I have acquired quite a few different beans and as a result I am looking to store them longer than first intended.
Vacuum sealing and freezing seems to be a viable method.

With regards to roasting the frozen beans, is it important to thaw first?

I would. Otherwise you may get the issue of the inner part of the bean not roasting properly. Unless you do an extended initial drying phase, say 5 min to 300 degree F. That may work ok.

Len

Locopavoni wrote:I have acquired quite a few different beans and as a result I am looking to store them longer than first intended.
Vacuum sealing and freezing seems to be a viable method.

With regards to roasting the frozen beans, is it important to thaw first?

There's not a heck of a lot of thawing to occur. Even in green form, their moisture is somewhere around 9-11% on average. If you have well placed, thin and accurate probes, you can make the minor compensation with your profile (if using that type of a roaster).

Locopavoni wrote:I have acquired quite a few different beans and as a result I am looking to store them longer than first intended.
Vacuum sealing and freezing seems to be a viable method.

With regards to roasting the frozen beans, is it important to thaw first?

I've had mixed results with overnight thaws at room temp. I was getting more consistent results with lots that had been sitting at room temp at 24 hours. Disclaimer: I never froze anything under 11% moisture, was not measuring water activity when I was using frozen/thawed lots.

I don't have much frozen green coffee. I typically thaw the greens overnight, and roast in the morning. I have not noticed any "problems" as a result of this.

Could it be that overnight thawing leaves a lot of condensate between the beans, that could cause an uneven roast IMO?

Locopavoni wrote:I have acquired quite a few different beans and as a result I am looking to store them longer than first intended.
Vacuum sealing and freezing seems to be a viable method.

With regards to roasting the frozen beans, is it important to thaw first?

Most of the time I freeze the beans, and also bring them to ambient temperature for roasting. Condensation is not a problem in sealed containers, even if there is water vapour in the air between the beans. Roasting the frozen beans--tried a few times only--is a little bit of the cold temperature roasting problem, making the targets might get trickier. So using a smaller charge weight might give better control, but bringing the temperature of the beans up before roasting seems the most sensible to me, as it is only a matter of organizing the day before.

Ramping up slowly to 300 degrees F is your friend if roasting frozen beans. 4 min to 300.

Len