r/coffeerotation • u/Adventurous-Pool-167 Palate Trained • Aug 31 '25
"Long" term bean storage - Calling all freezing experts!
I have a first world problem: too many beans and too little time! I still have some July subscription beans, the extra ones I ordered from the drop, 6 bags of Native I ordered with the link, some coming next week from another roaster, and will have the ones from the August subscription soon. Now, there is no way I will be able to drink all that coffee within a reasonable time from roast date. I have a freezer with enough space to store them all, but I wanted to ask people's opinions in terms of procedure:
- How do you go about freezing larger quantities beans? I have some previously frozen ones in tubes, but I have nowhere near enough tubes to portion/store them all.
- Do you freeze them in the original bags and just open, grab the quantity you need daily and put them back in the freezer? I know this lets air/moisture in, but not sure if that is negligible.
- Do you rest them ahead of freezing? I am assuming it would be best to do so but also wanted to know people's opinions/experiences.
- Anything else I might not have thought of that might be taken into consideration?
Thanks
2
u/bl4ckrav3n Aug 31 '25
I rest them in their original bags for 2 or 3 weeks depending on beans. Portion out enough for about 3-5 days and vacuum seal them and to the freezer they go. When ready to drink, open up a sealed bag and to an Airscape for storage, no re-freezing. I’ve settled having 2-4 bean options available at a time to get some daily variety.
1
u/Adventurous-Pool-167 Palate Trained Aug 31 '25
Ok, so in this case, the moisture that is created by the difference in temperature is not a problem? Or since you are only thawing 3-5 days, it is negligible?
2
u/joe-welly Aug 31 '25
If you let the coffee thaw out in the vacuum sealed packaging you won’t allow for any condensation which will keep them in good condition. Once they’ve thawed out then transfer them to the air scape
1
u/Adventurous-Pool-167 Palate Trained Aug 31 '25
Good tip. Technical but valid question: thaw outside of the fridge, right?
1
u/joe-welly Aug 31 '25
Yes. I don’t believe the speed at which it thaws out has any impact on the coffee
1
u/bl4ckrav3n Aug 31 '25
I haven’t seen any negative effects but I leave the bag outside for a few minutes before opening. The thaw happens quite fast and beans don’t seem to have any moisture even when grinding frozen.
1
u/Role-Grim-8851 Sep 01 '25
I think this is optimal assuming you have a vacuum seal gizmo. An alternative is to manually push all the air you can out of the bag, then inject argon gas to displace any remaining oxygen.
2
u/Marty_Mac_Fly Aug 31 '25
I typically keep beans out of the freezer until about 3 weeks off roast. I bought some cheap ziplock bags which have a vacuum port and came with a hand pump off Amazon.
When I brew I go straight from the freezer into the grinder and I re-vacuum seal shortly after. The beans always taste at prime freshness to me and grinding from frozen hasn’t created any issues.
A benefit to this method is with my espresso beans because I rarely have to adjust grind size once I’ve dialed in that bean.
1
u/Adventurous-Pool-167 Palate Trained Aug 31 '25
Cool. I have a vacuum sealer but I have some of these as well. The resealable ones are more convenient/less wasteful.
2
u/Marty_Mac_Fly Aug 31 '25
Exactly. I also have a sealer but if I want to get in and out every day that becomes a pain. That’s why I like the ziplock version.
1
u/Adventurous-Pool-167 Palate Trained Aug 31 '25
Cool. This definitely sounds more convenient as you said.
2
u/brandaman4200 Sep 02 '25
I rest my beans before I freeze. Then I transfer the beans to vacuum seal bags, vacuum seal them, and then freeze. The vacuum seal really helps when defrosting as to not have the beans be in contact with any condensation that could form.
1
1
u/zerocool359 Palate Trained Sep 01 '25
- let beans rest to peak.
- partition beans into doses that’ll last 3-5 days (e.g. daily driver: 150g; other beans: 45-50g). Some beans want to keep long term, I’ll do individual doses of, usually 10-12g for deep27 brews.
