Just put 5lbs of Red Bird into (6) 1qt jars vacuumed and froze. I was wondering how many lbs of coffee and different types of coffee do members keep in there freezer. I read the posts on freezing and just wondered is this a common practice of buying in bulk or just a couple of pounds a month. Just curious...

I'm still working out my protocol but I find that if I buy 5 lbs of redbird and freeze it, the last pound is usually at the end of freshness by the time I get to it. I only make 2-3 doubles a day (I use 16gm a shot) so 5 lbs lasts a while. Right now, I have two vintages of redbird in my freezer.

When I order I usually get about 4 bags. I freeze 2 or 3 of them.

As a home roaster with a large (1kg) roaster at home, my roasting no longer takes as much time as it did when I used consumer level roasters, or even when I (recently) used a 1lb sample roaster. This is a good thing, in my view, in that I can usually find other things to do with my time than to roast coffee.

The majority of the time I use freshly roasted coffee that has not been in the freezer, since when I am home for extended periods I tend to roast more or less weekly. There are times, however, when I absolutely depend upon my freezer stash. For my own consumption, I like to have about 3 - 4 weeks worth of various coffees available in the freezer, all in jars holding 275g or less. My own experience, based upon freezing immediately after the roast and using a very cold chest freezer that is not opened very often, is that I could probably go at least 6 months with these frozen coffees before they would have obviously deteriorated. I don't intentionally degas frozen coffee after taking it out of the freezer. My usual approach is to take it out the day before I use it, mostly to let it come to room temperature, although I have no proof that even this is necessary.

I do roast for some friends, a couple, and for them all the coffee I roast is frozen in valve bags with the valve taped over.

For further clarification, I roast only single origins, and generally dose on the "light side," at 14-16g, tops for a double shot. My typical roast profile is such that I almost never roast into second crack beyond the first second or two. I also do not roast very often for preparations other than espresso. Your mileage may vary based upon what coffees you buy and or roast, and how you prepare them.

ken

here's my freezer atm:

http://img193.imageshack.us/i/photo52jm.jpg/

Terroir Kenya Ndiara, Ritual Kenya Karimikui and Marua, Intelli Rwanda, Tanzania and El Salvador, CC Burundi and 49th decaf and yirgacheffe.

I usually try not to keep too much at a time... just enough to mix it up

I roast three batches of 250g each,with my Gene Cafe roaster,wich,after roasting,are about 620g,and I put them in three Vacuvin coffee savers,from which I suck air with a hand pump and put them in the freeze.
I take some coffee every day to put in the Nino grinder,and I put the coffee saver again in the freeze.
As I consume about 50g each day for three espressos,it takes about 13 days to drink it all.

I received my redbird 5 pound bag and put it in the freezer on 4/4 (it was roasted on 3/27). I left out 1/2 pound, gave a pound away and froze the rest. I usually drink 2 doubles a day and dose at 13 grams, and my husband will have a couple on the weekends. I put my coffee in recycled glass jars. Taking a look at my stash, I'd say I have less than 2 pounds left. They always taste fresh when I pull them out of the freezer and my jars range in size, some lasting 4 days and a couple lasting maybe 8 days.

I also like keeping a variety of beans but right now it's just Redbird.

Great responses. Had to show a few of them to the wife for a reality check. She is used to the buy a pound of coffee in a plastic bucket and leave it on the counter till another is bought. When I broke out the vacuum sealer and mason jars she thought I was taking this a little too far..LOL She is starting to see how far this can really go. Thanks for the responses.