And 5 weeks, most of the time, isn't old. For lighter roasts it can be the sweet point but for dark roasts you do see a major drop-off at 3-4 weeks so it also depends on roast level. I've had great coffee that only needed to go 2 clicks finer on my EG-1 and being over 1.5 month old compared to being 3 weeks post roast.

I do agree that updosing, if it's possible, is preferable to grinding a lot finer. If you only need to go a bit finer then that's fine and just normal. But when needing to go way finer then it's better to updose.

mrmoon wrote:How long do beans last in the freezer? is it possible to just keep the coffee in the freezer the whole time and grind as needed? feel like i'm wasting a lot of coffee currently

This is in no way exhaustive or scientific, rather my personal experience over the last year-ish, with mid-dark to mid-light roasts:

I buy 24-oz bags of coffee, usually 3-4 weeks post-roast by the time they're in my hands. Bag goes in the freezer and every few days I fill up a small jar on my kitchen counter. Often I'll have 2 different coffees in the freezer so my last shot from a particular batch would have spent at most:
- 4 weeks sealed in transit/storage
- 6 weeks open in my freezer
- 4 days at room temp on my counter

On my Niche, I might start the bag at 20 and finish at 18 or 18.5. I don't think I've ever had to adjust more than 2 unless I've left coffee in the room-temp jar for more than 4 or 5 days, and then it'll jump back up when I fill up from my freezer bag again.

I don't re-bag or vacuum seal the coffee, I just squeeze out the air and use the little metal wire at the top to seal it, it's not even zip-lok style. Basically the laziest approach possible to freezing beans and still getting consistent results with the parameters I've described.

Tangential but I also cut sourdough loaves in half when I get them home - half goes on the counter, the other half in the freezer. Works just like the coffee beans, though it's a pain to get frozen bread to feed nicely into my Niche.