Ideal degassing conditions

by **wildlyesoteric** on Mon Jan 21, 2008 3:56 am

What's the preferred method of degassing roasted coffee? Should it be left out in the open for a time before being transferred to air tight containers? One-way jars straight after roasting? Sealed containers?

I'm getting chaff-y aroma and nuances on my last home-roast, 1/2lb in a dog bowl with heat gun to FC- in 14 minutes, and am wondering if that could be caused by my degassing procedure -- straight into a vacu-vin and pumped, since all of my one-way jars were full.

Thanks for the help

by **Ken Fox** on Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:52 am

wildlyesoteric wrote:What's the preferred method of degassing
Thanks for the help

For me, privacy is the key; excuse yourself and go off somewhere else, if possible. Judging by the behavior of others, however, preferred sites appear to be wherever people congregate, such as at meetings, in stores, restaurants, or any number of vehicles used in transit.

ken

by **NebuK** on Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:20 pm

-.-.

Anyways, i put every batch (220g) in a jam jar (airtight), that would hold ~500g, so theres some space left. I put it at a dark, cool (important!) place with low humidity and leave it open for one day. The next day i close it and open it everytime i walk by (about 3-5 times). After that i leave it fully closed for yet another day - drink after that ;P.

That method worked best for me - i had humidity / condensate issues in the fridge, and next to the grinder is relatively hot/humid (macchina is running...) - so that bad conditions too.

Greetings
- Dario

by **Rainman** on Mon Jan 21, 2008 12:50 pm

Ken Fox wrote:For me, privacy is the key; excuse yourself and go off somewhere else, if possible. Judging by the behavior of others, however, preferred sites appear to be wherever people congregate, such as at meetings, in stores, restaurants, or any number of vehicles used in transit.

ken

Ahh, the pangs of degassing in public. I just flew in from Milwaukee after a cupping of sorts with some green coffee buying buddies done on Saturday followed by buffalo chili, then dinner at a local Indian restaurant (lots of curry and veggies). The trip home yesterday was a bit umm, uncomfortable once we reached altitude- a pressurized cabin is still effectively higher than Lake Michigan. At least I had a row all to myself!

To answer your question, I don't think it really matters as long as you can minimize exposure of your beans to significant moisture (I don't refrigerate them ever, or freeze them without sealing them well in bags). The CO2 will escape no matter how well you seal them in new zip lock baggies or clean mason jars (otherwise, you risk contaminating your new product). I think it's more important to keep them in the "cool, dry, dark" places mentioned in so many other threads.

Hope this helps?

Ray

by **cannonfodder** on Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:39 pm

A one way valve bag in a dark cupboard or an air tight mason jar but you need to crack the ring to allow the gas to escape.

by **Ken Fox** on Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:08 pm

cannonfodder wrote:. . . . . but you need to crack the ring to allow the gas to escape.

I've found that uncrossing my legs is usually sufficient, but, like tamping, everyone has their own approach.

ken

by **cafeIKE** on Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:47 pm

cannonfodder wrote:A one way valve bag in a dark cupboard or an air tight mason jar but you need to crack the ring to allow the gas to escape.

Snip the 1way valves out of any coffee you purchase...
a reamer / nail to punch a hole in the mason jar lid...
a dab of RTV silicone to hold the valve in place...
voila :!:

no more jar farting :lol:

by HB on Tue Jan 22, 2008 10:58 pm

Would homeroasted coffee really burst a Mason jar without a one way valve? I have never had a problem with commercial roast. Anyway, Homemade 1-way valve jars goes into more details and links to other related discussions:

rudedog wrote:Not sure where I came up with this idea or whether it is something that has been done before.

I found that while I wanted to reuse my old coffee bags that once housed that precious fresh roast...
The plastic of those one way valve resealable coffee bags seemed to retain an awful lot of smell, and not always good.
Yes, I cleaned them but they just did not seem as easy to clean as a good old mason jar.

So with the help of a drill bit and a very old Dremel I was able to carve out a nice round hole in the lid of a mason jar.
I cut out the one way valve from the stinky bag and trimmed off any of the remaining plastic bag from the valve.
And with a little glue applied all around the underside lip of the valve pressed it on the lid.
In 24 hours the lid was ready to go on the jar and vent out gasses from the fresh roast.

Some other ideas are: tinted jars and or jar art. Yes, I found jar art for mason jars available on line.
Either of these options could shield those beans from light.
Also, jars are available in a larger size or wide-mouth and lids can be bought separately as well.

Sorry about the pic. That UFO looking disk on top of the jar is the one way valve.
After a few days, for espresso beans you can replace the vented lid with a regular one.
Can you tell I like this idea?

by **Ken Fox** on Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:51 am

HB wrote:Would homeroasted coffee really burst a Mason jar without a one way valve? I have never had a problem with commercial roast.

And I've not had it with homeroast, either.

As detailed in the freezing article, I freeze some of my output immediately, when it has the most to degass, in mason type jars. The coffee continues to degass, at least a little, in the deep freeze, and resumes degassing bigtime when it is taken out and put in my pantry for use. I try not to open the jars until they are fully back up to temperature and usually do not open them for at least a day or two.

I've never had a problem, even though there is a bit of a pssst type sound when I take the tops off.

Used in this way at room temperature or in a freezer, I do not think these jars are really "airtight," rather they are "semi-airtight." Whatever excess pressure may result will be vented through the seal. Plus, these are not thin jars and they can take a certain amount of pressure in any event, probably more than the seals can hold back at room temperature or in the freezer.

ken

by **wildlyesoteric** on Wed Jan 23, 2008 2:31 am

you'll have read "one-way valve jars" in my initial post.. I've got 5 75g mason jars with valves installed, which I use to degas before the coffee ends up in vacu-vins


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