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

[applescrap]

Oops pic of sampler

View attachment 1496632317446.jpg

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Got back from my camping trip. Caught a lot of fish, drank way too much crap beer (especially Saturday...ugh), and was almost carried around by the mosquitoes. So, petty good trip.

For coffee I took a Burundi I'd been really liking for dark cherry and milk chocolate flavors, and my friend had a percolator we brewed it in.

I was a little bummed because it didn't have the same flavor really at all. It was still decent but definitely not how it usually tastes. BUT, what do you expect with a percolator which is basically pouring boiling water over the beans. At home, I control the water by the degree...i didn't have that luxury out there.

I think if I were going to do this more often I'd just bring a thermometer and v60, or if I got really serious that French press from rei which someone mentioned.

Still though, it was great to have good coffee in the freaking middle of no where.

View attachment 1496668943020.jpg

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Got back from my camping trip. Caught a lot of fish, drank way too much crap beer (especially Saturday...ugh), and was almost carried around by the mosquitoes. So, petty good trip.

For coffee I took a Burundi I'd been really liking for dark cherry and milk chocolate flavors, and my friend had a percolator we brewed it in.

I was a little bummed because it didn't have the same flavor really at all. It was still decent but definitely not how it usually tastes. BUT, what do you expect with a percolator which is basically pouring boiling water over the beans. At home, I control the water by the degree...i didn't have that luxury out there.

I think if I were going to do this more often I'd just bring a thermometer and v60, or if I got really serious that French press from rei which someone mentioned.

Still though, it was great to have good coffee in the freaking middle of no where.

Now you have me thinking. I've been stuck on my aeropress and my "house blend" (10oz Guat/6oz Tanzanian co roasted to full city) and that makes a killer americano style cup out of the AP. It's dense and rich and would probably do well in espresso as well, but I don't have a decent machine. I don't think it would do as well in pourover or perc so I haven't tried any other brew methods, I enjoy it too much in the AP. I'm going on an elk hunt the end of September and I'm going to have to figure this out. Out of the four of us, I'm the only one that cares about good coffee. I can bring the AP with, campsite cleanup may not be as easy as some other brewers though, but it's not bad. That probably is the route I will go, I will just have to buy one of those smaller hand grinders so I can have the beans ground fresh to avoid grinding before I leave.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I had just lined up someone to o sell my Encore to, so I could get the new Baratza Sette 30 when I see that they have postponed the 30's release. Kind of a bummer, but I'm guessing they had something come up that they weren't quite satisfied with before releasing it.

 

[jammin]

First new crop Ethiopian arrived @ The Crown Jewel. Very dry beans - probably a tricky one to roast:

http://royalcoffee.com/crown-analys...e-haru-cooperative-double-washed-crown-jewel/

 

[TallDan]

I'll be honest, I haven't gotten a great batch out of the Crown Jewel coffee yet. I think I might have been under roasting it some, so i let the batch I roasted today go a little longer. Odd thing though, the best cups I've had from it have been very freshly roasted. Less than 12 hours from roast to brew.

 

[applescrap]

Have been roasting a little slower, this would be batch three. At 5 min. lowered to 5 of 6 bar power, then at 1050 4 bars as first crack ensues and then 3 bars about a minute after that. Took a picture of development well before 1c. First crack is not as loud as on full power and it also is less active, but it seems to go on a long time. Finally pulled coffee at 14 minutes almost 2nd crack. Cant believe there was such a long pause in between. On full power it goes from one to the second pretty quickly. These roasts look the same as the quick roasts but are markedly better.

View attachment 1496892851678.jpg

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I just had to explain why I wss bothering using a v60 cup by cup instead of the coffee maker. They just didn't get it...

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I was on a weekend trip which the in-laws crashed. Fortunately I was prepared for it. Unfortunately, it happened.

I brought a coffee from Timor Leste to share with everyone. It's a really interesting coffee, it's malty and a little bready. Really reminds me of a german beer actually, so I really appreciate it. A couple of the family members actually picked out the malty characteristics which surprised me, especially since they all added some milk.

Next up I had a coffee from Kenya Othaya which I didn't share. This was actually one @jammin posted about back on April 14. Man, this one was delicious. I didn't really take any notes on what it tasted like - I just sucked it down and went through 8 oz in three days without any issues. I was using my travel rig which is just a V60 with a cheap water heater and a blade grinder, so I can not wait to re-roast this and put it through the Chemex with actual temp control on the Bonavita.

Jammin, great find - thanks for recommending that. Unfortunately it's sold out now, otherwise I'd order another bag in a heartbeat.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Thinking about picking up this book, which I saw recommended in a FB group. Anyone read this before? Has great reviews. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0897166159/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[jammin]

Nice sounding DP Ethiopian at SM's. I grabbed 5lbs

https://www.sweetmarias.com/product/ethiopia-dry-process-mormora-guji-highland-5458

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Tried to brew up some Kenyan using the Japanese method of half ice, half hot water.

