Hi all...
In the past we used Quart Mason Jars to store our home roasted beans - which all reside in a cupboard adjacent to my coffee area - never exposed to direct sunlight nor heat.

Our homemade yogurt production took my jars, so I just started putting coffee in zip lock bags as a matter of convenience. I use Quart Freezer bags (which are double sealed and a bit thicker).

These go into the aforementioned cupboard, and I find it easy to degas them and actually shrink them with the use of beans so there is less air in them than was in my Mason jars.

What do you see as the up or down sides to this practice?

The mason jars work MUCH better!! I've used them for some time now since I usually buy up to 5 lbs at a time and pack the jars as full as possible before putting them in a cool dark cupboard. Even with almost a month of storage they produce a very drinkable cup; not quite comparable to when they are 10 days old, but not far off either. The bags come nowhere near this in terms of helping preserve freshness. My advice - get more jars...and you may want to get even smaller jars. It's a cheap method to extend the useful life of your beans.

Merry Christmas

I see no reason why Mason Jars should be better provided the freezer bags don't split open as the coffee degasses. After all, reusable valve bags are simply freezer bags with the degassing valve attached.

On the other hand, I never tested this; since I use freezer bags to freeze coffee for longer term storage.

Interesting question(s) . . . and slight thread drift . . . .

ljguitar wrote:I find it easy to degas them and actually shrink them with the use of beans so there is less air in them than was in my mason jars. What do you see as the up or down sides to this practice?

Larry, I cannot see much difference between using Mason jars and freezer bags for coffee storage. But how long, may I ask, does our coffee sit in those bags in the cupboard?

For minds brighten than mine:

• If the coffee continues to degas while sitting in the darkened "cupboard adjacent to my coffee area -- never exposed to direct sunlight nor heat," why aren't the bags "puffy" from the gas the beans would give off?
• And even if the beans have finished degassing, won't they continue to "age" and eventually stale from sitting in the aforementioned cupboard at ambient temperature? (And how is that really different from sitting in a light-proof bag on a shelf in an air-conditioned supermarket?)

It's my understanding -- as a total, non-scientific layman -- that cold storage retards aging (compared to storage at room temperature). Thus, on Day 4-5 after roast, I break down my coffee shipments and fill small European caning jars (similar to Mason jars) with 200-250 grams each (as many coffee beans as possible, thus eliminating as much air as possible) and place them in my freezer. These are then taken out on an "as needed" basis -- well, the night before they're needed, as they then gradually warm up to ambient temperature before use. I've noticed no ill-effects from long-term storage this way.

I know that nothing is written on stone, and that various beans will "stale" at different times, etc., etc., but I can see Larry's bag-in-cupboard storage as fine IF the coffee is used within the proverbial 15 days after roast (i.e.: before it stales). I see storing in the freezer -- Mason jars OR freezer bags -- as a way to keep the coffee "fresher, longer" (i.e.: slowing down the time the coffee takes before it reaches that same "degree of staleness" it would otherwise reach on that proverbial 15th day).

Am I making sense?

Cheers,
Jason

Larry, I cannot see much difference between using Mason jars and freezer bags for coffee storage. But how long, may I ask, does our coffee sit in those bags in the cupboard?

Merry Christmas folks...just touching base before the day gets ''crazy busy''...

Hi Jason...
Well at our house any bag lasts about a week to 10 days (because I house 3-4 overlapping roasts at a time). There are two single origin bags and two espressos in our cupboard right now...oh and a small amount of Liquid Amber from a week back that I saved for Christmas morning. A friend is joining us for a late morning breakfast...

Sometimes I'll roast a full pound of a favorite espresso batch and it might last 2 weeks - but if they start to get funky they are tossed...that's pretty rare around here.

I do put the roast date on them...then as they age I use them more frequently...They actually get in rotation on the shelf and move from one end to the other as they come into their prime (from my perspective).

I should qualify that - I don't always roast date them if I'm freezing them. If I pull a load right out of the roaster and bag/freeze it, if I bother to date it, it's in very light pen, and then I re-date it when I removed it from the freezer and put it into circulation...this is because they don't even begin to degas till I remove them from the freezer so I treat them as freshly roasted at that point.

I see no reason why Mason Jars should be better provided the freezer bags don't split open as the coffee degasses.

Hi Jim - I monitor them and as they swell I just purge them. Then every time I use them I purge them again as I seal them and roll the bag down fairly tight against the beans so it expels air.

uscfroadie wrote:The mason jars work MUCH better!! I've used them for some time now since I usually buy up to 5 lbs at a time and pack the jars as full as possible before putting them in a cool dark cupboard. Even with almost a month of storage they produce a very drinkable cup; not quite comparable to when they are 10 days old, but not far off either. The bags come nowhere near this in terms of helping preserve freshness. My advice - get more jars...and you may want to get even smaller jars. It's a cheap method to extend the useful life of your beans.

Hi Merle...Merry Christmas,
I should do a comparison - I missed your post initially and leapfrogged it inadvertently.

I will just have to put half pound each in a bag and jar and leave them alone in the cupboard for a week before starting to use them (the hardest part) and then monitor their decline. Longevity might be an issue for long term storage...

I'm curious why you don't freeze beans if you buy 5# at a time?

Greetings,

I use the Foodsaver vacuum system and Mason jars for short term storage ( 14 days). For longer storage I use Foodsaver bags, vacuum and seal them, and store in the deep freeze. My palate is not that sophisticated that I can taste any great differences.

Cliff

HI Cliff...
A question:
If you are vacuum sealing non-frozen beans, do you find it draws oils out of the beans more quickly than just closing a jar lid?

I've been concerned about applying a vacuum to coffee beans with oils in them based on other foods which I've experienced oils be drawn to the surface of (like garlic cloves).

In consideration for me is the oils coming to the surface causing a potential problem of the oil going stale quicker (exposure to air) and then potential clumping of the grounds...what is your experience?

I use mason jars for green and roasted bean storage. They are reusable and the glass is not permeable.

I did vac seal my greens in foodsaver bags at one time, but it was too much work and I disliked throwing away the bags. The ziplock bags are pearmeable which is why I don't use them, plus I also don't want to throw away the bags, rather wash and reuse the mason jars.

Occasional breakage and bulkier storage is a downside for glass canning jars.

ljguitar wrote:HI Cliff...
A question:
If you are vacuum sealing non-frozen beans, do you find it draws oils out of the beans more quickly than just closing a jar lid?

I've been concerned about applying a vacuum to coffee beans with oils in them based on other foods which I've experienced oils be drawn to the surface of (like garlic cloves).

In consideration for me is the oils coming to the surface causing a potential problem of the oil going stale quicker (exposure to air) and then potential clumping of the grounds...what is your experience?

Larry, I experimented with those 12oz plastic ware devices with the pump mechanism to purge the air out of the container.
I found my coffee aged nearly twice as fast, and observed city+ roasts oil up after only 3 days, something that never happens using 1 way valved bags, my 10 day max storage medium of choice.