☕ Coffee ☕: Ingredients, Roasting, Grinding, Brewing, and Tasting

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What has 2 thumbs and is gonna be roasting some go-faster this weekend? This guy!

I got the columbian sampler, and a couple of other beans from sweet marias.

I think I'm going to try to speed my roast up just a bit. Currently, I do a 20 min roast with my highly calibrated and repeatable turbo oven jalopy set to 400F. I'm going to turn that sucker all the way up to 11 (which I think is close to 450, though the text there is worn off) and see what happens. If you don't hear back from me, you'll know I went out doing what I love.

_mg_1596-67425.jpg
 
I got this card from sweet marias. IIRC, I think I've gotten similar ones before. Nice touch, Tom.

Expand the photo so you can read the text. Pretty nifty. I've a bucket list a mile long; I think I'll add visiting a coffee plantation to it.

sm-67426.jpg
 
passedpawn said:
What has 2 thumbs and is gonna be roasting some go-faster this weekend? This guy!

I got the columbian sampler, and a couple of other beans from sweet marias.

I think I'm going to try to speed my roast up just a bit. Currently, I do a 20 min roast with my highly calibrated and repeatable turbo oven jalopy set to 400F. I'm going to turn that sucker all the way up to 11 (which I think is close to 450, though the text there is worn off) and see what happens. If you don't hear back from me, you'll know I went out doing what I love.

_mg_1596-67425.jpg
Click to expand...

I hope it goes better than that! Why do you want to speed up?
 
passedpawn said:
What has 2 thumbs and is gonna be roasting some go-faster this weekend? This guy!

I got the columbian sampler, and a couple of other beans from sweet marias.

I think I'm going to try to speed my roast up just a bit. Currently, I do a 20 min roast with my highly calibrated and repeatable turbo oven jalopy set to 400F. I'm going to turn that sucker all the way up to 11 (which I think is close to 450, though the text there is worn off) and see what happens. If you don't hear back from me, you'll know I went out doing what I love.

https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/images/3/7/1/8/3/_mg_1596-67425.jpg[g][/quote]


2 things....

1 - awesome choice diving into some good Columbian coffee. Temper your expectations as it can be tough to find exceptional lots. When you find them though..... dear lord


2 - glad to hear you're speeding up your roast. 20min is just WAY too long. I would love to hear what you think of a roast closer to 11-12min overall.
Click to expand...
 
Today was one of those days where the coffee disappeared from the mug WAAAAY too soon.

The Zimbabwe from Burmans is kick. ass. Delicious. And unfortunately they are out of it :(
 
So 7 minutes, and slightly under roasted from what I wanted. It's also got a lot of variance. The problem is I didn't want to stand there for 13 minutes. Tastes like a true medium. Not too dark not too light, not to acidic not to burnt.
 
Ordered some Papa New Guinea. Never have tried roasting that before, so that should be a fun experiment.

Also ordered Burundi and Tanzania - some of my more favorite coffees of late.
 
HarborTownBrewing said:
Ordered some Papa New Guinea. Never have tried roasting that before, so that should be a fun experiment.

Also ordered Burundi and Tanzania - some of my more favorite coffees of late.
Click to expand...

LOVE a good PNG. It can have some fruity characteristics with a deep, deep sweetness. Big bodied cup with bassy/earthy flavors usually
 
Saw this on Facebook.
http://www.auromabrewing.com/
Looks pretty gimmicky. be interesting to use the brewing app and make refracto measurements to see if it does what it claims. Wonder what kind of grinding apparatus is going to let them dial in any parameters consistently. It's harder than you can imagine to do it manually.

Also.
One of the guys I work with, newish hire, is a huge coffee snob. Not a roaster, but collects antique hand grinders, pre WWII German zassenhaus grinder he claims are the best. He refurbishes them himself. Says the best ones are hard to find - German antique stores.
Anybody else have experience with these? Curious how much of a difference it really makes vs my electric Baratza. By the way, the steel burrs I broken in now, about a year later. Getting much more uniform grinds and little to no dust.

TD
 
Oh yeah you are right, the Behmor doesn't have a grinder. It has the controls via your cell phone though to set water temp and pre-soak stuff. I don't have one, but have known of people who have them and love it.

The Auroma brewer is priced at $399 (normally $499 they said). I would rather drop $200 on a good grinder and another $200 on a brewer, if I'm spending $400 on this sort of rig. But that's just me I guess.
 
TrickyDick said:
Saw this on Facebook.
http://www.auromabrewing.com/
Looks pretty gimmicky. be interesting to use the brewing app and make refracto measurements to see if it does what it claims. Wonder what kind of grinding apparatus is going to let them dial in any parameters consistently. It's harder than you can imagine to do it manually.

Also.
One of the guys I work with, newish hire, is a huge coffee snob. Not a roaster, but collects antique hand grinders, pre WWII German zassenhaus grinder he claims are the best. He refurbishes them himself. Says the best ones are hard to find - German antique stores.
Anybody else have experience with these? Curious how much of a difference it really makes vs my electric Baratza. By the way, the steel burrs I broken in now, about a year later. Getting much more uniform grinds and little to no dust.

