JohnB. wrote:Or just buy some large canning jars & empty the valve bag into the jar/jars for freezing.

Right. Some truly sealed container. Then there's always the question of air that's already in the container. So a jar that is only partially full may turn out to be worse than a tightly wrapped bag that leaks a little. It's hard to know.

What's actually necessary for storage is also hard to determine. I think a lot of people use jars. I generally have my beans in the original bag which is in turn inside a ziplock bag. Then I wrap a rubber band around the bag or press it into a corner in the freezer so that it cannot passively fill with air. But sometimes I just stick the original paper lined bag directly in the freezer. I'm not sure putting it in a ziplock as well really makes a difference, particularly since I usually open up the bag frequently. Hermetically sealing is a bit absurd if the container is regularly opened.

For long term storage it seems prudent to minimize the available oxygen. But as I mentioned earlier, I had some beans in the freezer for a year that turned out to still be really good. Those beans were just in a lined paper bag with a rubber band around it.

Yes, you would want to fill the jar to the top to minimize air in the jar. The OP was only talking about a couple weeks of storage so it shouldn't be a problem. Longer then that then I'd suggest vacuum sealing.

Well I'm about done with my first bag from SquareOne, I put my Mountain Air Roasting bag in the freezer and taped the valve. Guess I should remove the bag tonight and let it thaw overnight and start using it tomorrow. Don't really feel like taking out one cup's worth of beans a day and I didn't divide it up beforehand. For the future I'm going to just buy bags as I need them so I can use one bag within the two weeks. Kind of annoying worrying about how to keep them as fresh as possible before using them.

I have been loving the SquareOne coffee though, can't wait to try the Mountain Air stuff.

FWIW, I think you may be over thinking it (that never happens here, right?) and for my $0.02, I have a whole stack of Mountain Air bags that I have saved specifically for freezing. I typically order coffee 3-4 bags at a time for shipping purposes then:
Divide the bag in half (between two Mtn Air bags if the original bag isn't the ziplock type) - I write what coffee it is with a Sharpie on the Mtn Air bag.
Suck out all of the air I can, tape the valve shut, fold the top over to keep it compressed.
Put it in a larger foil bag like what Redbird sends out or a freezer ziplock bag, try and get all of the air out of it, and then push it into the coldest, back part of my freezer.

I take the coffee out the night before I need it to let it come up to room temperature, and this lasts me 3-4 days. I occasionally notice a difference in espresso with the grind setting, but you also have the variable of if you used half a bag fresh and the second half frozen for a week, you're comparing different amounts of days post roast. I have also noticed that some coffees will stale or drop off quicker after frozen, than when used fresh, which is why I try and only freezer 3-5 day's worth of coffee at a time. And, only maybe once or twice in 5+ years of freezing coffee, have I noticed a bag that just didn't freeze well. The coffee was still drinkable, but just a bit flat or tasted stale.

Yes, canning jars are just as reusable and better for fighting air leaks, but in general, all I did was reuse good, sturdy bags I've received and have had great results, or at least results good enough that I cannot personally justify not doing it. At the end of the day, you just need to remove all of the air you can, prevent any air from getting in, allow it to come up to room temp, and use within a couple of days.