I just thought about this. I have always been putting frozen beans straight from the freezer bags in the freezer into the hopper, and I just noticed that the outside of the hopper forms a little bit of condensation.

Could this be happening inside, around the beans as well? If so, that could affect the grind and taste?

What do you all do? If you do thaw it outside, how long do you let it sit on the counter?

I haven't bought in bulk to vacuum pack/deep freeze for some time due to home roasting, but when I did I always let one jar thaw overnight so it'd be room temp the next morning. Some seem to think grinding in a frozen state might give better extractions due to the way the grind process takes place, but I never would chance putting frozen coffee in my grinder for it to sit any length of time causing condensation as mentioned. To each his/her own.

I pull the dose out of the freezer first thing in the morning and let it thaw for an hour or so.

cuppa wrote:What do you all do? If you do thaw it outside, how long do you let it sit on the counter?

If I haven't had the time or foresight to take the coffee out of the freezer beforehand, I'll drop a bag straight from the freezer onto the counter to 'break-up' the beans before dosing and grind them frozen.

Grinding & RDT all in 1-step!

I think it is generally not recommended to keep opening up a frozen bag of beans to dose and then put it back in the freezer. You will eventually get condensation and repeated new air into the bag which will degrade the beans over time. Having said that, I have done it many times (usually when I forget to have some thawed out) and have had no trouble grinding it (on several different grinders including my current Niche). I have to adjust the grinder slightly coarser, however, than I normally would grind for that particular bean if it's thawed out. I can't imagine it would damage the grinder and the coffee tastes fine.

I think we need a freezing coffee section to contain the endless new threads asking the same questions.

I don't thaw.

mgwolf wrote:I have to adjust the grinder slightly coarser, however, than I normally would grind for that particular bean if it's thawed out.

+1 on the grinder. Frozen beans seem to fracture more easily, and produce a finer grind than room temperature beans at the same grinder setting.

I usually keep a bean load in a minihopper when grinding for espresso, so the beans are ground at room temperature. But for my occasional non-espresso brew (or when I'm single dosing a roast), I'll grind beans straight from the freezer. No problem as long as the grind is adjusted correctly.

Have never thawed, I feel the small amount of moisture that condenses on the beans while going from freezer to grinder is just an easy way of "spritzing" them like RDT. And they do fracture better while cold.

No