Freezer

Jackson

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Aug 22, 2006
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Columbus, OH
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I do not think you want to store coffee in the freezer or refrigerator. It is best to store whole bean coffee in an air tight container. As far as how long will it stay fresh, only buy what you will use in a week or two. Aroma is the most important flavor charactoristic coffee has. The aroma will begin to weaken around three weeks after roasting.
 
Jelly do you roast? Actually this should be posted to the roasters area. How about it all depends on are the beans going to be air tight sealed e.g. vacume
sealed and set in a freezer. The golden rule in only one into the freezer, and once out. no in and out.....
 

alsterling

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Aug 11, 2006
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Dana Point, CA
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Beans in the Freezer........?

jellyfish said:
I heard about storing beans in a freezer will help preserve them after opening the bag. How long do beans stay fresh in the freezer?

Months back I had the same question for the roaster that supplies my favorite blend. He roasts on Mondays and ships same day. His minimum is 5 lbs per order. For home consumption, I opt for 1 lb. bags. I worried about coffee going stale if not used within the prime "one week window" after the 3-5 days of the beans "resting" and "outgassing" after roasting. I should add that this roaster has a strict policy of selling his blend to retailers only in the roasted state. It is available green, in small quantities and only for home consumption.

Regarding storage of the pre-roasted........

He said that after receiving the order, I should leave the coffee in its original pak, but then place the coffee in an airtight bag or container, then put it in the freezer. As for how long? I wouldn't leave it there for more than a couple three weeks myself.

When ready to use the next bag of beans, he further said to pull the coffee out of the freezer and let it defrost at room temp on the counter for 12 hours.

I should add that since being concerned about this issue, I've started buying his blend in green and home roasting.

What this points to is the possbility that you can freeze roasted coffee if you do it within a couple days of roasting. I'm guessing that the freezer "arrests" the outgassing of the beans, thus slowing down the life cycle of the roasted beans.

Good luck
 

topgourmetcoffee

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Nov 25, 2006
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Fort Worth, Texas
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Freezing Coffee Only When Required

One should try to store coffee beans in a air-tight container.

Buy only what coffee can be consumed in a week to two weeks from the time it was roasted. This is the only way to have truly fresh coffee. Do not freeze coffee for regular storage if possible.

There are two key problems:
1. The freezing will damage some of tastes in the coffee
2. When the coffee is taken out the container it will sweat, exposing your coffee to moisture.

If you must store coffee for an extended period of time divide it into small portions that you can use in a week or less. Take out one week of coffee at a time. This will help to reduce the damage to the coffee.

For long term storage freezing is better than storage at room temperature. If you do freeze your coffee make sure that is stays dry in the freezer.
 

DennyCrane

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Oct 30, 2011
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Cloverdale, BC
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Sorry to dig up such an old thread, but I'd like some clarification if possible. There seems to be some conflicting opinions here which is fine, but I'd like to see what you guys think is best for my situation. Obviously buying only enough coffee to use in a week would be ideal, but for me that's just not realistic. I live on my own, so a pound of coffee usually lasts me 3-4 weeks (most of my coffee consumption is at work, not home). I get Starbucks to grind it for me, as I hate dealing with the mess of a personal grinder. I store the pre-ground beans in air-tight containers in my freezer, and just scoop out what I need on a daily basis.

Is this okay? It tastes fine to me. The alternative would be to use a vacuum sealed container which would be left on the counter, but I doubt it would stay very fresh for the the 3-4 week period it would take me to get through it. Thoughts on that? I realize that most connoisseurs would probably turn their noses up at the thought of freezing coffee, but I don't know what other solution there is. At $18-$19 per pound, I'm not going to buy new coffee every single week.
 

shadow745

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Aug 15, 2005
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Central North Carolina
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If anybody thinks freezing whole bean coffee is a waste it's obvious they're not doing something right. There are a few key things to remember though. 1st is freshness... when I get coffee from our local roaster it's a few hrs. out from roasting. I let it degas at least 3-4 days then it's ready for the freezer. I use a FoodSaver device and vacuum pack all regular coffees in 1 lb. increments and decaf in 4 oz increments. 2nd thing to keep an eye on is freezer temperature. I have a commercial quality upright deep freezer and it never goes into defrost mode, which is ideal because you don't want coffee partially thawing then refreezing over/over.

If the coffee is older than 5-7 days then I wouldn't bother with this.

I use these methods for coffees I use on a commercial level and find the freshness to be fantastic and I have no waste anymore. I started experimenting with decaf and I've used some that was 7 weeks out from roast and it extracted like it was 3-4 days old. Before this I was tossing about half the decaf I ordered every 2 weeks due to our roaster requiring a certain minimum be ordered and we don't sell much decaf. Then I just kept tinkering until I started freezing all coffees then thawing out just what is needed per day....... More to follow soon!
 
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