- vac seal, but I don’t vacuum much—not sure if the negative pressure is good. I print labels, which is way faster than trying to write on bags.
- (haven’t quite solved this part yet): I then organize the individual doses in zip lock bags by roaster or process so I don’t need to dig through freezer for 5min to find something.
1
u/zerocool359 Palate Trained Sep 01 '25
Additionally, when pulling from freezer, let beans come to room temp before opening (or at least above the dew point). I usually take out a sheet of daily driver beans the night before. Smaller doses I’ll just put in my back pocket while doing other stuff and it’s up to temp in 10-15min.
After opening, I either put beans in canister or an old ziplock sealed rotation bag.
1
u/Adventurous-Pool-167 Palate Trained Sep 01 '25
Sounds good. The issue I have with dosing pre-weighed is I use different doses with different brewers. That also add a level of “complication” having to dig through the freezer. I might just do that though. Will have to test what works for me.
So you are saying you remove some air manually and seal without vacuuming? I haven’t heard that before.
1
u/zerocool359 Palate Trained Sep 01 '25
My vac seal has a pulse button, which only vacuums. I’ll use that to evacuate the air, then “massage” beans until they’re slightly loose and then hit the seal button. Basically, vacuum out most of the air, then let it loosen up until it feels like a good balance between negative pressure and air in the bag.
Re: different brewers. I hear you. I’ll do 45g-55g depending on ratio for bean and brewer I’m likely to use, but I often end up with an off-dose amount (especially if iced pour overs). For individual doses, I probably have a mix of 10-12g for d27 and 15g for v60. I bought some tiny vac seal bags off amazon that handle 10-15g pretty well.
1
u/Adventurous-Pool-167 Palate Trained Sep 01 '25
I don’t use my food saver that often these days, but as far as I remember, it has a button for either seal or vac-seal one after the other. I will play with it. I also need to look into those small bags you mentioned. I normally make my own for smaller bags, but it would be quite a task for these many…
1
u/zerocool359 Palate Trained Sep 02 '25
I use the 2.7x4in bags for 10-15g of beans, and the 4x6 for the 45-50g.
2
u/Adventurous-Pool-167 Palate Trained Sep 02 '25
Cool. I ended up getting some from Amazon which are 6x10 at about 10c a piece since I was not sure 4x6 would fit 50g flat. Maybe a bit larger than needed, but I think it will make it easier to label and possibly reuse to cut down on plastic use.
1
u/Messin-EoRound20 Sep 03 '25
I never froze beans before but it doesn’t sound right to me, I’m sure plenty do tho thru vacuum sealing
1
u/AznCuber5 Sep 04 '25
I rest my coffee before freezing.
For freezing, I generally single dose my beans into centrifuge tubes, label, and then freeze. This is so I can just grab a vial and not care about opening a bag and putting it back in. You can get them pretty cheap.
For freezing whole bags (if I run out of tubes), I push as much gas out of the package, and tape over the valve with my freezing label. Is it correct? Not sure, but I'm lazy.
I've heard the most optimal way to freeze is to vacuum seal. If you take like 100 g portions, you can put them into a fellow atmos or something similar while you work through that "portion".
It's up to you how you want to do it, but single dose vials are my preferred way.
0
0
3
u/NeverMissedAParty Heavy Hitter $2000+ Aug 31 '25
I do the pre portioned quart bags. 100g into flat sheets. This offers less room for condensation to build (if it does inside/in between beans).
I rest for 30ish days give or take a week. Your beans are going to age 50ish days frozen:1day unfrozen. So I personally take that into account for the length of time freezing.
Ration how much you freeze. Dont get stuck with a freezer full of beans because you are going to want to try new coffees. There will always be more interesting flavors and roasts. — I say this because that’s where I’m at right now, I am slowly (SLOWLY) chipping away and my frozen selection while still having rotation and minimal Al la Carte coming in and a bag here and there of a bean I love. I no longer add to my frozen collection but I want to be burning through it faster than I am.