How to FREEZE your Coffee... and why you need to. 

I use freezing my coffee a lot for cupping. When I finish a bag I freeze down 9 grams of it. Then when I have enough different coffees I use them to cup with.

I have frozen coffee for years. I only recently started vacuum sealing (last 2-3 years) and it makes a huge difference. Before, no vacuum seal, the coffee might last 12 months and still have great flavor. I stumbled across a bag I had forgotten (for about 16 months), and I expected it to be bad, but when I opened it up, it smelled and tasted just as fresh as the day I got it

Quick tip I've found for the DIY vacuum seal; If you fill your sink with cold water, leaving the ziplock open, and stick the part with the contents under the water it will push most of the air out so then when you seal it (before lifting it put the water) it creates a pretty good DIY vacuum seal 😁

I think it is important to make the distinction between manual and self-defrost freezers. That thing over the refrigerator won't preserve coffee for nearly as long as a dedicated freezer. That is because the temperature is constantly rising and falling to accomplish the self defrost function. In a manual defrost deep freezer, the temp gets down to about 0°f and stays there. This makes a big difference in how long something can be frozen without losing quality.

Kyle, That is exactly the technique I have used for years to preserve my coffee. I shrink wrap the coffee using a food saver and then store it in a freezer that does not get opened frequently. I always let the sealed coffee warm up overnight before opening the bag to reduce the risk of condensation.

This is a good summary of the current info out there on freezing. There's still work to be done in determining best practice for freezer storage, but this covers the key points well. For what it's worth, freezer burn probably isn't that big an issue for roasted beans, but moisture likely is. Keeping it sealed up and removing what air you can are the main considerations though for sure. Having a bunch of choices on the go and "fancy bag" for special occasions, or just the weekend, has changed how I drink coffee completely. ❄️❄️❄️

Great video! Actually getting a stand alone chest freezer next week for multiple reasons but I’m going to try this out now that I’ll have the space!

Best video for coffee beans. We WILL do the smaller portions - vacuum sealed and freeze. We already have a hand grinder in case of an EMP or worse (but, yes, also have the electric one). Thank you so much - now I cannot wait to get some coffee beans. My Husband already has several cans of ground coffee in stock, but the coffee bean process will be for future needs. Judi

Thanks for the great video bud. I'll be giving this a go! I need long term...

Great video with such a nice and useful advice. Thank you so much!

Great video Kyle! One thing I'd like to point out is that some people might think of putting some oxybuster packets or silica gel with the coffee. While that does sound like a good idea, it actually negatively affects the flavor of the coffees. It's best to just seal and freeze :)

Just came across this video. I am moving to the Caribbean and was trying to figure out how to bring a large amount of beans over as over there only a specific type is available. I will definitely be doing this. Thanks.

Nice video man, definitely agree with freezing smaller portions! Love the hat too ;) Love from from To!

Man ! Best explanation about when or why you can freeze coffee! Thank you so much 👏👏

Awesome video. Very informative. I definitely think I'm going to try this because I tend to get multiple kinds of coffee at the same time. I'll probably freeze in individual portions so I'm not exposing the whole thing to the air when I want some.

Great information! I like to freeze single doses in 50 ml plastic test tubes. I store the test tubes in a freezer bag for extra protection. That way everything can be reused 👍

Sweet and super cool info for us coffee lovers, keeping the coffee beans fresh as time marches on, good stuff

Great video, thank you. For your algorithms.

"Dedicated Coffee Freezer" 😳 For when you're trying to get on George Howell's level.

Really feel like you are finding your groove, man! Loving the content!

This is a great video, super informative and entertaining. I read a lot of the comments, but I didn’t notice anyone pointing out the error in your Tom Fitch slide…you state 1 day in the freezer is the same as 90 days at room temperature, but shouldn’t it be the other way around? 90 days in the freezer should be equivalent to 1 day at room temp.

This is some good info, I quite often grab bags when I travel and worry about not getting through them, may start freezing in single doses from now on.

I think this is what I need to start doing. I'm the only coffee drinker in my house, and I can't go through the 1-lb bags from my local roaster quickly enough. My current bag was delicious yesterday but suddenly starting to taste stale today, and it's only 13 days off roast and not even half way gone. Coffee sure is a finicky thing. Thanks for the tips; I'm going to start with the ziploc method for now.

