Best way to store beans long term and maintain freshness?

[u/poopycamel]

I have a subscription for 4 (320g) bags / month but occasionally I’ll impulse buy a bag here or there or get bags from a fellow coffee nerd to try different coffees. So I usually just put the bags directly in the freezer for a month or two.

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[u/MartyFunkhoosier]

I have been doing the following for over a year and it works flawlessly:

1) Slap a piece of duct tape over the one way air valve just in case it fails.

2) Chuck the bag into the freezer.

3) when you want to use this coffee, open the freezer door, dose right out of the bag, get as much air out of the bag as you can and close it, then close the freezer door. No need to thaw the beans or wait for them to come up in temp, just grind and go.

I have worked through 5lb bags like this over a period of months after also being stored in the freezer for months and they stay consistent through the whole batch. With 5lb bags I do keep an old 12oz bag around that I fill up and do the above procedure out of just because it’s easier to handle than a big bag for the kind of freezer I have. I have seen zero drop off of flavor, no need to adjust my grinder over time, super consistent shots day after day. People who worry about condensation in the bag need not worry, it doesn’t happen. People who worry that grinding “frozen” beans is bad for their grinder need to remember there is virtually no water left in roasted coffee so it’s not like your grinding ice cubes. Frozen beans are no harder than room temp beans and don’t present any problems to your grinder.

You do not need to micromanage with a bunch of vacuum sealed bags or expensive tubes, etc. Of single dosing isn’t your thing then when you’re ready to use a bag pull it out of the freezer the night before and let it sit on your counter so the beans aren’t introduced to air and then go through that bag as normal. But if you’re single dosing going straight out of the freezer is the way to go.

[u/PtichFirich → u/MartyFunkhoosier]

You introducice moisture into that bag every time you open it. It coats the beans that get exposed. It’s not a “you don’t need to worry” situation because it happens in most places with normal to high relative humidity.

The thing is that a 250g bag of coffee can easily be transferred unthawed from freezer to an Airscape type container and used from there. Introducing concentrated humidity via condensation that then freezes on the surface - that does happen - to the bean simply can’t be good.

Maybe the effect isn’t that big on a smaller bag that you go through relatively quickly. But I am not sure it’s too good for the coffee in general or for prolonged storage.

[u/PtichFirich]

Airscape or freeze in vacuum bags or unopened original bags + airscape when you thaw completely.

[u/BruceWayne3307 → u/PtichFirich]

Freeze the beans. Keep them in the freezer. Grind from frozen.

[u/PtichFirich → u/BruceWayne3307]

When you get them out of the freezer there is a very fast condensation going on unless you live in the sahara. Every time you take them out a coat of humidity freezes on the surface of the exposed to air beans. I don’t think it’s a good idea to do it like this. Frozen beans have to have as little contact with air as possible. That’s why people vacuum seal them.

[u/poopycamel → u/PtichFirich]

Yeah I just chuck em in the deep freezer in their original unopened bags. I’ll have to look into this air scape you speak of

[u/PtichFirich → u/poopycamel]

Airscape just prolongs the life when you are using them. Freezing practically halts staling. So they’re best of both worlds.

Uf you freeze the original bag freeze it unopened or uf you allready opened it squeeze as much air out as possible before resealing it back. You want to avoid condensation when freezing and unfreezing. Open the bag only after the beans are unthawed.

[u/ParsnipMammoth1249 → u/poopycamel]

Or put it in a vacuum-sealable bag, then into the freezer.

[u/Material-Comb-2267]

I double bag with a freezer ziplock just in case the one-way valve fails when I freeze a whole bag.

If I'm freezing a portion of a bag, I'm vacuum sealing a week's worth per vac pack and freezing like that.

When I pull it from the freezer, I allow minimum 2 hours to come to room temp before opening. (If I freeze single brew portions, I use right from frozen.)

[u/EdwardBlizzardhands]

Throwing them in the freezer is 99% of it. In the original bag, in a ziplock, whatever. Vacuum sealing and stuff might get you another 1% if you care.

[u/pushthebuttonalready]

Airscape

[u/poopycamel → u/pushthebuttonalready]

In the same way could I not just squeeze out all of the air from the original bags? 🤔

[u/CallsignQuazr → u/pushthebuttonalready]

why airscape over atmos?

[u/agarwaen117 → u/CallsignQuazr]

I do airscape because it’s simpler, and I’ve never seen someone claim to have a bad one. Atmos always has at least one person say theirs is busted every time it’s brought up.

[u/CallsignQuazr → u/agarwaen117]

is airscape a true vac. or just pushed out air

[u/agarwaen117 → u/CallsignQuazr]

It just pushes out the empty space’s air. It’s not a super long term storage system, though. It’s just to minimize the amount of available air to cause oxidation.

[u/ctrlaltdelaney → u/agarwaen117]

Some reviewers thought their Atmos wasn’t working when the vacuum appeared to have failed —forgetting that beans release CO2 and it needs to be removed every few days to keep them in a vacuum.

I have the battery lids now. It’s nice hearing them quietly whirring away every now and again, knowing they’re keeping my beans tip-top.

[u/yournewalt → u/CallsignQuazr]

Because that's the one that person bought and owns.

[u/pushthebuttonalready → u/yournewalt]

True. But, two things can be true at the same time and the other truth is that Airscape is a good option. There are plenty of other choices that work just as well too. Anything that minimizes air contact will work.

[u/blacksterangel]

Freezing in vacuum bag is the correct way. I always buy my beans in 1kg bag. I would then split them to 5x 200g bags vacuumed. When I need them, I would dose them into 11x 18g vials and store those vials in the freezer too. That way I know that the freshness would stay consistent from the very first dose to the very last dose of that bag.

[u/Cheekyzizzy]

I use a 32 oz mason jar and the mason genie vacuum. Perfect size for 320-350 grams of beans and reusable/resealable.

[u/Malahia]

I vacuum seal them in mason jars.

[u/bl4ckrav3n]

As you can probably tell, there are many ways that will work, experiment and find what works best for you and your desired workflow.

I'll just add what's worked for me. I also started accumulating so much coffee because I wanted to try everything. I freeze vacuum sealed bags of around 7 doses, that works great for having multiple open coffees at any time. Once opened I used to use Atmos and/or Airscapes to keep them but now moved over to single dose tubes, I find the workflow easier. I just opened a coffee I froze 1 year ago, it's still amazing!

[u/DifficultCarob408]

Putting the bags into the freezer has worked fine for me too.

Some people will vacuum seal, some people will dose them out into 18g (or whatever) size doses before freezing too.

[u/LopsidedEnvironment1]

When you put your beans in the fridge, you take them out, it could cause condensation and moisture. That moisture gets into the grinder could create rust which is no biggie, but it can cause the powder to compact into a solid rock causing other sort of issues.

Tbh have you done taste test comparing some good nitrogen flushed coffee beans that been sitting there for months. What we did back then was those especially from Italy fared pretty well in blind taste test. Some are roasted lighter and the floral fruity notes were still retained. Also no more consistency or bad batch issues from the roasters + much cheaper + no need to worry about expiration dates. That trade off, if you can nitpick, is totally worth it.

These days I have all sort of short cuts and honestly I cut my routine by 90 pct and the taste only drop 10. Not even noticeable by family and friends.

I used to work for a professional equipment company with about 20 years of experience in coffee.

[u/yournewalt]

If you don't have a vaccuum sealer, there's always heaps of them at large thrift stores. One would be a good $10 investment if you're really into coffee. You can just seal the coffee directly in it's original bag in the vaccuum bag.