TD
Click to expand...

Your baratza will crap all over those dinosaurs
 
HarborTownBrewing said:
Oh yeah you are right, the Behmor doesn't have a grinder. It has the controls via your cell phone though to set water temp and pre-soak stuff. I don't have one, but have known of people who have them and love it.

The Auroma brewer is priced at $399 (normally $499 they said). I would rather drop $200 on a good grinder and another $200 on a brewer, if I'm spending $400 on this sort of rig. But that's just me I guess.
Click to expand...

I bought the non-wifi Behmor brewer not too long ago. It has all the same controls as the wiFi version just through the controls on the brewer.
I never use the pre-grind and programmed brewing because I'm a snob. I will occasionally grind beans and dump them in and set for 15 minutes to brew so it'll be finished by the time I've showered and dressed for the day so shave a few minutes off my mornings, but otherwise that's about it.

It gives a consistent brew which is important to me - more so than my Technivorm did. I never did Technivorm trials after manually dumping the reservoir residual though, but that is rather tedious practice to me.

I think this mini brewer I saw might appeal to those hooked on K-cup brewing machines. Pricey at $400.

TD
 
passedpawn said:
In case anyone is thinking about building a SC/TO, Home depot has turbo ovens on sale right now (special buy) for $24.95. Haha, I think I bought mine used for $30.
Click to expand...

A few ago they had Behmor roasters for 295.

When I built my SC/TO roaster I thoughts the preferred ovens where the old style ovens as you could easily defeat the thermostat if you wanted.

Did you use a new style turbo oven like the one at home depot or did you use an old style galloping gourmet style?
 
ba-brewer said:
A few ago they had Behmor roasters for 295.

When I built my SC/TO roaster I thoughts the preferred ovens where the old style ovens as you could easily defeat the thermostat if you wanted.

Did you use a new style turbo oven like the one at home depot or did you use an old style galloping gourmet style?
Click to expand...

Not sure what new vs old is. I'm pretty sure if I wanted to defeat the thermostat, I could do it. I'm pretty good with electronics. But mine is working pretty good now, and I have more room on the thermostat dial, so I probably won't fudge with it.

I'll see if I can find a picture and you can tell me which one I have.

[edit] here it is

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well your turbo oven is not the old galloping gourmet style, and does look pretty much like the one on sale at home depot, so I would say yours is a new style.

If your is working just fine then maybe I am remembering wrong or misinterpreted old and new style ovens when I built mine.
 
passedpawn said:
In case anyone is thinking about building a SC/TO, Home depot has turbo ovens on sale right now (special buy) for $24.95. Haha, I think I bought mine used for $30.
Click to expand...

I want one how does it work. Is it just kind of rigged up on top of a pot. And the airflow moves the beans
 
applescrap said:
So is this the stir crazy? Then you set it up with a turbo oven. Looks like it could work on its own?
Click to expand...

Yep.

And nope, won't work on its own. Doesn't get hot enough. I dug in and removed the thermostat so it ran full tilt and (besides becoming a fire hazard) it got too hot and with the minimal stirring action the beans just burned on one side.
 
This is the upper burr from my Baratza, which originally came with ceramic burrs - interestingly when I swapped to steel, I found a chip in one of the ceramic original burrs....

At any rate, the steel upper burr has this lip on it which makes a groove into which coffee will accumulate... irritating!

When I asked baratza, they said this was normal to have the gap.

I am thinking about getting or fabricating an insert to alleviate the issue. Not sure what to make it from. Silicone washer trimmed to size would probably be the easiest. Anybody else encounter this?

TD
 
Roasted two 1# batches of columbian origins on my ghetto roaster. I turned the dial all the way up, from 400F to probably 500F (silkscreen completely worn off in that area). It's not obvious if the turbo oven has any real thermostat or if it's just cycling power to the element to simulate.

My roasting time went from 20m down to 14m. 1st crack between ~9 minutes. That's a medium City+ roast. Cupping will happen next week. Roast appears to just as uniform as before, even better maybe. I'll get a picture up here later today.
 
@trickydick - do you have a vario with the steel burrs? I love mine; superb grind quality. I wouldn't worry about the fines building up. In my experience that stuff doesn't break loose so nothing to worry about.
 
passedpawn said:
Roasted two 1# batches of columbian origins on my ghetto roaster. I turned the dial all the way up, from 400F to probably 500F (silkscreen completely worn off in that area). It's not obvious if the turbo oven has any real thermostat or if it's just cycling power to the element to simulate.

My roasting time went from 20m down to 14m. 1st crack between ~9 minutes. That's a medium City+ roast. Cupping will happen next week. Roast appears to just as uniform as before, even better maybe. I'll get a picture up here later today.
Click to expand...

