I am new to freezing coffee, but have been reading up a bit. I wanted to make sure i dont screw it up.

I have several 12 oz bags comings, that i would like to store. It only takes me about 3 days to go through a 12 oz bag.


So wanted to know if this simple approach would be good to preserve without degrading the coffee.

-> at about the ideal amount of time post roast (for ex: 7days post roast)
put each entire 12oz bag (unopened from the roaster) into an additional ziplock bag and put into my freezer (which is just a normal freezer) .
So the bag with the degassing valve that it came in, would be put into an additional zip lock bag. ( i dont have a vacuum sealer, why i am thinking to use a zip lock bag).

-> take out 24 hours before intend to use so that it can thaw out. And then just use within my normal few days.


does this seem ok?

your help appreciated

Several as in 2-3 bags? If that's the case, based on your consumption there might not be any real need to freeze as it wouldn't sit that long. I haven't had to freeze any since I started home roasting, but when I did buy roasted in bulk (5 lb bags) I'd vacuum seal/deep freeze in jars and that worked very well. Honestly don't know if vacuum sealing made any real difference, but I had the device and figured might as well. I've read of some freezing in the original smaller bags like 12 oz. by putting tape over the 1-way valve, etc.

There is no need to wait 24 hours to let the beans thaw. You can take them out of the freezer and start grinding immediately. The freezing process just prevents the aging, it is not making the beans harder, risking burr damage. And I've read some studies that point to a more uniform grind immediately after freezing, though I'm too lazy to go search for those studies, you can probably google them.

I was thinking to let thaw because, i was thinking that if i dial in the beans when frozen, the next day when they thaw out, the dial could be very different (or at least a lot more so, than if the beans had started thawed out when i first dialed in). So felt I might as well just let thaw and then just use the bag as i usually would.

BodieZoffa wrote:Several as in 2-3 bags? If that's the case, based on your consumption there might not be any real need to freeze as it wouldn't sit that long. I haven't had to freeze any since I started home roasting, but when I did buy roasted in bulk (5 lb bags) I'd vacuum seal/deep freeze in jars and that worked very well. Honestly don't know if vacuum sealing made any real difference, but I had the device and figured might as well. I've read of some freezing in the original smaller bags like 12 oz. by putting tape over the 1-way valve, etc.

have about 8 x 12 oz bags. Which would likely take about 1 month to go through. Though not sure if this is enough time where it would matter. Was thinking to freeze 5 of them at about 7 days post roast. Then when ready to use, take the bag out the night before, and than use as i normally would over the next 3-4 days.

HBchris wrote: I was thinking to let thaw because, i was thinking that if i dial in the beans when frozen, the next day when they thaw out, the dial could be very different (or at least a lot more so, than if the beans had started thawed out when i first dialed in). So felt I might as well just let thaw and then just use the bag as i usually would.

My experience is that there is no need to do this and the variance of immediately after frozen to 24 hours is not noticeable. I freeze 80 gram doses in vacuum sealed bags and it takes me about 48 hours to go through that 80 gram bag. My grind setting doesn't really change from over that time period. My experience is using a Niche Zero. I'm still waiting for my Kafatek to arrive... possibly on a top end grinder like the Kafatek I will notice a difference, but I certainly don't with the Niche.

HBchris wrote: I was thinking to let thaw because, i was thinking that if i dial in the beans when frozen, the next day when they thaw out, the dial could be very different (or at least a lot more so, than if the beans had started thawed out when i first dialed in). So felt I might as well just let thaw and then just use the bag as i usually would.

I guess it depends on one's level of pickiness but I find letting beans thaw to be helpful. Less fussing with grind settings.
I played around with microwaving my beans after watching James Hoffmans video and it did seem to produce a better shot. It was also not very efficient so I no longer do it.
Have fun and draw your own conclusions.

I vacuum seal and freeze, but I think the thawing is important to prevent condensation forming all over the beans. A couple hours to thaw is enough to avoid that problem. Unless you are freezing single doses, whatever the benefits of grinding frozen are, they probably get outweighed by having the rest of the beans become all wet.