In not a huge fan of iced or cold brew. When I tried it it was okay but I'd much prefer hot. Once the ice had fully melted in my cup though, it was actually really good. Not bad really

View attachment 1497735575138.jpg

 

[jammin]

^thats a great way to make iced coffee. I use an aeropress but utilize the same concept: once the ice melts from the concentrated coffee, you end up with the desired brew ratio + plenty of ice to keep the beverage cool.

This is one exception where I don't mind a tsp of sugar & maybe some cream.

 

[applescrap]

I tried some kenyan again, looking, hoping, for that aha moment, jammin and htb talk about. Nope, tastes like earl gray tea with lemon. Cupping notes said, cherry tomato and tea. Not my cup of tea, see what I did there. Its coffee, well you get it.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I tried some kenyan again, looking, hoping, for that aha moment, jammin and htb talk about. Nope, tastes like earl gray tea with lemon. Cupping notes said, cherry tomato and tea. Not my cup of tea, see what I did there. Its coffee, well you get it.

Did you slow down the roast at all, or fairly quick? I generally take my east Africans somewhat slow to develop them well.

But honestly, earl gray and lemon sounds better to me than cherry tomato haha

 

[jammin]

Trigger warning:


http://www.roastmasters.com/eth2.html

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Trigger warning:


http://www.roastmasters.com/eth2.html

Urggggg...it even says, "Blueberry". I just bought $100 worth from SM's which is coming this week. This Roastmasters one sounds good, but man it's not cheap, especially after shipping.

 

[jammin]

^i would have paid double. RM's descriptors are almost always accurate. If this coffee follows suit, I'll be pissed I didn't order more. Berry bombs are few & far between these days.

 

[applescrap]

Still grinding away at trying to roast better coffee. Last batch went down to 5 of 6 bar power at 5 mins, 4 of 6 bar power at 1030, 1c at 1130 , 3 of 6 power at 1230, and then i think 2 at some point. Anyways, this sucker went 5 min after 1c without hitting 2c. I figured at this point they were starting to bake so I pulled it. I think next I'm going to try lowering power at five minutes and right before first crack around 11:30 but not after that.


Edit. ...drank some of this this morning. It's good and has a nice balance between that nostalgic coffee flavor and a light roast. I think I took it a little too far. Just glad to not have an acidic bomb.

@harbortown i missed that before, yep, I roasted that kenyan about the same as here I think. So a little slower. Probably roasting to much at once, I wonder. Its certainly interesting coffee. The coffee in this post is Peruvian and was only 2.85 per pound. It is good enough.

 

[jammin]

Soooo... I might have gotten a new toy

 

[TrickyDick]

That's no toy

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Love the naked portafilter

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Very interesting. Select a coffee, they roast it and it's ready in 15 min .

View attachment 1498338714369.jpg

 

[JonW]

Very interesting. Select a coffee, they roast it and it's ready in 15 min .

That's cool! I wonder how many pounds they can do at once.

 

[jammin]

Yeah yeah... it's a little pricey... you all know how I am about Colombian microlots though
http://www.roastmasters.com/colombia-micro-2.html

 

[TallDan]

Yeah yeah... it's a little pricey... you all know how I am about Colombian microlots though
http://www.roastmasters.com/colombia-micro-2.html

Pricey I can deal with, but why do you post these things so far apart? Could have saved by combining shipping with the last one you pointed out.

 

[jammin]

Pricey I can deal with, but why do you post these things so far apart? Could have saved by combining shipping with the last one you pointed out.

i was little ticked about that today as well. i posted both offerings as soon as RM's did (which was on different days to my knowledge). Usually they're pretty slow about posting new coffee & it's even more rare that they make successive offerings that i will buy.
i wish i would have known as well so i could have saved some money on shipping. i still haven't roasted any of the Konga yet. hopefully i'll get to it this weekend. perhaps 1 batch for chemex & 1 batch for espresso.



so did anyone get any of that Mormora Guji from SM's? i roasted a batch over the weekend and it's drinking really nice! lots of berry flavor with a nice lemony acidity. great stuff. really happy i was able to get 5lbs

 

[applescrap]

Those roaster school videos from mill city are awesome. Anyways I saw an interesting idea. What if we all got the same coffee and roasted it and shared it. It would really be interesting and learning.

 

[passedpawn]

Those roaster school videos from mill city are awesome. Anyways I saw an interesting idea. What if we all got the same coffee and roasted it and shared it. It would really be interesting and learning.

I'd do that.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I'm freaking dragging today so made some espresso for first time in a while. Kenya, with a little Columbian. Man it's good. A little too sweet but so much flavor