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

[HarborTownBrewing]

@Sbe2 I would also recommend reading a lot, but also taking everything you read with a grain of salt. There are, reportedly, over 200 chemical compounds in a coffee bean, which leads to a lot of different possible things people can taste.

If you're looking for brewing tips, I'd personally advise getting a Burr Grinder if you don't have one already. Plan to spend at least 100 for a quality entry level grinder.

Next, freshness is key. I don't drink any coffee over 10 days past its roast date unless I'm desperate.

Similarly, only grinding what you are going to brew in the following 10 or 15 mins.

French Presses are great, but you can get completely different flavors from a cone brewer such as Melitta (sold at any grocery store), Hario V60, or Chemex just to name a few.

I think it's important to weigh your beans and water, I use a 16 to 1 ratio water to coffee.

Finally, brewing temp is also important. For African coffees I usually use a temp of 201 and for Centrals I use 203 to 205.

But this is just one guys opinion so feel free to challenge it like I said in the beginning haha.

 

[Sbe2]

@HarborTownBrewing thanks for the advice. One thing I was looking to invest in was a burr grinder. Is a manual one a worthy choice or should I just go electric right of the bat?

Who is a good source for roasted beans? Should I buy from the store first and see what I prefer? It’s like when I first started homebrewing haha

Is there a Palmer equivalent book for brewing coffee?

 

[applescrap]

@applescrap, the thermocouples have been the best investment I could have made to my HG/BM. Last nights roast came out the best yet, really getting things dialed in.
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What is working for you. How much are you roasting at a time? I might go back to full power 10-minute roast and try to dial it back at the end.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

What is working for you. How much are you roasting at a time? I might go back to full power 10-minute roast and try to dial it back at the end.

1lb roasts. Full power on the HG and opening up the roasting chamber to slow the roast down when approaching first crack.

 

[Schmoogdaddy]

So Sunday I roasted some Guatemalan on the lighter side and then proceeded to put it in the smoker for an hour with a 70 cherry/30 hickory mix. I left it rest a couple of days before brewing. It wasn't an overwhelming smoke. It kinda reminded me of cherry pipe tobacco. It was OK. I won't rush to do it again, but I'm sure I'll think about what to tweak and give it another go some day.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

@HarborTownBrewing thanks for the advice. One thing I was looking to invest in was a burr grinder. Is a manual one a worthy choice or should I just go electric right of the bat?

Who is a good source for roasted beans? Should I buy from the store first and see what I prefer? It’s like when I first started homebrewing haha

Is there a Palmer equivalent book for brewing coffee?

Where abouts are you located? I would seek out any local roasters and give their stuff a try. Some are good, some just burn everything to be like Starbucks. But if you have anything locally, I'd give that a try. If you have a botique grocery store see if they have anything from the smaller roasters, like Intelligenstia for instance. If not, you could order from someone like La Colombe. Their quality has gone down hill significantly but it's still good coffee and they run shipping specials occasionally.

On the grinder, there are some exceptional manual grinders for a reasonable price, but I think you have to figure out if you want to crank it every day. My in laws have an old school Danish grinder, wall mounted, that I have to use when I am there and it sucks. I couldn't do it every day. (Actually sometimes I bring my electric grinder with me when I visit them). I haven't looked at manual grinders a lot, and I'm sure someone here knows more, but from what I recall reading, a $150 manual grinder will give results similar to a $500 electric grinder.

Coffee brewing book? Good question...not that I know of.

Sorry my answers may be not that helpful but wanted to at least put some thoughts out there.

 

[applescrap]

Apple, I had a similar roast one time on Konga that I took really slow accidentally. I thought it was ruined but tried it anyways and it was like a chocolate milkshake. One of my best roasts with that bean, so hopefully you have similar results. (assuming you like chocolate milkshakes)

Yep, exactly. But it may have just been the beers but i smelled peanut butter

 

[jammin]

@Sbe2 - Stumptown has some great “how to” videos for just about every popular brewer. I’ve found them quite helpful

https://www.stumptowncoffee.com/brew-guides/

 

[TallDan]

@Sbe2 - Stumptown has some great “how to” videos for just about every popular brewer. I’ve found them quite helpful

https://www.stumptowncoffee.com/brew-guides/

Intelligentsia has the good brew guides as well. I also like Intelligentsia's iphone app for it's calculators and timers that work with their brew guides. I use it every time that i make chemex or french press coffee (which is most days).

