I know there are large threads on this, I've read them. And also read Jonathan Gagne, James Hoffman, Decent Espresso input on freezing beans, and I have frozen beans myself in a vacuum sealed bag (via foodsaver) in 120g-200g portions and for months. I have frozen on Day 4 and had great results.

I am wondering, for those who DID experience degradation - either the flavors not being as good, and/or the beans aging faster once thawed - can you tell me about your process? Were beans frozen vacuum sealed with zero air in a bag, or put into a mason jar/bean vial tube? What day were the beans frozen on?

I am interested because I have always had good success, but I recently froze some beans in my usual method on Day 6/7. This particular bag wasn't in freezer too long, only a couple weeks. After thawing, I had a great shot as expected, and then the next day another. But now, a few days in, my last three shots have tasted over extracted or just off/flat.

*THIS COULD ENTIRELY BE DUE TO ME*. I am pulling these as espresso on flow control. But my experience with the non frozen portion even a couple weeks in was pretty easy, using FCD with a long pre-infusion, I'd get red currant and brandy with a sort of mild bakers chocolate finish/undertone. Now, I get very strong bakers chocolate and all of the brightness is gone. Now, my first thought here is I am just pulling the shots too long and need to restore some brightness. But my second thought is, the non frozen beans seemed pretty forgiving using flow control and I never had the issue. Got me wondering if for some reason these beans didn't freeze well and I lost the acidic notes, or if I am froze them too late (ie when all the CO2 already off gassed) and if that is causing them to lose their interesting flavors quicker.

Any insights? Again, I really might have just had 3 incorrect pulls in a row. Or, I might need to adjust my recipe for faster aging.

I'm having exactly the same issue currently! Frozen and then thawed beans in 16 oz glass jar smell heavenly and taste great when first opened. But flavors degrade very fast after a day or two. Washed Ethiopian here. It worked okay in the past but not now. I don't know why. I might have to freeze them in smaller jars.

I haven't been freezing coffee much lately, but my process was to just put a mason jar of roasted coffee in the freezer after roasting without any real rest. I started a similar thread to discuss if certain coffees or coffee processing methods affected the results when freezing, but it didn't get a whole lot of traction.

Coffees that don't freeze well

K7 wrote:It worked okay in the past but not now. I don't know why.

Interesting!!

cmin wrote:I think the beans do degrade bit quicker after thawing. That's why I only vac seal and freeze in pint sized bags good for about 3 days worth of shots.

Shoot, I had good luck in the past. I am hoping I am just screwing up the pulls. Otherwise, I have probably 2kg of frozen coffee in 120g-200g portions that I am going to be disappointed in

I haven't noticed flavors going downhill. We roast, rest the beans for at least 5 days then vac seal in 1qt Mason jars and freeze. I may slim this down and start using smaller jars, enough for 170g of roasted beans. That should last 3-4 days.

I have recently started to freeze beans in 50mL Falcon tubes. One tube totally full is 21g / a single pourover on my weekdays - whereas when I'm making espresso on weekends I'm generally making a few shots at a time for the house. It takes a little longer to weigh everything out, but you replace a step in your routine with the upfront work. You can spend a ton of cash on bean cellars with fancy one-way valves, but I haven't seen any issues with excessive CO2 outgassing jeopardizing the screw tops. There are a bunch of different brands of these (they are used in labs), and they are widely available on Amazon.

Also - I use my wife's sodastream as a CO2 source. Fill the bottle, then pour the CO2 into whatever vessel you are using to displace O2. You look like a lunatic doing this, but it works. Try it with a candle first if you need the elementary school science experiment to prove it works

BruceWayne wrote:Is there any reason you need to thaw the beans? Grinding frozen beans seems perfectly fine for me.

Just because they aren't frozen in individual tubes/portions. I do one dose at a time, and freeze a vac sealed bag of 120g-200g. I need to wait for them to thaw to prevent condensation/moisture on the beans. Wouldn't hurt the first 20g dose, but storing the rest after condensation for a week would.

rbrave wrote:I have recently started to freeze beans in 50mL Falcon tubes.

I've been looking into getting some 50ml or 60ml tubes as well, though I am not sure if I would freeze in them yet due to space/the amount of coffee I store & freeze/the amount of tubes I'd need. That's a cool idea though about displacing the gas with CO2, I trust the process. I use a Coravin wine opener and have been happy with that.