Man! I’m really curious, plz tell me how long did it take you to prepare for the video? Dare I say, this is the best and most thorough coffee freezing video on RU-vid! I had watched many, many of the coffee freezing videos on YT, but none covers all areas & answers all questions that come to mind during watching like this one. I’m surprised how you could fit all that info in 10 minutes 😂👌🏻👍🏻! Btw, I love the straw tip; I’ve always had a hard time removing air from the zip lock plastic.

Excellent video. I have been using the method you recommend for the last 6 years. The longest storage interval so far has been 18 months in vacuum sealed in FoodSaver bags, and I've not seen any negatives, bringing them to ambient for 24 hr before opening.

I have the FoodSaver FM5200 which has an optional mason jar kit. I've been using this for freezing my beans.

Thank you! This video became life-changing for me 👍💫🙂.

Awesome video! Lovin the Jays cap!

I've been getting fresh roasted coffee from a local roaster for a couple years now, and I've been freezing it all wrong. Thanks for the very informative video.

I went to vacuum sealing my coffee beans and freezing back in May 2023 and it’s the best thing I’ve done! I like to have many different beans on hand and rotate. So I get bags and divide them into smaller portions, vacuum seal, & freeze. Then when I want to use one, I pull it out and let it come to room temperature before dumping it into my airscape. I refill my individual bean cellars from my airscape. My coffee is always fresh and I have lots of options to choose from. Love it! But I’ve never reused the bags. Interesting.

Great video. Have you considered doing a taste test comparison between the various vacuum sealing methods? There's probably not much of a difference between them, but there's the fellow vacuum container, zwilling handheld and reusable bag system, the straw and food saver methods you featured in this video, water dispersion and, this is probably overkill, but vacuum chamber.

Thanks I had heard otherwise. You made it clear.

Been portioning and freezing in small mason jars for a couple years. I usually receive it within a week of roast and freeze immediately. I do 28 or 30 gram portions and then measure out 14/15 grams. Let thaw before grinding. The longest I’ve had any frozen is about 6-8 months and find the brews come out right on point! Don’t forget to note your recipe and grind setting for perfect results!!

I know a fanatical barista in London who freezes individual vacuum sealed doses of Cup of Excellence winners (mostly geishas) for filter brewing. He gave me some at Christmas and I've been enjoying them over the past year. Pretty sure he uses a similar sealing machine too. Not only do they taste great, they are easier to brew with due to an apparently lack of CO2 and static. It's a great idea for anyone who wants to preserve rare coffees!

Great video. As a shelf like expert I found actually nothing to disagree with.

This was so helpful! Thank you!

I'm curious what your thoughts are on the various room temp coffee storage devices (AirScape, Fellow Atmos etc)? I honestly just try to get through coffee within a few weeks of roast without the hassle of bagging and freezing/defrosting. Since I have easy access to fresh coffee from work and ordering online, storing in an Airscape or honestly just a fliptop storage jar seems the easiest route.

These seems like the best way. I love the tip to leave space in the plastic bag.

I guess personal to me, but I did buy a vacuum sealer, (before I saw Kyle's review) and discovered that I taste "the freeze." Then I tried putting the vacuum sealed bag inside a zip-lock bag, and I still tasted "the freeze." So now, no freezing, I keep a very close inventory of my beans, and do my best to drink them before they age beyond 30 days from roasting. This is limiting as I have to sometimes pass on buying beans I'd like to try to avoid inventory overload and stale beans. PS my freezer is not bewitched, eg, I get no bad freezer taste with ice cream. Oh well.

