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How do you prevent stale beans in your hopper? Can you only put in what you need? Is the hopper sealed?
mine has a lid, dunno if it's airtight, but a standard bag of beans seems to be 220-250g which doesn't last more than 3 days so it's not been a noticeable problem so far! You could easily put in just about what you needed each time though, if you wanted.
Yes, the answer is to drink more coffee
Depends on the hopper - at work our DeLonghi isn't sealed at all (just a plastic drop-on lid) but at home my Sage burr grinder has a tight rubber seal.
But TBH I have never noticed beans being stale out of either - I think it would take a pretty keen palette to spot that.
I can tell stale beans after about 10 days or so of being in a sealed container at room temp. I'm on 2-4 shots of espresso a day and my wife might have maybe 6 a week, so that's 200g a week. Sometimes less going by how frequently we buy. So in theory a whole bag should not be in the hopper more than the ten day limit so if it's sealed it should be ok.
^ Fair enough if you are drinking espressos - I only ever have long drinks.
I have long drinks too, I mean I make that many espressos and then put then in milk or water.
You get to know how much (roughly) the machine uses per cup, so I fill the hopper with about the right amount. Our machine is in regular use so a few beans might be sitting there for a day or so but I can't taste any difference as a result, even though the hopper lid is not sealed at all. The rest of the beans stay in the bag.
This always struck me as an inconvenient step too far. Yes, I want coffee to taste great and fresh, but not if it's a big inconvenience. I just leave the beans in the hopper* until they need topping up. I doubt I can taste any difference anyway.
*Admittedly my (Sage) hopper is semi-airtight as above.
Our hopper has a lid. Beans are in there for ~5-7 days before topping up. Never noticed an issue.
Beans in the the freezer and grind from frozen:
Fridge, freezer or ambient storage? Once opened up and re sealed, that is probably as pertinent.
I only pour in what I need and keep the rest in sealed bag/container.
Working from home I don't think a full hopper lasts that long that it matters. 🤣
Unsealed lid on my magnifica. I pour in enough for about 3-4 days probably and I've never noticed an issue.
I used to keep the opened bag in the freezer but was informed that it didn't really make a difference - so now I just roll the top of the bag over and put a clip on it.
I have to refill the hopper in our de longhi magnifica every day. So stale beans aren’t a problem here. I don’t remember ever having this problem when I used the Gaggia Classic either.
The remainder of the bag of beans go into an airtight container. The coffee house I buy the beans from didn’t recommend putting the beans in the fridge. So for me job done.
Surely the answer is to recommend an expensive an unnecessary solution to the problem (this is STW after all). Personally I find the Niche Zero and an Airscape container solve this problem well for me 🙂
I measure out the quantity for each grind and put the rest back in a bag and vacuum seal it.
I chuck a bag worth of beans in the hopper, it just fits. I then drink the coffee. After a week or so I chuck a new bag in.
I think a lot of people over think this.
I think a lot of people over think this.
especially if you are then putting milk in it...