BrownWater Senior Member Joined: 1 Mar 2006 Posts: 212 Location: Ithaca, NY Expertise: Professional
Espresso: Salvatore, Expobar Grinder: Super Jolly Roaster: fluid air
Posted Tue Sep 23, 2008, 7:35am Subject: Re: Beans storage: in grinder hopper vs airtight container?
The only way to find out is to try it out with two batches of the same beans with teh same roast. Beans roasted to different levels will have different hang-times and other things like temperature and humidity will have an effect.
rabbit Junior Member Joined: 3 Sep 2008 Posts: 38 Location: maine Expertise: I live coffee
Posted Thu Oct 2, 2008, 8:02pm Subject: Re: Beans storage: in grinder hopper vs airtight container?
the bag that it comes in is good storage......i buy coffee once a month that will last a month...so the oldest beans will be a month old.....the flavor drops a little bit at the end of the month....and that is why i buy monthy...the beans are roasted when ordered...
kinkbmxco Senior Member Joined: 30 Dec 2006 Posts: 120 Location: Olympia Washington Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Alex by Izzo Mk1 Grinder: Mazzer Super Jolly Roaster: Behmor 16000
Posted Fri Oct 3, 2008, 9:17am Subject: Re: Beans storage: in grinder hopper vs airtight container?
I have been purchasing Stumptown beans in 3/4 batches and typically it takes me about 7 days to use it, give or take... I usually only put enough beans in my hopper for 2 or 3 shots then I just refill accordingly. Well, I was noticing that at around day 7 my beans were starting to go stale, this was apparent by the look of the pale crema and lack of flavor in my cup. Mind you usually when I purchase the beans they are roasted anywhere from 1-3 days prior...so add seven days and they are around 8-10 days old. The beans come in one of those brown paper bags. So I decided to try transferring the beans into the plastic one way valve degassing bags to see if it made a difference. It most definitely did, on day 7 the crema was still a beautiful color, and the shot packed lots of flavor, perhaps not as much as day 3 or 4, but still more than acceptable! Just my experiences..
Zin1953 Senior Member Joined: 9 Dec 2005 Posts: 432 Location: Berkeley, CA Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Elektra T1 - La Valentina -... Grinder: Mahlkönig K30 Vario -... Vac Pot: no, Press Pot Drip: No Roaster: No, no, not another...
Posted Sun Oct 12, 2008, 4:28pm Subject: Re: Beans storage: in grinder hopper vs airtight container?
As I've said elsewhere, I get my coffee from Espresso Vivace in Seattle. I live in Berkeley. They pack their coffee in sealed, 8-ounce (half-pound) plastic bags with a one-way valve and resealable "zip-lock" type closure. If ordered on Monday, it arrives on Wednesday by "regular" USPS Priority Mail*; I order two pounds every other Monday. I put between 4-8 ounces at a time on the hopper; the rest remains in either an never-opened plastic bag, or an airtight container (e.g.: mason jar), in the freezer. I go through it quickly enough that I notice very little drop-off in quality; truly only noticeable when I go from the very last of the "old" batch to the very first of the "new."
Think about it: I order on Monday (let's say it's the 1st of the month, just for clarity of discussion). It arrives about noon on Wednesday, the 3rd. The last of this shipment will be gone in two weeks, that is, two Wednesdays or Thursdays later (either the 17th or 18th of the month).
Cheers, Jason
* Just for clarity, I am not asking Vivace to ship 2nd Day Air, or Overnight. This is just the standard Priority Mail rate from the post office for $8.75 for a 2lb., 4 oz. package. Were I to order only one pound of coffee at a time, Priority Mail would be $6.80, so it's definitely more cost-effective to order two pounds (four bags) at a time.
Everman Senior Member Joined: 25 Nov 2004 Posts: 963 Location: Coffee Land Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Valentina Levetta Grinder: Mazzer Mini Roaster: Hottop
Posted Tue Oct 14, 2008, 1:41pm Subject: Re: Beans storage: in grinder hopper vs airtight container?
Oxygen reacts with the beans and causes them to go stale. The more fresh oxygen the beans get, the faster they go stale. A bean hopper is pretty close to being an open container, air can circulate in and out, unlike a sealed container, thus more oxygen contact when stored in the hopper and faster "staling" if that's a word ;) It's probably ok to store in the hopper if you'll use them all in 48 hours, but I wouldn't know because my grinder hasn't had a hopper for a couple years now; I pour beans in and place a tamper on top for each shot.
Posted Wed Oct 15, 2008, 7:31am Subject: Re: Beans storage: in grinder hopper vs airtight container?
Everman Said:
A bean hopper is pretty close to being an open container, air can circulate in and out, unlike a sealed container, thus more oxygen contact when stored in the hopper and faster "staling" if that's a word ;)
I agree that a hopper with no lid or one with a poor seal is no better than an open container. But I use a Mazzer Mini hopper on my Major.... the lid fits snug and stays on until the beans are almost gone.... and I leave the lid on the doser as well. It's not as good as a one way valve bag or an air-tight container but I add beans about every four days from an air-tight container (either fresh ones or beans that came from a frozen air-tight zip-loc that was thawed before opening and results seem to be pretty darn consistent.
We're all different in terms of our tolerance for procedure but I like the convenience of filling the hopper half-way and not mucking around with measuring and pouring in beans each time - especially at 6:00 AM when I'm barely awake ;-)
This really depends on how the beans were roasted. At work one of our blends doesn't reach its flavour peak until after fifteen days and our roaster is able to roast coffee that is still way too fresh (big co2 bubbles in the crema) at 14 days. Of course these are all stored in one way valved sealed bags and kept out of direct sunlight etc.
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