When I first started freezing coffee, I thought it was weird the first day and 2nd day I used it, it was good! 3rd or 4th day the coffee quality went downhill a lot. This was before I was really into coffee and even had great gear, and I still noticed a sharp decline. I didn't know why that happened, but it turns out it was due to the condensation. It's possible if your in a low humidity environment maybe you can open a bag of frozen coffee and not have it get destroyed by condensation but I wouldn't risk it just take the bag out earlier and let it come up to room temp before breaking the seal! If you freeze coffee in single dose vials or small jars, then sure take it out and use from frozen! One down side of freezing in single doses though, that many people may not think of, especially with a light roast, if you froze it 7 days after roasting, it's still likely effectively going to act and taste like it's about 7 or 8 days post roast, but it's possible that was NOT the coffees peak and it has never reached its potential, so you might get a more consistent experience but you could be missing out on the coffee when its at its best. If you're organized enough, you could freeze some the coffee early, like lets say 7 days post roast, continue to use that same coffee fresh /unfrozen as it ages, and document when espresso shots seem to be pulling better and you get better results with it, then from there, if you had it frozen for a few months, you froze it at 7 days, but it was best at around 14 days, then let that frozen coffee sit out of freezer for another 6 or 7 days before using it, that way you get it approximately at the peak again! That's what I'm planning on doing with my current 5lb bag, saving some for later and going through some now :D

I may be on the "overly-spoiled" side of things as I do have a dedicated freezer (manual defrost) which I fill with a combination of vacuum sealed whole bags, vacuum sealed bags which I have taken some doses and a whole lot of tubes with the coffees I am drinking at any given time. As I store in exact doses, I grind them frozen. On top of it, some coffees go to one of my Fellow Atmos, others go to the normal sealed canisters. It's a compete coffee-orgy here at home...and I love it! At the moment I have 27 different coffees in various stages accross this madness, 4 of them SeptemberCoffee (I love Kyle's coffees).

I use the mason jar, but make sure to use the Food Saver Vacuum sealing attachment to pull out the air. They have it for mason jar specifically, not sure if other vacuum sealers have that function. I mainly open up a bag, dose out 25g each into those OXO TOT baby blocks. Perfect size for 20-25g in most cases. The rest goes into a mason jar in the freezer and when I need to I split out the contents in the mason jar into the OXO Tot stuff. Great for single dose grinders, pop lid, toss and throw it in dishwasher.

On my Vac sealer I have an attachment that actually creates a vacuume in glass mason jars, so I'll use that sometimes. It works, but being hard glass and not plastic that deforms to different shapes I think it's not going to be technically as good of a vac seal but still works, it's probably fine unless your really storing it for looong term. I like the glass jars because they're easier to clean and reuse, the bags always tend to keep a weird coffee stink on them, even with a fresh high quality light roast, the bags smell like old bad coffee after a single use sometimes.

Great video and super informative!

I bought some vacuum storage bags to keep 3D printer filament dry, they absorb water vapor and don't print well, and while they are larger than the vacuum bags shown in the video, you can put whole coffee bags into them, even with the small sizes, and allow a lot of flexibility in how you freeze it.

Great tip! I've been freezing my coffee in the original bag in a Ziploc. Now I'll do vacuum seal bags. Another way to remove air in Ziploc bags is using the water displacement method!

Awesome video once again!

I buy my favorite coffee in a 5 pound (2.26 K bag directly from the roaster, and it shows up about 7 days after roasting. I have a vacuum canister that holds about a quarter kilo, so I just bag up 250 gram bags, vacuum seal seal them, and put them in the freezer. Whenever I get low on coffee, I pull out a bag from the freezer and let it slack out in the fridge for a day, then put it in the canister. Seems to work great, but I like a medium roast, so maybe I'll let it hang out for a week or so before processing. Thanks!

Option 3 of vacuum sealing - vacuum seal in mason jars. Can be used over and over. Been doing that for about 10 years. can also be brought up to room temp quickly in tepid water and can be re-sealed after being thawed and opened. Way more practical than bags.

Amazing info to the world of coffee!

You can also put the zip locks under water all the way up to the zipping mechanism and the weight of the water will push the air out, maybe suck some air out at well and you'll have as close to vacuum sealing as possible

Kyle you said that exactly backwards! At 2:50 you said one day in a freezer was like 90 days of coffee aging. You meant it the other way around, I think, freezing for 90 days would be equivalent of the coffee aging one day at room temp.

Great Channel. learnt a lot from watching your videos! oh and has anyone ever said you look like Jerry Ferrara

I use a chamber vacuum sealer.. PUlls a stronger vacuum than Food saver. Also, you can use mason jars to seal, and revacuum and freeze again.

great vid!

You can just dip the freeze bag into water to “squeeze” most of the air out first, shouldn’t have much more to suck out after.

