Hey everyone, sorry if this has come up before, I have searched but couldn'd readily find, so here goes.

I recently purchased a kilo of coffee beans, but am the only coffee drinker in the house so only go through about 300 grams a week. I want to freeze some of the beans in small containers that will hold roughly a weeks supply so that they are fresh upon removal. Thing is the beans I bought were roasted yesterday, so I am assuming they will be aging and emitting CO2 for at least a few more days.

Does freezing stop the CO2 emission of the beans? Or will it continue after thawing?

How long should I leave the beans before freezing if freezing does stop the CO2 emission?

The beans are in an opaque bag with a one way valve in a cool cupboard for the moment

Thanks

Ian

Does it stop CO2 exhausting? I have no idea. What I can tell you is that I have vacuum sealed beans I roasted an hour or two earlier (after they are room temp) and after I removed them for the freezer, their bag puffed up....positive pressure. That has not always been my experience, but it has happened.

With that said, I haven't seen a difference

Yes, they will still degas, although at a much slower rate. It will not harm the flavors if you allow them to degas another couple of days before freezing them. As a precaution, check them periodically and release any accumulated pressure but don't allow them to thaw. Take out the next 300 grams for use.

Report back with any updates.

A little light reading for you: /store-coff ... eezer.html

I freeze the home roast competition entries when they arrive, as well as excess amounts of coffee I get for testing. In the triangle tests I did prior to adopting this as my SOP, I could not tell the difference between coffee left to age a week, then frozen for five weeks, compared to coffee roasted five weeks later and left to age a week.

I may be overgeneralizing; but I think freezing either stops aging or at least retards it by a factor of 50 coffee, regardless of the age of the coffee going in. In any case, coffee that goes into the freezer one week old will come out tasting one week old.

Just to answer your remaining questions, with a +1 on what Jim posted:

stilloutthere wrote:
Does freezing stop the CO2 emission of the beans? Or will it continue after thawing?

How long should I leave the beans before freezing if freezing does stop the CO2 emission?

The beans are in an opaque bag with a one way valve in a cool cupboard for the moment

As others have replied it slows but doesn't stop. It will continue after thawing.

Because it slows but doesn't stop, freeze as soon as you can.

Tape the valve up before freezing or put the bag in an airtight container before freezing. You will find more info about this on previous threads.

My perception is that after freezing the beans age faster than unfrozen beans, so if I am buying several bags I will not freeze all of them. I generally keep around a 1 week to 10 day supply unfrozen, depending on the beans.

Mike

If I am storing coffee, the only reason I can think of for waiting at all after roasting is a concern about outgassing pressure since I use glass Mason jars. I haven't read a report of exploding jars in the freezer, but if I were home roasting coffee, I might wait a couple hours before storing them. For what it's worth, I consider it a good thing if the thawed jar "burps" when reopened.

On a related note, Frozen Coffee Storage Calculator offers an interesting take on coffee staling rates. That said, my simple rules are (a) store in freezer ASAP, (b) ideally use within 30 days, (c) once coffee is out of the freezer, don't return it, and (d) use small jars, enough for 2-3 days.

The members of the frozen coffee club-those who freeze roasted coffee to extend its life-seem pretty split on when to freeze the coffee. I'll typically throw the canning jars in the freezer right after I've roasted it so I don't forget. If you use canning jars, don't overfill the jar or you might end up with a bit of coffee in the seal on the lid which will prevent the lid from properly sealing.

If you order coffee from good roasters; it will usually arrive three to six days post roast. You won't be ruining the coffee if you order an extra pound or two to save postage, and then freeze what you can't use right away.