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

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Thanks harbortownbrewing. What i would like to do is experiment with different shades of light. I'm really enjoying the coffee though the freshness is ridiculous. I think I've become addicted to that taste of the roast! Thanks for ruining store bought coffee for me everyone ;)
 
A good friend of mine lives about 2 miles away from a HUGE (and when I say huge I mean it - they roast for a good portion of coffee which comes in cans). You can pretty much smell the roasting smell 12 hours a day at his place. On the bright side, it's usually too warm out to open the windows so they don't get the smell in their place.

That would be a bit too much of the smell for me!
 
happy with the profile on this Bolivian micro-lot i roasted tonight. brewing it tomorrow morning bc I'm out so it will be interesting to see how it develops. I did a second batch of it that was a little faster and ever so slightly darker

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TallDan said:
50g (~2oz) batches and $265? That's crazy. I think you'd be better off with a fresh roast sr700 (although i've never used one myself).
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Just a follow up. Sister and bro-in-law just gave me a French press for my bday. Got a good bag of local freshly roasted coffee last week, and have been putting it through the keurig with the pod that you can put your own beans in, and have been less than pleased.

Just put the same beans through the press, and it's a totally different coffee! Anywho, I used 12 or so oz of water with ~ 50 grams of coffee, and it made one really nice strong cup. Which made me realize, based on the comment above from @TallDan just how small the batches would be in that little glass drum roaster... I will definitely be looking for something with a bit larger capacity.
 
Just some keurig ideas....An easy way to reuse a Keurig cup is to put a strong piece of foil over the top. Take the old foil off, clean it out, put the coffee in and put a strong piece of foil over it. They actually make these little caps that go on top. If you have the reusable one that's just all screen it's worthless. I've heard the one that comes with it can work well if you cut an old cup and put it in there. Basically it has to work just like a new cup with only one little hole for the coffee to come out.
 
Apple, It looks like the beans are roasting fairly unevenly. If I remember right, you were using a Whirlypop. It's not difficult to get an even roast in that, but you do need to really crank it. Probably one rotation each second.

Regarding roast levels, the darker one is tough to judge because the dark beans of the lot are "darker" (of course) but it also has very light beans too. I wouldn't call it a dark roast though, not until you start to see oil on the beans a little while after you roast.

I personally haven't re-roasted beans before but you may want to try it for the first roast. That one's pretty light.

I used this chart for a while, especially the temps: http://legacy.sweetmarias.com/library/content/using-sight-determine-degree-roast. I got an infrared thermometer like this and would shoot it onto the beans to get an idea of where I was in the roast. This helped me learn roast levels and development. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DMI632G/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
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Thanks for all your help. Yeah this morning the dark roast, Seems like they got darker after resting. I was in a hurry and used my stove on high. I think it was at first crack in 4-5 minutes. The first one I'm not sure it cracked. It is blonde in color when Ground and creates that translucent coffee. Definitely taste different than the other origin. The dark coffee smells like what I would generally associate coffee as smelling like. It smells a little burnt and taste like a cup of coffee I bought at the store. It seems most of the coffee I've been buying in the store over the years has all been super dark roast. I wonder if this is not a half-bad way to make coffee. I don't seem to mind the taste. The light roast coffee has more nuances and smells and tastes nutty like toasted grain. I don't think I'll ever be able to decide on a roast level. Thanks, need to get the thermometer and also maybe roast a little slower so I can have more control.

Edit...Looking at this picture you can definitely see too much variance.

View attachment 1467047312947.jpg
 
Tried the Sumatra as a SO espresso this morning and it was like drinking mushrooms. Creamy and forest-y (?). So much funk.

Getting ready tonight to start roasting up a lot of coffee for some upcoming family gatherings. This year I'm not fooling around - taking my Baratza and Chemex, and doing it right.
 
Just made a latte, but I'm not really sure if it's any good because I don't drink lattes.

Thinking about getting some chocolate to make some chocolate flavored drinks. For special occasions and whatnot.
 
After trying a few chocolate syrups and other things for mochas, I settled on cocoa powder and sugar. Easy to adjust sweetness to taste, always stocked in the pantry for baking.
 
HarborTownBrewing said:
I like the price. Heck, it's cheap by your standards ;)

How much do you get out of a bottle usually? I'm thinking of ordering a couple to save on shipping.
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It's very thick, almost mousse like. It doesn't take much for a smallish latte (I don't drown my shots) so maybe a tablespoon. A bottle will last you quite a while.

I got turned on to to it by a local coffee shop that uses it. The chocolate flavor is unreal and is not cloying or overly sweet. Just great stuff. Makes a mean hot chocolate too.
 
My fine grinds for espresso have been...not very fine the last few shots I've pulled. I checked the grinder calibration, and that was all good. So I did some Baratza troubleshooting and found where two of my burr holder flanges were missing and the third was chipped.

Fortunately Baratza is sending me a new one. And apparently it's by design: http://www.baratza.com/having-a-weak-link-plastic-burr-holder-is-a-good-thing/

But the whole ordeal got me thinking, "if my grinder is broken, may as well look at new ones." Anyone see the new Sette? http://www.baratza.com/grinder/sette-270/
 
So I waited 5 days for my beans to ship across the country and quickly got a lb. of Nicaragua into the Behmor as soon as I got them. I started out in Auto, but eventually switched over to P5. Around the 6 minute mark it all shut down and I had err2. There's no saving that batch, right? Dammit. I'm going to let it cool for an hour and load up a lb. of Panama. I guess I will have to leave it in Auto for the whole roast. Anyone else experience err2? Any remedies?
 
