green bean storage
Would anyone care to share how they choose to store their green beans? I'm a roaster starting out and I've been reading voraciously. I see how temperature and humidity play a role, how surrounding smells play a role, etc...but so far no suggestions about how to address the issue. Do I need a giant freezer? Do roasters pay for climate controlled storage? Do you just keep the beans in a burlap sack and hope for the best? That sounds like a risky proposal to me because so much can happen from the time you receive your beans, presumably in the same state as when leaving the point of origin, to when you're ready to roast them. Thanks for any input!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by The Barista Formerly Known As JavaJ on
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Suzanne, I am not a roaster, but I have worked with several. My suggestion is to do the best you can with your current situation, but to keep in mind one thing: Coffee is seasonal. As in any agricultural product, certain coffees come to market at certain times. Always buy current crop coffees from the reputable producers, buy what you can use in no more than a few months, and you will never have to worry about it. That way the coffee you are roasting will always be at its peak.
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Permalink Reply by Suzanne on
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Thanks,TBFKAJ! So I'm obsessing about something that isn't even an issue if I have my beans for a month at a time or so. OK. I appreciate your input.
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Permalink Reply by Rich Abker on
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Hi Suzanne,
Storing green beans can be tricky for some of the reasons that you mentioned. However green beans can be stored for at least up to a year, when stored under good conditions. The best conditions are in a clean storage area or warehouse. The room temperature should be cool, or roughly between 45o and 60o F. If kept in coffee bags, they should be stored on palletes. The pallets need to provide enough area between them for the coffee to breathe the air circulation. No great amounts of moisture should contact the green beans. Meeting these conditions would be considerd a humidity controlled environment.
Freezing the coffee is not a good idea. It negatively affects the molecular structure of the beans.
Your storage area size depends on how large an operation that you have available. Other influences are the volume of roasted wholesale coffee that you are selling, your projected growth, and your ability to buy coffee in large quantities to take advantage of bargain prices available certain times of the year.
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Thanks Rich! That's very helpful.
Rich Abker said:Hi Suzanne,
Storing green beans can be tricky for some of the reasons that you mentioned. However green beans can be stored for at least up to a year, when stored under good conditions. The best conditions are in a clean storage area or warehouse. The room temperature should be cool, or roughly between 45o and 60o F. If kept in coffee bags, they should be stored on palletes. The pallets need to provide enough area between them for the coffee to breathe the air circulation. No great amounts of moisture should contact the green beans. Meeting these conditions would be considerd a humidity controlled environment.
Freezing the coffee is not a good idea. It negatively affects the molecular structure of the beans.
Your storage area size depends on how large an operation that you have available. Other influences are the volume of roasted wholesale coffee that you are selling, your projected growth, and your ability to buy coffee in large quantities to take advantage of bargain prices available certain times of the year.
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Permalink Reply by John on
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I buy green coffee to roast locally. I've noticed that the beans the farm sends me in Feb, Mar, April and May aren't quite as delicious as the rest of the year. I also don't know that much about storage, except that they can be stored green for months.
I wonder if there would be a problem with be buying 4 or 5 months worth of green coffee in December and January so that my coffee tastes the same throughout the year?
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What I've gotten from speaking to many is that greens shipped from origin in a wrap stay freshest, but not many origins are equipped to do this. Most are sent in burlap of one kind or another and a lot of folks are telling me that keeping the beans for less than a year on pallets in their original bags is fine, even in my garage. I have a feeling that the quality of the coffee plays a large part, a shipper that you can trust to not keep your goods near any fuel or other source of contaminant is also critical , and just keeping them away from too much or too little moisture.
John Kijote said:I buy green coffee to roast locally. I've noticed that the beans the farm sends me in Feb, Mar, April and May aren't quite as delicious as the rest of the year. I also don't know that much about storage, except that they can be stored green for months.
I wonder if there would be a problem with be buying 4 or 5 months worth of green coffee in December and January so that my coffee tastes the same throughout the year?
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Permalink Reply by Alun Evans on
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Basically coffee is seasonal. For instance greens coming out of Sumatra genrally are harvested November throgh to March. Now John is correct in saying that even with coffee coming out during harvest, week to week the coffee will not cup the same. I never buy new crop from my farmers in Sumatra, I prefer mid crop. Luckily I am in the position to be cupping daily crop samples that come down from Takengon. Now a BIG broker in the US also has access to samples on a weekly basis, this means that they too are normally well positioned to be able to buy crop EXACTLY when it is at its peak.
