I've got 90-100lbs of greens in my freezer, all vac packed in Foodsaver bags. At least half of those bags have been in there for 15-26 months & the bags are all holding their vacuum just fine. Once in a while I'll get a bag puncture from a sharp bean but if you leave the newly v/b greens out overnight it should show up before you put them in the freezer.

Like all of these discussions, opinions are widely available but few real "facts" are out there. While I do believe that there are bad ways to store green coffee, such as leaving it in a jute bag at room temperature, and that there are better ways to do it, there is little proof about exactly which parts of a given preservation routine are important.

I have no difficulty believing that storage in some sort of isolating plastic, even at room temperature, is better than letting the coffee "breath" and absorb potential jute bag odors. From personal experience, I know that freezing in Zip Lock bags (doubled) works very well. I can see no reason why vacuuming would harm green coffee, and if the bags can be prepared in a way that they won't get punctured and leak, then this is fine too.

What I don't know is when one reaches a point of diminishing returns, e.g. each additional step adds so little or even nothing in the way of benefit, that it is not worth doing. That I will leave to our gentle readers to decide.

ken

I've been vac-packing my greens and storing them in a deep freeze. But the power went out and my generator failed too. At this point, the greens are still in the freezer and the temp is about 40F and slowly rising. Power may not be restored for another few days. Shall I just remove the greens and keep them at room temperature until I use them up, or dare I re-freeze the un-opened, vac-packed greens?

bvwelch wrote:I've been vac-packing my greens and storing them in a deep freeze. But the power went out and my generator failed too. At this point, the greens are still in the freezer and the temp is about 40F and slowly rising. Power may not be restored for another few days. Shall I just remove the greens and keep them at room temperature until I use them up, or dare I re-freeze the un-opened, vac-packed greens?

First, our sympathies regarding your recent experiences with tornadoes.

My first reaction is that if you know the temperature of your deep freeze, then you have already made a mistake by opening it up to check. Of course, if by chance you have a TC in the freezer and did not open it to check, then disregard what I just wrote. A really cold freezer, especially a chest freezer, will maintain a cold temperature for at least a week or two if the top remains closed. This is more true the larger the volume that is already occupied within the freezer when the power goes out. Chest freezers are very well insulated.

At this point it is very hard to give any sort of advice based upon any real and believable knowledge.

If I were in your position, what I would do would be based upon how much previously frozen green coffee you have in your stock. If we are talking about a few pounds, something that you might use up in 3 months, then I"d say take it out and just use it; this is a stash you can never be sure about. If we are talking about an immense quantity, something that will take you a year or more to use up, then the response is much less clear. If it were me and it was a large quantity of green coffee, then I would consider refreezing it or much of it, assuming the power comes back on within a few days or a week.

ken

Sherman wrote:The only possible down side is the limited size of mason jars. IIRC the largest consumer size is 2L, but I haven't found them locally.

I get my 1/2 gallon canning jars locally at Orchard Supply Hardware and vac seal my greens in them and then store them in a fridge.

First, let me say that any loss I may incur to my green coffee stash is trivial compared to families who have suffered real losses -- loss of family members, loss of home and property.

I did install a TC in the freezer prior to using it for green coffee storage, in order to monitor the temperature without opening the lid. There is probably have less than 20 pounds of greens in the freezer, which isn't huge but hope to salvage it. Thank you for your insights.

Don't worry about your greens. They will weather the thaw/freeze cycle just fine.