I've been planning on doing this but I figured, I'll just buy coffee in small 200g - 500g portions, I can get specialty coffee in those one way valve packaging anyway. Also, I get to try more varieties lol

one thing I would mention is do a double seal on the vacuum sealer. press the seal button a little bit in front of the current seal. then fill up and vacuum. move it slightly again and do another double seal. the first seal may fail accidentally or if the bag is crumpled may have a slight air gap! it's cheap insurance.

That's always what seemed most logic to me, since the contact to air make coffee beans taste old or stale. Yet every coffee shop dissuaded me from vacuuming coffee and storing it in the fridge or freezer. I'm just going to try it out, especially since I'm a slow drinker. I consume roughly 1 espresso a day. So even 500g last quite some time and my beans taste best when they're fresh. One question: would vacuuming and storing in the fridge suffice if you were to consume all packs in about 4 weeks? The main benefit might come from the vacuuming, so it seems to me.

nice video! should i squeeze out the air/gas when i freeze the beans in the original bag without vacuuming? some say squeezing out the gas leads to a loss of flavors?

We just got 50 small Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers. Then chucked them in the freezer. Lots of small pouches with multiple fresh coffees for years to come.

Great Monogram coffee selection there in the freezer!!! 😍

I freeze coffee, but I don't go through the trouble of using a vacuum sealer. I live in a dry climate so I'm not worried about moisture, and I'd rather not unseal a bag to reseal it again. Also, I use a vacuum canister for my in-use supply aof coffee: I put about 2/3 in the canister and use the bag for the rest that I'm going to use in about 3 days. Then I split it in half between the canister and the bag again when I need more beans, and so forth. The idea beiang, I don't want to reopen the canister every time I need more coffee. This could just be in my head, but I don't think you're getting the full benefit of a vacuum canister if you are opening it up to fresh air all the time.

Pure GENIUS!! 🧊☕️

Your coffee looks great and I can offer you a compostable coffee packaging solution

Been freezing my coffee since lockdown happened and after watching Simon Gautherin on Instagram re: freezing coffee... but did I hear it right tho, if I placed about 200g of beans in a vacuum sealed plastic and freezed it, if I want to dose from that bag I'd have to bring it out from the freezer and wait until room temp before I open that vacuum sealed bag? Just wanted to confirm so I could also avoid the moisture 😅

Are there air extraction, vacuum packed devices to draw air out of a mason jar? How long would coffee last vacuum packed if you don’t freeze it?

I’ve been vacuum packing my coffee for years. I buy 10 lbs at a time to get free shipping from my roaster. I pack them 6-8 oz per bag. I save the empty bags in the freezer in a zip lock bag and reuse the bags. I can get 2-3 uses per bag.

"One day in a domestic freezer = 90 days of coffee aging at room temp." Doesn't this mean, freezer aging FASTER than room temp? That's a weird math I have to say...

I have a vacuum sealer and buy bags of peets dark roast. If i vacuum the whole bag can i throw in a silica pack in with it?

2:52 if 1 day in the freezer ages a coffee bean at 90 days...why would you want to freeze beans to speed up the aging?

Today I roasted a washed Centroamericano F1 and tomorrow is going to the freezer. I don't have a vaccum sealer, but I do have just a sealer. I use 250g bags tri-ply. I get rid of the air with a straw and then I seal it below the valve. 150g each bag.

I use a vacuum sealer to save all coffee beans that I won't be able to drink within a month. The only negative that I have found is objective... it seems that after I take a coffee out of the freezer "seems" to deteriorate at an increased rate. Not highly accelerated, but it does seem to occur.

Great video. I have been using vacuum bags for years for my coffee. Seal them up and store them in a dark cool closet, or in my desk when work was done in an office. You could open the bags up to 90 days or so and still have fresh coffee beans to grind either for espresso at home or AeroPress at work. It will be interesting to try it frozen for a lengthy period. Looks like it's time to get some great Guatamalian beens and freeze them up for use next fall and see. Keep up the great content and the studio and new lighting is having an impressive look to your videos.

Timing: should we freeze it freshly roasted or should we wait 10-14 days before freezing?

Kyle, I keep my coffee in an Airscape. I buy fresh beans and then they go into an Airscape 7-10 after roast date. My Airscapes have plungers that push out air and seal down to the coffee level. In addition there's a lid for the container. I try to time my purchases so I'm almost out of beans when my next order arrives. Would putting an Airscape in the freezer make sense if I purchased a larger quantity of beans which would reduce costs? Or is there still too much air in the container? Thx.

