Yes, what about the "vacuum saver" containers that Theodore mentions, or the hard plastic containers with the push bottom top for storing beans for a few weeks? Is this an effective way to keep the beans if we don't want to go through the various freezing strategies?

I have three bags of newly roasted coffee from CCC, and I'm inclined to take them from their original paper bags and "store" them in my plastic containers with push bottom tops. Good idea?

hmdavis wrote:Yes, what about the "vacuum saver" containers that Theodore mentions, or the hard plastic containers with the push bottom top for storing beans for a few weeks? Is this an effective way to keep the beans if we don't want to go through the various freezing strategies?

I have three bags of newly roasted coffee from CCC, and I'm inclined to take them from their original paper bags and "store" them in my plastic containers with push bottom tops. Good idea?

In my limited experience, fresh coffee seems to stay fresher in a positive pressure environment, rather than in a vacuum.

A few weeks is a long time. If the coffee taste starts to go off as time goes on, don't be afraid to discard and replace it.

Your mileage may vary.

Sorry, that should have been "push-button top"--my wee brain needs some coffee.

To your point, then it would be better to leave the coffee in the bags they came in?

If you use the freezer bags to store/freeze the beans, how long should you thaw them out before using them and then storing them in an air tight plastic jar with a silicon seal around the top

I use a mason jars to keep my coffee fresh at home. Just remember to wash them and air dry them before putting in new beans. The last thing you want is rancid oil destroying/altering the flavor of your beans.
I find air drying rids the smell of the older beans that was last in the jar.

What I use are Zipvacs...nifty ziplock, resealable bags that have a valve on them so all the air can be sucked out with a pump that comes with them. http://www.zip-vac.com/
I use them for both green and roasted beans. When I want some beans, I just unzip the bag, take out what I want, and then vacuum seal the bag up again with the pump. It also works well for freezing beans. You can't tell from the photo, but that packet is rock-hard solid from having all the air sucked out.

hi-
i'm doing a lot small roast batches, mainly to experiment with different beans and roast profiles.

so for really short-term storage:

after roasting, is it important to store it very quick or can it wait a few hours in open air? (does it speed up rest period?)

if using mason jars, do u flip the lid to allow the pressure to escape for a day or so, or just seal it up and it still degases? (letting out CO2, each time it's opened)?

since there's trapped air in mason jar, are u better off with the standard zip lock? ...does the fact it's not completely air tight help degas? perhaps i'm thinking about it wrong: that when it still degases and emits CO2, it's also pushing out any oxygen from entering?!? i know it's probably wrong, or they wouldn't be making those one-way valve bags, unless the point of those is to stop oxygen from entering once degassing ended. I bought a few, but gets $$ when u want a lot, and not easy to get odor out of it after using 1 - 2 times.

RioCruz wrote:What I use are Zipvacs...nifty ziplock, resealable bags that have a valve on them so all the air can be sucked out with a pump that comes with them. http://www.zip-vac.com/
I use them for both green and roasted beans. When I want some beans, I just unzip the bag, take out what I want, and then vacuum seal the bag up again with the pump. It also works well for freezing beans. You can't tell from the photo, but that packet is rock-hard solid from having all the air sucked out.

What pump do you use,the electric,or the hand driven?

I use a Food Saver vac. Takes a small bit of storage space. It's dedicated for coffee (a dry, non-drippy commodity) and there are none of the cleaning issues that would be a problem if I shared the machine w/ leftover bbq chicken wings. Bags seem costly and wasteful. But hey! Vac and freeze, and I don't sweat the minuscule degradation, if any, which is certainly within the margin of error I raise with multiple other variables.

Like so many home decisions, this one requires a sense of proportion. Fresh roast used at prime hour of rest is best. Less than that, you have to make some compromises. In my case, I try to keep coffee and life to compromises that don't bite me, but now we are getting into life circumstances that vary widely. So, I suggest that people try vac and freeze. If you hate it, use the machine to save your chicken wings for a cloudy day. Or sell it. Or put it with all the other stupid things you've bought in the last 20 yrs.

Better add this:

Theodore wrote:What pump do you use,the electric,or the hand driven?

I use the electric pump for sucking air out of the bags. It works really well and is rechargeable. I use the hand pump as a replacement for the Vacu Vin pump that finally wore out from vacuuming air out of my coffee canister that I made from a clamp seal jar. I used the end of the old pump and adapted it to the new one with teflon tape: