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Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on January 7, 2011 at 2:45pm

Depends, 60lb could be a couple days or a couple months worth. How long do you need to store them? Remember the rule of 15's. This case roasted beans should be used within 15 days of roast or what made them special is fading away. At normal room temperature storage. Vacuum sealing would gain you only a couple more days. Any roasted beans should be used 21 days MAX post roast room temp' storage, unless bland and boring and later rancid is ok.

However, if longer term storage is needed of roasted beans airtight and frozen is the way. Vacuum sealed and frozen -40F good easily for a year or more. Simply airtight 0F temp range like most usual freezers 6 months to a year, the earlier from roast date frozen the longer good, since above -40F they will very slowly age, higher the temp the faster. I've pulled 90+ % crema shots over one year vac frozen and tasted great, can't do that with stale beans.

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Permalink Reply by Jay Caragay on January 7, 2011 at 2:48pm

Large glass containers with silicone sealed metal lids from the housewares section of Target: $20 each.

 

They look exactly like this:

http://www.explorebaltimorecounty.com/business/104629/coffee-connoi...

 

Behind Phil Proteau are the empty glass containers that we use for holding whole beans.  The photo was taken a month before we opened hence their being empty.  The contents of a five pound bag fits comfortably in the container with an air gap but we're plowing through the coffee so it hardly matters.

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Permalink Reply by Dennis McQuoid on January 7, 2011 at 4:12pm

Thanks Mike. Truth be told as I'm just getting ready to open, I don't know how long. When you brew previously frozen coffee, do you allow the beans to warm to room temp first, or right from the freezer? I hope they only last me a few days :-)

Mike McGinness said:

Depends, 60lb could be a couple days or a couple months worth. How long do you need to store them? Remember the rule of 15's. This case roasted beans should be used within 15 days of roast or what made them special is fading away. At normal room temperature storage. Vacuum sealing would gain you only a couple more days. Any roasted beans should be used 21 days MAX post roast room temp' storage, unless bland and boring and later rancid is ok.

However, if longer term storage is needed of roasted beans airtight and frozen is the way. Vacuum sealed and frozen -40F good easily for a year or more. Simply airtight 0F temp range like most usual freezers 6 months to a year, the earlier from roast date frozen the longer good, since above -40F they will very slowly age, higher the temp the faster. I've pulled 90+ % crema shots over one year vac frozen and tasted great, can't do that with stale beans.

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Permalink Reply by Dennis McQuoid on January 7, 2011 at 4:14pm

Ha. I was eyeballing those at Target yesterday and was leaning that direction.

Jay Caragay said:

Large glass containers with silicone sealed metal lids from the housewares section of Target: $20 each.

 

They look exactly like this:

http://www.explorebaltimorecounty.com/business/104629/coffee-connoi...

 

Behind Phil Proteau are the empty glass containers that we use for holding whole beans.  The photo was taken a month before we opened hence their being empty.  The contents of a five pound bag fits comfortably in the container with an air gap but we're plowing through the coffee so it hardly matters.

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Permalink Reply by Shadow on January 8, 2011 at 7:10am

I agree with Mike in trying to use all beans within that 15 day range for best results. I have used beans for drip coffee up to the 3 week point just to eliminate wasting them, but flavor and aroma really starts to degrade quite a bit at that point. IMO it also depends on the roast level as darker roasts "seem" to go rancid quicker. Have also tried vacuum packing/deep freezing with the beans broken down in 1/2 lb. increments (for home use at that time) and it worked quite well. May not have been as flawless as really fresh beans, but it was hard to notice much difference. I did take them out of the freezer and let them come up to room temperature before using them. I could be wrong, but I'd think using frozen beans in a room temperature grinder and the added heat that can come from the grinding process could lead to condensation inside the grinder.

 

For bean storage I had a bit of a dilemma, being that we are mobile in operation. That makes utilizing space quite important. For our drip coffees I store the beans in "dispensers" like the ones you see at hotels, etc. being used to dispense cereal, oatmeal, etc. I don't like that they are plastic, but they are fairly airtight, convenient to use and do indeed save space. For all things espresso, I only fill the bean hoppers maybe 1/3 full and add during the day as necessary. Espresso roasts are left in the foil lined bags they are packaged in, rolled down tightly and then stored in heavy duty ZipLoc bags. At the end of the day any remaining beans in the grinder hoppers are stored that same way as I found leaving the beans in the hoppers even overnight led to increased staling.  

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Permalink Reply by Jared Rutledge on January 8, 2011 at 7:47am

i just keep them in the lined bags they come in, and use big clips to seal them. i don't have any problems with freshness, but we use our beans up within about a ten day window maximum. the decaf i put in tupperware style containers and freeze. it dies within about three days (especially as espresso) so we just defrost what we can use in that timespan.

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