Too much coffee; how to store?

[caeffe]

I got a problem. Depending on your point of view, I think it's a good problem though.
I'm one of those who entered too many times in the 2007 Holiday contest. Ended up getting a lot of coffee.

Intelly, PTS, Paradise Roasters have arrived. I still have Ecco and Counter Culture and others that I haven't ordered.

Can I store these 1 lb bags in my freezer? I read through one of the threads but in the FAQ about storing in the freezer but I don't have a vacuum sealer thingamajig. Can I just press all the air out of the bag, pop it in a zip lock bag and put it in the freezer?

Once I've opened a bag can I still press all the air out and put it in the freezer?

[cannonfodder]

I assume you have read Kens Coffee: To Freeze or Not to Freeze. If not I would recommend it.

If the bags are unopened, put a piece of packing tape (the clear cellophane tape) over the one way valve to prevent any freezer odors from seeping in. Then toss them in your deep freezer or on the bottom shelf in the very back of your refrigerator freezer. Cold sinks, heat rises so the back bottom of the freezer is the coldest part. They will keep for a couple of months stored that way.

If you have opened the bag, put the beans in a mason jar and tighten the lid down to create an air tight container.

If things get too bad, you could always send your excess to me for proper disposal.

[jesawdy]

Ken's article is a good read. He specifically used home roast and froze the coffee shortly after roasting.

I freeze commercial roasted coffee as soon as it arrives unless I am ready for the new shipment. For 1/2 lb. or 1 lb. bags I place tape over the valve as Dave mentions, and just put the sealed bag in the freezer. I do order large bags for the "coffee club" at work (5 lbs usually). I split this bag up into pint or quart-sized mason jars (it takes a good number of them) and put these in the freezer. The wide-mouth pint size works out well (despite needing lots of them) as the coffee is used up within a shorter period of time. For me, everything stays in the freezer until needed. Once out, I do not return it to the freezer.

[caeffe]

Dave, Jeff and of course Ken,

Thx so much for the link and the posts. One forgets amid all this talk about machines and technique that a key component of any item for enjoyment of our taste buds is freshness of the ingredient. You hear it about food ingredients.

I've got a couple of bags that I need to squeeze air out of, put tape on the valve, and pop into the deep bowels of my freezer.

It's a good thing that I've already finished the Black Cat ...
Now it's on to Paradise Roaster's Espresso Classico, but I think I better freeze half of it along with the Havana and Lake Tawar. I've come down with something viral and I just can't seem to enjoy the espresso as much with taste buds that are out of whack...

[cannonfodder]

No real need to squeeze the air out of the bags. When air cools it condenses. When those room temperature bags go in the freezer, the air in the bag gets denser and takes less space. I have had a bag or two that went into the freezer in a non-puffed up state. After a day in the deep freeze (around -20F) the bags looked like they had been vacuum packed.

In my limited experience, the freezing slows the aging process but does not stop it. I held onto a bag of pro roast for around 6 months (I would have to find the post to check the storage time). The beans worked well for around 3-4 days then rapidly degraded. If it were me, once I opened a bag, I would only get out 3 days worth of coffee, put the remainder in an airtight mason jar and return it to the freezer for future retrieval. With coffees that have only been in storage for a couple of weeks, I notice no real difference in their aging verses a fresh bag, be it just out of the roaster home roast or a bag of purchased roast.

[Climb14er]

I place the unopened coffee bag into a double freezer zip lock, place in the freezer and forget-about-it assuming I'm going to use the coffee within a three month time frame, usually a one to two month frame.

Contrary to what others might 'think', I've found barely no noticeable difference between coffees that have been frozen properly and ones that are 'stored' (used within a fourteen day time frame) in proper containers on the shelf.