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How fast do you pack coffee after roasting?

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Oliver:
Hi guys,

what is your experience with packing coffee after roast?

I pack coffee to small bags 250g/0,55lb with one way valve, but my question is: How fast do you pack coffee after roasting?

I have discussion with some roaster and he keeps coffee resting for 24h on the air before packing to small bags. His is argument is that coffee stay fresh for longer period in the bag, but he was not able to explain it...

As I am aware the coffee emits lot of CO2 first few hours after roast, but with valve bag what is a reason to wait with packing?

What is your opinion? Pack it as fast as possible for example 1 hour after roast or wait for few hours?

I am little bit confused here. ??? Thanks for sharing your experience!

edtbjon:
I do the same as you and pack the beans in vented bags directly after cooling and weighing. Mostly because I don't find it convenient to store the coffee in some other way for a day before sealing the bag. I also find no reason why I have to leave the coffee fully exposed to (circulating) air, as there is that one-way valve to take care of any built up pressure. I could of course just leave the bag(s) open for a day before sealing it (normally with a plastic clip or a zip lock depending on which bag I use...).
I been visiting a few professional roasters where they don't seem to be in a hurry to pack and seal the bags. Their (typically) 8-15kg roasts are usually dumped into plastic storage boxes and left at least overnight. (I guess I have to ask about that the next time I have the opportunity.)

easygene:
I put immediately after roasting in valved metal cans.  Purchased four of cans from Sweet Maria's years ago.  They each hold around one pound.
After four-five days divide some of the roast out into half pint jars, vacuum out air, and put in freezer.  Sometimes use pints depending on guests expected.

Learned years ago that leaving fresh roast open to air is completely unnecessary.   That is the purpose of the valve to begin with, to vent.

Asked  a bud who is a pro toaster about this.   He says it is not practical to vent say 60 pounds of fresh roast.    That if he takes half pound home the day of roast he puts it in a vented bag.

venerablemonster:
100% what easygene said all day long. Resting is just the release of the CO2, hence the usefulness of valve containers. There's no reason to let it exposed to air given an option. I pretty much dump a roast in a one way valve cannister as soon as it's cooled.

That said, while digging around, I did find this interesting blog post. No idea about the merit of his argument, but it was interesting to consider.

jyalpert:
I put mine into valve bags immediately post roast.  I've always read that this is a good idea because the release of CO2 will flush the existing air from the container, keeping the coffee from oxidizing longer.  Which is fine as long as you're not opening and closing the bag to brew the coffee, which I do starting at about 24h post roast.  So, meh for me.

For a roaster who is bagging and selling his beans in large batches, I imagine there are many things at work here:

- Samples from a large roast must be cupped and measured for QC.  So bagging immediately doesn't make sense until QC is done

- Firing up the bagging machine is probably a whole thing, and they probably have a daily routine.  For instance, bag from 9am-10am, roast and do lab stuff and greens analysis from 10am-4pm, QC the day's roasts from 4pm-5pm, go home.  I'm just guessing - they might run out of paid hours for bagging after QC is done, but before it's time to go home.

- Keeping like 50k of beans in a sealed container to let the CO2 purge the air while the beans are waiting for QC and bagging is totally impractical, as easygene said, so they just say F it and let them sit out in the open.  They're venting CO2 at that point anyway, so oxidation isn't really a concern.

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