Also start in manual p5 from the beginning. They have it configured so auto p1 doesn't always give you 100 percent power. Don't know why.

Anyways if your roasting with p5 but start getting up around 305, consider pressing p4 to give it 75% heat and slow your heat from getting out of control (and leading to err2)
 
In general do you want to roast as hot and fast as possible or slowly? I think someone said hot till you start getting to first crack and then slow down to have some control there. The light roast mellowed after a few days in good way. I do like it. Interestingly the coffee is translucent and very light in body.
 
HarborTownBrewing said:
Err2 comes because your internal temp got too high. Keep an eye on it by pressing the B button and keep it below 315 degrees.
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I've never seen 315 in print before, so thanks for that. It's been mentioned before in this thread that the Behmor instructions are a bit disappointing/vague. I mostly like the machine just fine, though.

I'm about to charge the drum with some El Salvador. I will go manual the whole way with this roast.
 
Schmoog I don't think there's a fast rule fit the err2 temp. I got it around 315 once but I've also been around 322 before without getting it. I try to never let me roasts get above 310 at any time though.
 
HarborTownBrewing said:
Schmoog I don't think there's a fast rule fit the err2 temp. I got it around 315 once but I've also been around 322 before without getting it. I try to never let me roasts get above 310 at any time though.
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Noted. I believe the machine is looking for a quick rise in temperature as if there was a fire and the heaters need to be shut off.

My full last full manual roast went just fine. I saw 316 at one point, but it was a slower rise in temp this time.

An hour has passed since my last roast, so I'm going to roast some Honduras now.

It's a shame I lost the batch of Nicaragua. The description sounded like something I would have really enjoyed.
 
passedpawn said:
Why'd you toss it? You could have just roasted it some more.
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I've never understood the "suffer through the it" movement. The rule of 10k makes sense to me & the more coffee's you experience the more understanding you get. I try my best to limit & be selective in my purchases, but I know full well that roasting more is the key to experiancing a better cup.
 
jammin said:
I've never understood the "suffer through the it" movement. The rule of 10k makes sense to me & the more coffee's you experience the more understanding you get. I try my best to limit & be selective in my purchases, but I know full well that roasting more is the key to experiancing a better cup.
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I completely agree with the "suffer through it" comment (e.g., infected beers get dumped immediately). However, I assumed that the beans could be re-roasted a bit more and used without any suffering. Have you done this and had issues?

Rule of 10k?
 
^oh it's just reference to the whole 10k hours to become a master at something. Basically the more experience you get the better.

Re-roasting beans yields pretty bad results & as cheap as they are; I say roast some new ones!
 
As a tangential thought consider this; in a forum filled with such talented Cooks, beer makers, charcuteries, and coffee roasters, conversations of this nature will always come up. This clip is hard for me to remember, because often times I'll get to a place where I get very narrow in my thinking. For example, my green chili, I think is how it should be made and the watery mess my friend makes is incorrect. But he doesn't eat it in a bowl with a tortilla like I do, he uses it to smother things. That being said there are a million different ways to make chilli just as good and its hard to remember that. So i offer this. I posted this once before, I think passedPawn helped embed it. There are many translations I've seen of this discussion. The point being if you're in a good mood you might enjoy a cup of Folgers.

Watch "Tea Time with Jet Li" on YouTube

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7Rg0j1YD0w[/ame]
 
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^^ great clip. My dad loved his folgers instant coffee crystals. And it's true, I drank coffee with him and enjoyed the cup.

However, most gas station coffee is horrible, I don't care what mood you were in when you bought it, that mood will be foul when cup leaves your lips!
 
That was deep, scrapple. I guess that's why, when I have a fridge full of delicious fresh IPA's and a mich ultra sitting in there, the mich ultra would never sound good to me. But out golfing in TX summer heat, about 30 ice cold mich ultra or any cold BMC are the greatest thing on earth.
 
BrewinBromanite said:
That was deep, scrapple. I guess that's why, when I have a fridge full of delicious fresh IPA's and a mich ultra sitting in there, the mich ultra would never sound good to me. But out golfing in TX summer heat, about 30 ice cold mich ultra or any cold BMC are the greatest thing on earth.
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Truth!
 
passedpawn said:
Why'd you toss it? You could have just roasted it some more.
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I didn't toss it. I thought I once read that an interrupted roast is ruined. However, this morning I picked out most of the burnt beans and re-roasted it. I've already made a cup with it and can say that it is probably not as good as if I hadn't had my err2 and re-roast, but I think it is decent at the least. In the end, it was a good learning experience.
 
Schmoogdaddy said:
I didn't toss it. I thought I once read that an interrupted roast is ruined. However, this morning I picked out most of the burnt beans and re-roasted it. I've already made a cup with it and can say that it is probably not as good as if I hadn't had my err2 and re-roast, but I think it is decent at the least. In the end, it was a good learning experience.
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Maybe I misunderstood, but didn't you under-roast using your Behmor? How did you have burnt beans in there?
 

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