Hey, all. Is this a crazy idea? My girlfriend wakes up before me every morning. Since we live in a small apartment, she might wake me up every morning by grinding beans (don't know yet, waiting for the equipment to arrive).

Is it sane to grind the beans the night before and store them? If so, what's the best way to store them for freshness? We'd only need to ever store one dose at max, and then all our other storage would be whole beans in a larger container.

pontoon wrote:...what's the best way to store them for freshness?

At -30°C in an airtight, oxygen impenetrable pressurized nitrogen flushed container.

You'll never know until you try it both ways; our taste buds are all different, as is our tolerance. I have a friend who does this for exactly the same reason (his wife would give him the cold shoulder and sharp tongue to be disturbed from her beauty sleep ) He sets everything up the evening before, keeps the grounds in a small sealed jar and then brews in the very early morning. He claims he can't taste the difference. Conventional wisdom, especially among us coffee nerds, is that ground coffee starts "going off" within minutes of grinding.

pontoon wrote:Hey, all. Is this a crazy idea? My girlfriend wakes up before me every morning. Since we live in a small apartment, she might wake me up every morning by grinding beans (don't know yet, waiting for the equipment to arrive).

Is it sane to grind the beans the night before and store them? If so, what's the best way to store them for freshness? We'd only need to ever store one dose at max, and then all our other storage would be whole beans in a larger container.

It's sane for pourover. Weigh out dose, grind, put in small freezer ziplock, get as much air out as possible, put the ziplock in fridge or freezer. I've also used small glass jars.

For espresso, it is a bit of a PITA because one has to dial in the grind assuming storage; a setting that works for fresh-ground won't work in my experience. However, I have only done it for my Handpresso, which more-or-less uses a pressurized portafilter.

When I work mornings I generally get up around 430a. I would be unpopular were I too fire up my ek or fuji. I've found that a hand grinder works well...if I don't remember to grind and freeze the night before. I generally do the grind and freeze and my 5am taste buds are too sleepy to notice

just don't worry and give it a try, going on vacation or travelling I pre grind enough to keep me for up to a week to use in the Robot...truth is that it far outweighs the alternative of having to do without proper coffee. Pre ground fresh roasted coffee stored in an airtight container that is not overly large IMO is far superior than what any typical caffe will make out of fresh ground stale beans...

I would freeze it


Randy

Ziplock bag or little jar in the freezer would be my choice too. In fact, it's what I used to do: have my coffee ground at the shop and then keep it in the freezer. It was better the very first day but it was still okay a couple of weeks later.

What grinder? If a Sette you'll wake up neighbors

If a quieter one just run it in a cabinet. If loud have her run in the bathroom. Silly I know but pregrinding is fussy too

Hand grinder suggested is good too.

You should check out Planetary Design Airscape containers. They make multiple sizes, the smallest I use for ground coffee holds 1/2lb. I grind a few days worth at a time. Next size up I use for whole beans holds 1lb. They also have a kilogram size & Airscape lids that work with 5 gallon buckets that would work well for green beans. They have their own website, also sold on Amazon. https://planetarydesign.com/