cardboard box on a shelf under the machines on the coffee island (therefore, not frozen, just vac sealed). The vacuum seal keeps the air out of course and the cardboard box keeps the light out. From my reading it seems that air and light are the two biggest degraders of fresh coffee.

                    Here is the article that started me down the frozen coffee beans path, and caused me to buy a vacuum sealer. https://www.beanscenemag.com.au/ona-coffee-introduce-frozen-coffee-menu-act-venues/

                      tompoland Now you just need to hire a 16 year old for £4.62/hour to roast and pack your beans for you and you got a nice set-up 🤣👍

                        DavecUK sure thing Dave, if you want to come out of a cryogenic state in a couple of hundred years, just ping me here.

                          20 days later

                          Personally, I can see no point. I have 4 kg bagged up. Sometimes the beans degass a little at which point I would snip the top of the bag off and reseal. The Dave said why? CO2 is widely used as a preservative. I often drink beans that are 10 to 12 weeks past the date at which I vacuum packed them, plus the standing time.

                          https://www.suddencardiacarrestuk.org/2024/02/thank-goodness-for-madeira-cake/

                            dfk41 Meldrew

                            If the reusable bags lose their vacuum due to de-gassing and it is true that carbon dioxide is used as a preservative (which it is) then this might not be as much of an issue as thought, particularly if you are not freezing and using disposable vacuum bags. You can re-vacuum in both cases.

                            The issue is obviously air getting in, rather than de-gassing from the inside. How you would identify that I don’t know, doesn’t seem possible for the normal person.

                            So maybe, depending on ones thoughts about CO2, vacuum bags aren’t such a bad idea.

                                  Sounds good to me, just a vac pack it will be.

                                  14 days later

                                  Got yourself a bargain there. Best way to keep your beans fresh. If you buy in kilos, the vac sealer will pay for itself in no time.

                                    I am just going to be passing Lidl tomorrow and just happen to spot these. Oh these would be good to try and they are cheap. Wonder if the wife will fall for it.Bet they don’t have them. Lol

                                    DavecUK Less than the price of a kilo of beans. I’d been looking at more expensive versions on line. Only negative is that this cheap one doesn’t have a cutter built in. But, I presume that like me you own scissors. :-)

                                    PS - looking at the pictures on Amazon this seems to be exactly the the same bar cosmetics.

                                    • LMSC replied to this.

                                        I’ve had one for a couple of years & it’s still going strong. Just have to take a little break between each seal as there’s an interlock to let the element cool

                                        I have had this one from amazon for a couple of years. I chose it for being very compact. It feels flimsy, but works great.

                                        However, one time I grabbed a pack of vacuum bags (3 rolls) for it from Lidl and most of the time they leak and lose the vacuum a few seconds after sealing - this never happens with other bags. Might just be a bad batch, but maybe something to be aware of?

                                        I have a couple of vacuum processors, only because we process a couple of cattle carcasses a year.
                                        The heat sealing strips overheat after a few minutes of continuous use so we use a couple at a time and pre-cut and seal bags from rolls.
                                        For coffee I roast 4×100g with my Nano, use standard bags with a one way valve and either, pack them in one bag and vacseal it or….
                                        I bought a set of vacuum containers and I put two 200g bags in the container and suck the air out of it.
                                        The containers are not as efficient as the sealed bags but they are reusable.

                                        I have wondered just what I am sucking out with the high suction system.

                                        I did this only once, one morning. By the afternoon, the beans had gassed out and there was no vacuum. One of my DUH moments! Surely this can only work for stale beans?

                                          Yes, true. Since then I’ve just been using my homemade glass jars with the valves (cut from coffee bags) inserted into the lids. Does the same thing by expelling the air and leaving the beans bathing in CO2 :)