Keeping beans fresh

[maskedburito]

What's the best way to keep beans fresh? I just started grinding and am curious if keeping the beans in the bag they came in is ok? I don't buy a lot at a time.

I heard an air tight container is good! Does it make a real difference?

 

[Dandyskrul]

Keeping beans in bags is just fine but remember to keep air out of the bag and store it away from fridge or owen. Dark cabinet would be the best idea.

 

[PinkRose]

What's the best way to keep beans fresh? I just started grinding and am curious if keeping the beans in the bag they came in is ok? I don't buy a lot at a time.

I heard an air tight container is good! Does it make a real difference?

Does the bag that the roasted beans came in have a zip lock top, or did you have to cut the bag to open it?

It's not a good idea to just roll down the top of the bag and put a clip on it, like you would do with an opened bag of potato chips.

At the very least, put it into a zip lock freezer bag and "burp" the air out of it.

However, storing your coffee beans in an air tight container would be the best option. Be sure to store it away from heat, moisture, and light.

Rose

 

[peterjschmidt]

And the $64,000 question is... do you know for a fact that your beans were fresh when you bought them? If not, then your question is 'how can I keep my stale beans from getting even more stale?'

 

[maskedburito]

Haha very true! But if I have stale beans I rather them not get staler.... I found some nice air tight containers on sale today I'm going to use! They are see thru so will keep them in the cupboard away from light. If I buy commercially packed beans in a grocery store, I keep them in the sort of vacuum sealed pack they came in. But once opened for the first time they go in the container. But I try and avoid grocery store coffee...

 

[singlecupcoffee]

There are one small type of sealing machine in the market, which can do Nitrogen filling

 

[PinkRose]

There are one small type of sealing machine in the market, which can do Nitrogen filling

That may be a bit much . . . . The original question was about storing the coffee for home use.

 

[maskedburito]

I got some cheap airtight containers. Look nice and do the job! Thanks!

 

[peterjschmidt]

I got some cheap airtight containers. Look nice and do the job! Thanks!

How do you know they're doing the job? Half kidding, half serious.

Even though they're airtight, every time you open them to take coffee out, you're letting in a new batch of air. That's my main gripe with canisters - when they're a quarter full of coffee, the other three quarters is full of air.

 

[maskedburito]

How do you know they're doing the job? Half kidding, half serious.

Even though they're airtight, every time you open them to take coffee out, you're letting in a new batch of air. That's my main gripe with canisters - when they're a quarter full of coffee, the other three quarters is full of air.

Haha very good point I didn't think of! But there's only so much I'm going to do without majorly inconveniencing my daily routine. I'm sure it does something! I guess you can get around by using several smaller canisters so you aren't opening it as often exposing all the beans.

 

[coffeetom]

And the $64,000 question is... do you know for a fact that your beans were fresh when you bought them? If not, then your question is 'how can I keep my stale beans from getting even more stale?'

Theoretically, without having it tested myself, you should be able to test beans if they're fresh, if you store fresh beans in an airtight bag (like PinkRose's suggestion the Zip Lock Bag) and see if the bag has inflated after a day or so because of the CO2.

Do I get the 64k now?

 

[PinkRose]

Theoretically, without having it tested myself, you should be able to test beans if they're fresh, if you store fresh beans in an airtight bag (like PinkRose's suggestion the Zip Lock Bag) and see if the bag has inflated after a day or so because of the CO2.

Do I get the 64k now?

Don't the coffee roasters let the beans degas before they package them up?. If the beans were brought home and divided up into smaller portions, would there be enough gas left to puff up the zip lock bags?

 

[peterjschmidt]

Theoretically, without having it tested myself, you should be able to test beans if they're fresh, if you store fresh beans in an airtight bag (like PinkRose's suggestion the Zip Lock Bag) and see if the bag has inflated after a day or so because of the CO2.

Do I get the 64k now?

I'll send the check right away.


Most of the de-gassing happens in the first few days, and even if it's still going on at say five days out of the roaster, it's not going to be enough to inflate a bag. So there's more that goes into determining freshness than whether the beans are still out-gassing. There's probably no good way to define freshness or draw a line when beans stop being fresh, other than to say it's lost some flavor nuances. And even that's not easy unless you've had a given coffee on day 1, day 2, day 3, etc; if you buy it at day 10 or week 4, you have no idea what it was when fresh and nothing to compare it to. So many people buy whole-bean coffee from a local source out of those big glass jars or plastic bins and think they're getting good, fresh coffee, but they have no idea.

 

[javaboy]

I've tried for longer than a 2 week storage using Food saver bags, vacuum packed in the freezer. we freeze in week size bags. Once in the freeze , it does not come out until ready to use, to keep any condensation from forming within the bag. Assuming you seal the bag well and the humidity level when sealing could be a factor.

 

[namballe]

i go through coffee so fast, it doesn't stand a chance to go stale. i keep mine in the original bag, squeeze out excess air, roll top down and hold in place with a piece of packaging tape.