 

[jammin]

Speaking of John Palmer's book "How to Brew", I have been reminded of a favorite quote: "brewing beer is only as difficult as you make it" (well, close enough). I have recently been swept up in an article and surrounding conversation by Scott Rao "What is Baked Coffee?". The gist of it states that your coffee's flavor will flatten out noticeably if the RoR (Rate of Rise) drops substantially as it enters & moves through first crack. So as nature would have it I couldn't help but make roasting more stressful & hitched a ride on the hype train. I can't offer any definitive feedback yet but it surely has been eye opening.


Here is a fun melange espresso roast I did tonight. About 1/3 Sumatra, 1/3 African & 1/3 Brazil.

Here is the curve from Roastmasters latest wet processed Yrg "Z". Very excited to cup this coffee after a short rest:

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I'm in the beginning of a kitchen remodel, doing the whole thing by myself so no spare time. I quickly ran out of coffee (drank a lot to power through the remodel) and now I'm in trouble. I have a hard time paying for good coffee when I can roast the same stuff for half the price. Going to be a rough next few weeks. Picked up some Archer Farms today. Yummy... ;(

 

[pshankstar]

Well I’m trying the bourbon thing. Now I just need to go back through the thread to see how long to let them soak. Not easy with the mobile app.

@HarborTownBrewing good luck with the kitchen remodel and good coffee withdraw.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I have done them for 5 days and 7 days on bourbon and I liked the 7 day result, but I'm sure everyone's palate is a little different. For me it brought out more warm caramel flavors.

 

[pshankstar]

I have done them for 5 days and 7 days on bourbon and I liked the 7 day result, but I'm sure everyone's palate is a little different. For me it brought out more warm caramel flavors.

Thanks for saving me the time to go back and find your thought!!! I’ll have to give it 5 days b/c we all leave on Sunday and I won’t be home to roast at all next week. But it sounds like I’ll have to play around with how long to let it be like you did. Who doesn’t like to experiment in this forum??? Thanks again HTB.

 

[applescrap]

Speaking of John Palmer's book "How to Brew", I have been reminded of a favorite quote: "brewing beer is only as difficult as you make it" (well, close enough). I have recently been swept up in an article and surrounding conversation by Scott Rao "What is Baked Coffee?". The gist of it states that your coffee's flavor will flatten out noticeably if the RoR (Rate of Rise) drops substantially as it enters & moves through first crack. So as nature would have it I couldn't help but make roasting more stressful & hitched a ride on the hype train. I can't offer any definitive feedback yet but it surely has been eye opening.


Here is a fun melange espresso roast I did tonight. About 1/3 Sumatra, 1/3 African & 1/3 Brazil.

Here is the curve from Roastmasters latest wet processed Yrg "Z". Very excited to cup this coffee after a short rest:

Great read. So how do we keep it from dropping? This batch was my first baked beans. The Konga just tastes flat. It's not surprising that I like full heat straight through. That would keep the rate of rise from dropping I assume.

 

[applescrap]

I'm in the beginning of a kitchen remodel, doing the whole thing by myself so no spare time. I quickly ran out of coffee (drank a lot to power through the remodel) and now I'm in trouble. I have a hard time paying for good coffee when I can roast the same stuff for half the price. Going to be a rough next few weeks. Picked up some Archer Farms today. Yummy... ;(

Would love to see some pics. I have done quite a bit of work and if you have any thoughts or questions feel free to throw them out there. I know many of us are pretty talented. Archer Farms? Oh man, somebody mail him some coffee. Bodhi leaf does sales on there roasted coffee. Last weekend it was 30% off. I've drank it and it's not bad stuff. It will cost about 10 lb shipped, maybe a little more.

 

[applescrap]

I have done them for 5 days and 7 days on bourbon and I liked the 7 day result, but I'm sure everyone's palate is a little different. For me it brought out more warm caramel flavors.

And for the trifecta, I just read on a different thread that someone loves to soak their beans in vodka, and then tried whiskey, and decided vodka was better. By the way the tip from you guys about coffee on ice cream is solid.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Quick review of the Archer Farms Tierra Del Sol: This is a "medium" roast but upon loading my grinder with the beans the coffee glistens with oil covering a very dark, glossy bean. While I'm primarily a lighter roaster, I don't think I have ever taken my beans this deep and still drank them.

