RioCruz wrote:When I do buy from commercial roasters, I do what Gary does and just put the beans in a jar in the freezer.

To keep air away from the beans, I keep plastic bags from the grocery store produce section and stuff them into the top of the jar as I use up some beans. I try not to let any broccoli bits mingle with the coffee ...

But the savory Kenya thing is in these days

drgary wrote: Now, back on topic ...

Four weeks? What coffee are you drinking?

Sure. Maybe my taste just isn't that sensitive. Most coffee arrives 2 or 3 days post roast and isn't at its best for at least the rest of week 1. Week 2 is usaully really good, week 3 is usually still good (often at least as good as week 1, although different, sometimes better), and week 4 is usually still enjoyable (to me, at least). This pattern tends to hold generally true for whatever coffee I've tried.

I've tried freezing, but freezer space in my household is at a premium. Plus, I found that with freezing, the coffee was not necessarily more consistently at it's peak than not freezing. When I froze, I used mason jars and would just take them out and use them up one at a time. If I froze a batch when I received it, the coffee tended to be just reaching its peak when i got to the end of a jar. The one time I intended to wait a bit before freezing, I never go around to it and just used up the bag without freezing it at all, which is how I decided that freezing is not necessary for my taste and usage.

Some recent coffees I've done this with are Red Bird coffees (Espresso, Ethiopia Sidama Shakisso, Brazil Sweet Blue and Brazil Moka Peaberry, and a couple of different Guatemalans), Mountain Air Black Balsam and Obelisk, Venia Square Peg, and Bodka Main Squeeze. Again, this is all for brewed coffee (Brazen Plus, Aeropress, Clever dripper, and Yama vac pot), even though some of these are nominally espresso blends.

Edit: I should mention that I keep the 5lbs in a valve bag with as much air squeezed out as I can, and keep a smaller current working amount in a small ziploc freezer bag ("freezer" referring to the type of bag, not that I keep it in the freezer).

drgary wrote:You mean to Steve?

I FREEZE my coffee at peak. It's sooo easy. I'm just finishing a 5 lb bag of Compass Coffee La Berlina that's been frozen airtight for about 3 months, and it's fine.

Yeah, no Randy...sorry

I just had an absolutely wonderful pot of Mountain Air Obelisk, roast date June 19, that was possibly the best pot I've had from this 5lb bag.

One unusual and unintended thing that went into this pot was that the beans were warm before grinding.

I weigh out my beans in a frothing pitcher, then dump them into the hopper and grind, catching the grounds in the same pitcher and then dumping them in the filter basket. My work space is usually the glass stovetop. After weighing out the beans, I put the pitcher down on the stovetop while I put away the scale, not realizing that my wife had just finished using the stove and that I had placed the pitcher on the warm burner.

I went ahead and ground and brewed as usual, and the coffee was particularly sweet and delicious, even with the month old beans. Did the warm beans have something to do with it? Who knows. I didn't even think about the fact that the beans were warm until I stumbled on a reference here in another thread about prewarming beans in the microwave, and saw the long thread about WBC finalist Dawn Chan Kwu Ho (which I have not had a chance to read through yet).

Maybe there is something to it.

I roast my own greens and let them sit out over night then put them in a mylar bag with CO2 button and seal it. My beans are thrown away if they live more than week.

I like you motto Randy! Drink more coffee!

I am going to use that if my wife asks why I am making the fifth espresso of the day, it's getting stale I need to use it all up!

I have been warned against freezing by my local indie roasters.
Instead, I keep the espress- intended beans sealed in the foile vacuum bags in which they come (I purchase) and then seal the bag in an Airscape container which has one lid that pushes out all air and a second lid on top,with rubber gasket ring to further keep out air.
Container kept in kitchen... I only purchase 12 oz at a time. Beans stay pretty well I finisht the bag in a couple 0 three week's time . Keep decaf and regular beans Slight change after three weeks but still very drinkable
Brew coffee ,kept this way lasts a long time with no detected hit in flavor