I personally leave it in the original bags, tape over the one way valve, and toss the bags in my regular freezer (at around -4F) and it seems to work well enough. Even the process of cooling the relatively warm/room temperature bag to well below freezing causes a vacuum affect and the original bag clings around the beans! I guess me leaving a bowl of baking soda in my freezer and replacing every 30 days has kept the freezer taste away.

I am not sure why I would want to freeze coffee. Even though I roast a lot of my own coffee, I also purchase whole bean coffee from brands just to have a different taste. I go through a lot of coffee and as soon as I roast the beans, they go into a one way valve bag totally sealed . Each morning I brew 60 oz of coffee. Either the coffee I roast of a brand. At dinner I either have two cup of pour over or brew 40 ozs. I don't keep coffee long enough to freeze. I drink it.

I buy my coffee in burlap bags of 25 to 50 lbs units. Fortunately I roast my own as needed. Raw green beans will last for years. Maybe decades. Oh yeah, I can normally find top of the line beans at half the price in bulk. If you are really in to coffee, its a great hobby.

I heard that freezing makes certain coffees makes more complex flavor than just normal resting

whats the dimensions of the vacuum bags you are using?

Can you do this with organic coffee beans?

Thanks for the suggestions. I've read somewhere that when using the vacuum sealer you don't want to draw out so much air that the pack is like a solid block as this vacuum process can start the draw out some of the natural oils in the beans. The recommendation instead was to draw out most of the air and then seal. Any thoughts on this?

I have 8 pounds of Ethiopian coffee, divided into 4 bags of 2 pounds each. Can I put all of this coffee in a vacuum sealer and freeze it? Or should I divide each 2-pound bag and freeze it separately when I open it? Then, can I keep the remaining 4 bags at room temperature?

I'm buying a 5lb bag from a local roaster. When I'm home we go through 12 Oz of beans every 5 days or so. I'm hoping that freezing in vacuum sealed bags drastically reduces the number of times I have to buy coffee

THem shots with the beans? Did you get the LAOWA lens?

If the problem is the oxigen, How much time can keep my coffee only sealed vacuum, at room ambient temperature?

I have frozen 8 50ml test tubes last February 7th but the roast date is beyond two weeks, I'm waiting probably 45 days from 7th to test if it's good or not.

Wow

Hey Kyle, will you do a video on smart plugs?

Simple soloution I buy only 250 gr Coffee beans its used in a short time!

I have done this and have found that my coffee has lost flavour after I defrost it for drinking later, so it may not work.

You have some misleading in your video. At 2:54 you say that 1 day in freezer equals 90 days at room temperature. And at 8:53 you say opposite that 90 days in a freezer equals 1 day at room temperature. Sure the last one is correct and lead us to correct math. For example, if I freeze the coffee at day 10 after the roast then in the freezer it becomes like 30 days at around 1800 days of storage. Anyway, great video, thanks!

Roast coffee off gases continuously (ever notice the one way valves on coffee packages) which means if you want coffee worth drinking, you need green beans stored as you would rice/beans long term (Mylar and absorbers) roasted wheat berries is a great substitute as well and can be used in other ways and stores much longer

2:46 So if I buy a fresh coffee, put it in a freezer for 1 day it is at the same level of staleness as that if that coffee had stayed for 90 days in room temperature... Sounds like a great deal if I want my coffee to go bad real fast. Seriously though, both what you say and what is written there seems to be the exact opposite of what you advocate. The mistake is so obvious that I'm not sure if you're seriously saying you can stale coffee 90 times faster in a freezer...

Does this work with auto-defrost freezers? I would imagine the defrosting would reduce the time the coffee could be frozen for.

Been doing this for years.

I sorta feel like my upshot here is that I’d just be happier if I drank more coffee :-)

0:52 are those frozen potatoes? 😨 3:11 I need a peer-reviewed study on this

Hi, thanks for the great video. My question is: is it a must to wait for a few days after roasting to freeze beans in vacuum bags or can we just vacuum seal and freeze right away no matter how close roasting date is? I mean does freezing right away has a negative effect on coffee beans? Thanks