Good news it seems. Especially for your stir motor.
 
passedpawn said:
My roasting time went from 20m down to 14m. 1st crack between ~9 minutes. That's a medium City+ roast. Cupping will happen next week. Roast appears to just as uniform as before, even better maybe. I'll get a picture up here later today.
Click to expand...


really excited to hear your review on this roast.

a 9 minute time to 1C is fantastic on just about any coffee. id like to see that picture of the roast to understand the develop post 1C a little better. sounds like a long stretch, ESPECIALLY for a columbian coffee. might be awesome for espresso but for drip i like to keep my finishing times around 1.5-2 minutes.. ish; depending on the coffee of course. if you're able to stretch out your 1C development for that long though it sounds like you have very good control over your roast, so congratulations!
 
jammin said:
@trickydick - do you have a vario with the steel burrs? I love mine; superb grind quality. I wouldn't worry about the fines building up. In my experience that stuff doesn't break loose so nothing to worry about.
Click to expand...

Yes. I swapped the ceramic burrs to steel burrs about 16 months ago I think it was. Took a while, but I think they are nicely broken in and I get wonderful uniform grind with minimal fines. The fines often cling to the plastic bin but there aren't much..
 
Would love so see "Jammin's Rules of the Roast" compiled into one post by origin!! Seriously have learned a lot about getting great flavor from your posts. Far fewer lousy roasts, and when I do, it's because I got distracted. I'm usually hitting 5 minutes to dry +/- 20 sec (back to back roasts soak the heat into the roaster and drying goes a bit faster). Usually dumping the beans between 10-12 minutes. Peaberrys go a bit faster. Lately been dropping as the last few cracks of 1C start to fade and some fantastic favors coming through! Also the other benefit of back to back roasts is that I can do three roasts and consume over the next two weeks and taste how favors change and develop with time. Sometimes I have to drink in the first three days, but I'm finding that I really prefer the favors after two to three days of rest compared with 12-36 hour rests.

TD
 
jammin said:
really excited to hear your review on this roast.

a 9 minute time to 1C is fantastic on just about any coffee. id like to see that picture of the roast to understand the develop post 1C a little better. sounds like a long stretch, ESPECIALLY for a columbian coffee. might be awesome for espresso but for drip i like to keep my finishing times around 1.5-2 minutes.. ish; depending on the coffee of course. if you're able to stretch out your 1C development for that long though it sounds like you have very good control over your roast, so congratulations!
Click to expand...

I enjoyed reading this, thanks. I agree a nicely controlled setup.
 
If anyone is interested, Bodhi's sale this week is this Burundi: http://www.bodhileafcoffee.com/coll...t-7-green?mc_cid=1fa1b6c919&mc_eid=68998bb514.

It's $4.85/lb with code GAHARO7.

I had some of this from a while ago and I roasted it in February but I didn't take good notes as to how well I liked it. I tend to really enjoy Burundi coffee, but I also have 15 lbs of other east African's arriving today so I don't know how much I want to stock up on!
 
I need some help from you all:

I sell home-roast to friends, co-workers, and whatnot and I set aside the profits to put toward future upgrades.

Lately I've been roasting for more and more people who don't have a grinder, so I grind it for them. One or two people here or there I don't mind, but this week already I've ground (for drip machines) for 4 different orders of 12 oz. The newest customer wants a Turkish grind, so now we're talking super fine.

That said, I'm wondering how long my grinder is going to last.

Any thoughts on life expectancy of burrs and motors? I'm afraid I'm going to burn through my grinder and use all my profits just to buy a replacement. I'm using the Baratza Encore at this time, so it's definitely not the most durable thing. I suppose I could buy one of those larger super-market grade grinders, but I have no where to store it.
 
HarborTownBrewing said:
If anyone is interested, Bodhi's sale this week is this Burundi: http://www.bodhileafcoffee.com/coll...t-7-green?mc_cid=1fa1b6c919&mc_eid=68998bb514.

It's $4.85/lb with code GAHARO7.

I had some of this from a while ago and I roasted it in February but I didn't take good notes as to how well I liked it. I tend to really enjoy Burundi coffee, but I also have 15 lbs of other east African's arriving today so I don't know how much I want to stock up on!
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for this. But now I'm wondering do I want 5 pounds of this because it's a deal or should I try some other coffees. There are plenty in that $5 price range on that site is this one so Superior I should get 5 pounds. Also I thought Sweet Maria's was the gold standard. My first order was from home roast does it matter? Thanks man
 
applescrap said:
There are plenty in that $5 price range on that site is this one so Superior I should get 5 pounds. Also I thought Sweet Maria's was the gold standard. My first order was from home roast does it matter? Thanks man
Click to expand...

I have tasted some really good Burundi coffees this year - I don't know if they have just had a good year or what it is, but things have been really good out of there. I think $4.85 or whatever it is is a good price for an east african coffee. Bodhi has pretty good shipping prices too.

I believe you can get up to 12 lbs of beans for the same price, so maybe try a few others. I've had some good Guatemalan beans from them before for $5ish a pound.

I think Sweet Maria's does a great job promoting and describing their beans. I have struggled to find many other places that match the details of each coffee (maybe Burmans, but it still isn't as good of information as Sweet Marias gives).

The thing about SMs though is you pay for it. I don't buy from them unless I'm purchasing 5+ lbs of a single bean because otherwise the cost per lb is too high.
 

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