On the issue of storage, indeed most green is still shipped either in jute or in generic breathable plastic sacks (which I hate more from an aestical point of view than a scientific one... you know like the cork vs twist top debate...?? :o ) anyway... the key areas where you can have big problems are if the coffee is not shipped correctly from origin. Humididty and moisture damage can cause mildew, which makes the coffee non recoverable. Also if coffee is shipped in LCL (Less than container load) with cargo such as machine parts or even bananas (famous story that someone here can possibly tell...if not will fill in the gaps later). If coffee is shipped correctly from origin, handled correctly at destination, then storage should be not TOO much of an issue.
Standard practice in Europe and here is palletising a maximum of 16 sacks per pallet. Stacking a maximum of 5 pallets high. We are talking 60kg standards for greens here per jute sack. Storage I think is best using some form of humidity control. At origin humidity is obviously quite high, most warehouses in port in Surabaya, Jakarta, Semarang or Medan absolutely do not have humidity control. You are talking really massive facilities. Shipping containers themselves also rarely have moisture/humidity control, although we have in the past shipped some more expensive greens with humidity strips that fit into the walls of the container. I am not convinced at all that these make a difference to be honest. You have to remember that all containers have ventilation holes and sea moisture is always going to negate the effect of inbuilt humidity control in containers.
However at destination I guess it may be different. Generally many consuming countries have continental type climates, they are much dryer than origin. That would perhaps be my main concern for longer term storage of greens... ie longer than 6 months stored.
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Hey Alun!
As always, you are a virtual repository of useful information. For us roasters then, it all comes down to having a good relationship with our broker(s) and farmers [where we can] in that we can trust them to ensure that all the proper practices are in place before we have any control. Once they get into our hands the storage situation becomes much less of an issue...
Suz
Alun Evans said:Basically coffee is seasonal. For instance greens coming out of Sumatra genrally are harvested November throgh to March. Now John is correct in saying that even with coffee coming out during harvest, week to week the coffee will not cup the same. I never buy new crop from my farmers in Sumatra, I prefer mid crop. Luckily I am in the position to be cupping daily crop samples that come down from Takengon. Now a BIG broker in the US also has access to samples on a weekly basis, this means that they too are normally well positioned to be able to buy crop EXACTLY when it is at its peak.
On the issue of storage, indeed most green is still shipped either in jute or in generic breathable plastic sacks (which I hate more from an aestical point of view than a scientific one... you know like the cork vs twist top debate...?? :o ) anyway... the key areas where you can have big problems are if the coffee is not shipped correctly from origin. Humididty and moisture damage can cause mildew, which makes the coffee non recoverable. Also if coffee is shipped in LCL (Less than container load) with cargo such as machine parts or even bananas (famous story that someone here can possibly tell...if not will fill in the gaps later). If coffee is shipped correctly from origin, handled correctly at destination, then storage should be not TOO much of an issue.
Standard practice in Europe and here is palletising a maximum of 16 sacks per pallet. Stacking a maximum of 5 pallets high. We are talking 60kg standards for greens here per jute sack. Storage I think is best using some form of humidity control. At origin humidity is obviously quite high, most warehouses in port in Surabaya, Jakarta, Semarang or Medan absolutely do not have humidity control. You are talking really massive facilities. Shipping containers themselves also rarely have moisture/humidity control, although we have in the past shipped some more expensive greens with humidity strips that fit into the walls of the container. I am not convinced at all that these make a difference to be honest. You have to remember that all containers have ventilation holes and sea moisture is always going to negate the effect of inbuilt humidity control in containers.
However at destination I guess it may be different. Generally many consuming countries have continental type climates, they are much dryer than origin. That would perhaps be my main concern for longer term storage of greens... ie longer than 6 months stored.
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Permalink Reply by Sean Pratt on
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Mr. Kijote,
If you ever do end up getting that much product at once, make sure you save on shipping with one of the largest Logistics companies in the country. we specialize in getting the optimal saving for small businesses.
Good luck
John Kijote said:I buy green coffee to roast locally. I've noticed that the beans the farm sends me in Feb, Mar, April and May aren't quite as delicious as the rest of the year. I also don't know that much about storage, except that they can be stored green for months.
I wonder if there would be a problem with be buying 4 or 5 months worth of green coffee in December and January so that my coffee tastes the same throughout the year?
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Permalink Reply by Spencer on
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Some great information is already posted. Coffee is seasonal it will taste best when it is freshest. Storing coffee in a warehouse or in you home will not mitigate the staling process. There is some very good research being done on freezing.
Green coffee stores away from heat, insects and mositure will stay free of mold and bacteria growth, but will not stay fresh.
Coffee is all harvested in a matter of week or months. To keep the coffee fresh the shippers will keep the coffee in parchemnt until it is to be shipped - this helps to maintian the aromatics, acidity and sweetness. Please know that even keeping coffee in parchment will not keep coffee tasting like fresh harvest, but will help protect against it tasting stale and old.
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