Obviously one of the keys to getting good tasting espresso is working with fresh coffee beans. After doing a lot of research I decided to go with the "Airscape coffee canister" to store my beans. My question to all of you is, no matter what method or type of storage you use, how much coffee beans to you keep in your hopper on your grinder? I'm not sure how much I should put in there. I usually make a couple cappuccinos in the morning and a couple double shot espressos in the evening.

Should I put roughly just enough in the hopper to grind what I need at that moment, or should I just fill it up half way or all the way? What do all of you do? It would seem to me that filling the hopper up and having the beans sit in there for a good week or so before being used up, would kind of defeat the purpose of originally storing them in airtight canisters.

First, freezing your beans will preserve them far more effectively than any counter top vacuum gizmo.

As for how much coffee to keep in the grinder hopper, the subject usually sets off a firestorm of partisanship around here, which can be boiled down to:

1. The weigh-and-grind each shot one at a time camp. This is viewed either as the holy grail of espresso consistency, or a symptom of a serious obsessive-compulsive mental disorder.

2. The "put 1 to 3 days' worth of beans in the hopper" camp. This is promoted as using the hopper as it was designed to be used and the best way to prevent "popcorning" of the beans. It is attacked as the refuge of home baristas with a careless disregard for espresso quality.

Marshal is about right on this (although I don't know how well the counter top vacuum gizmo works as I haven't ever used it), but I'd add that it really matters what grinder you are using. I've used some great grinders that work very well single dosing and others that do not.

Marshall wrote: This is viewed either as the holy grail of espresso consistency, or a symptom of a serious obsessive-compulsive mental disorder.
It is attacked as the refuge of home baristas with a careless disregard for espresso quality.

In coffee, politicking, and religion, I tend to stay away from absolutes and dogma. I'm firmly in the camp of measure for shot because it's convenient for me, it wastes almost no coffee, and the grinder empties with each dose, so it sits clean with the exception of when I'm actually making an espresso. There is the added advantage the hopper staying clean (as well as the rest of the grinder) far longer than if I keep beans in it.
So, put me in the 'none' category, or the 'CDO followers of the Grail'.
Truthfully, I just find it slightly more convenient.

I only put beans in the hopper when I make espresso.

I freeze my beans in small tuperware containers that hold about 3 days worth of beans. Whatever container you use for freezing should be filled to reduce air in the container. As needed, I remove a container from the freezer and empty it into a Vacuvin container. I pump the air out after each session. This way I don't have to remember to takes beans out of the freezer every single night and my unfrozen, 3 days worth of beans stay in an vacuum tight container nearly all the time.

The two of us drink regularly, at least 4 doubles at breakfast then maybe the same through the rest of the day, plus the occasional guest/s. We get through 250g in a few days. Our beans are dispatched on day of roasting and arrive a day or two later, when they are frozen. Considering many of these beans only come on song between around 5 and even 10 days of roasting, we generally keep the grinders with between 100 and 300 grams in the hopper, since that's what works best for us, depending on whether we are switching beans or anticipating guests etc. Our Nino grinders are not best suited to single dosing and I get more consistent results from the other one when using the hopper.

Marshall wrote:As for how much coffee to keep in the grinder hopper, the subject usually sets off a firestorm of partisanship around here, which can be boiled down to:

1. The weigh-and-grind each shot one at a time camp. This is viewed either as the holy grail of espresso consistency, or a symptom of a serious obsessive-compulsive mental disorder.

2. The "put 1 to 3 days' worth of beans in the hopper" camp. This is promoted as using the hopper as it was designed to be used and the best to prevent "popcorning" of the beans. It is attacked as the refuge of home baristas with a careless disregard for espresso quality.

That puts me right in the crossfire between those two camps . I have a few days worth in the hopper, but i weigh the output before every shot.

I also am somewhere in between the "Marshall lines".

I have 2 grinders in the counter. One is used for single dosing, single origin and decaf. The other one is used with about 250 grams (or more) of blended coffee inside. The 250-350 grams is my usual size for blending. Nothing scientific it is just more convenient for me.

I weigh each shot after grinding and when single dosing, weigh before as well.

I keep some beans in the hopper to prevent them to popping around, my grinder works better if burrs have some beans over them (there are also some threads about this on HB). Coffee demands rule the amount of beans in the hopper, my is almost empty (30-50 gr) and I keep beans in freezer.
I use a grind-weigh-(level-tamp)-pull routine for every shot (some sort of mental-disorder here? )

Pierluigi

Morning Frank. One key item we are missing is what kind of grinder you have. Popcorning is a big issue with the conical grinders. As the beans in the hopper are used there is less positive pressure on the bean column. That shift in pressure causes a shift in grind size. Some grinders are less susceptible to the effect than others and could play a big part in your beans in the hopper question. Personally, I have a conical grinder so I keep about a quarter pound of coffee in the hopper. That provides enough pressure to keep the grind stable but it does not sit in the hopper long enough to go stale. That is about 2 days of coffee for me.