Despite a fresh grind, the bloom was flat and uninspired, sort of how I feel when I visit the produce section at Target. There was an aroma reminiscent of my uncle's hands after his 13th cigarette of the day.

In the cup, I'm reminded of char similar to burnt hot dogs. Like when a kid sticks the hot dog into a fire, giggling and panicking at the same time as the wiener slowly bubbles and blackens. The char flavor gives way to more char flavors as the cup cools. As I finish the cup I get a nice chewy bitter flavor from the loose grinds which escaped my Kone filter. Truly, this chewy, ashy after taste was fitting of the coffee.

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I don't think I can do this every day for much longer; I decided I'm going to get up early and roast or something. It'll be worth it to make time for roasting!!!

I'll have to post some remodel pics once I get further along because the demo work is not very sexy. So far it's been a matter of removing 105 year old plaster and lath, along with the dust which has settled on top of it in the attic space. I'll be opening up an exterior wall soon, which will lead to more mess. Just about done with the electrical, then I'll be on to drywall. I love trim carpentry so I can't wait to get the drywall up and move on to the fun stuff

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I decided to roast tonight. And I decided to drink some home brews.

I finding the two dont mix well together

 

[uatuba]

Ingredients? How about: coffee beans and water.

Ta-da!

 

[applescrap]

Coffee must come with cancer warning, judge says - https://www.thedenverchannel.com/ne...with-cancer-warning-in-california-judge-rules

 

[pshankstar]

Coffee must come with cancer warning, judge says - https://www.thedenverchannel.com/ne...with-cancer-warning-in-california-judge-rules

I just saw that on the news tonight. It seems like everything has a label that says CA says it may cause cancer these days. No offense to people who live there but it seems like everything causes cancer based on CA’s labeling requirements.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Has anyone tried roasting on an induction burner? I tried recently with a cast iron skillet, and with a stainless container I have lying around (not sure what it's original purpose is, but it's food safe and has a lid), and the temperature of the skiller/pot just kept increasing regardless of burner setting and it ended up extremely uneven and burnt in places.

 

[jammin]

@pricelessbrewing - Sweet Maria’s posted a video roasting with a WhirlyPop on an induction cooktop. I thought it was a pretty clever idea:
https://instagram.com/p/Bf_tLsKlxN9/

 

[pricelessbrewing]

@pricelessbrewing - Sweet Maria’s posted a video roasting with a WhirlyPop on an induction cooktop. I thought it was a pretty clever idea:
https://instagram.com/p/Bf_tLsKlxN9/

Yeah I've seen the video, it's using a new victorio popcorn maker, and from what little detail I can make out it looks like they're using the same burner as I am. Maybe I need to try another pot, or maybe my burners control system isn't working properly. I tried setting it to temp 180 and using my cast iron skillet (obviously not for roasting, just to check temp control), and it easily climbed to 300+F. Water splattered onto the skillet boiled away instantly, I suppose I could test it with some different cooking oils and use their smoking points to get an estimate.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Been sick and drinking only tea the last 48 hours. I like tea and drank it all the time before I started drinking coffee, but now I feel it's just very lacking. I think what I like about coffee is the caffeine punch you get with it. That level of caffeine just isn't present in tea.

It's kind of like non-alcohol beer. The beer might still be okay, but if it's super-low alcohol content there's just a certain punch missing.

 

[TallDan]

I don't think the caffeine really makes coffee more enjoyable to me, but it does make me be sure to have it every day. Even if it's a cup of bad coffee it's worth it to avoid those caffeine withdrawal headaches.

I like tea, but it hasn't ever drawn me in like coffee does. I probably only have a cup of tea 3-4x a year, but it is comforting when fighting off a cold.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Having just finished my cup of Brazil, there's nothing like a shot of caffeine when you've been under the weather. I feel so much better than I did an hour ago. My mom always swore by Excedrin with caffeine when she wasn't feeling great...I think I get it now.

 

[MaxStout]

Having just finished my cup of Brazil, there's nothing like a shot of caffeine when you've been under the weather. I feel so much better than I did an hour ago. My mom always swore by Excedrin with caffeine when she wasn't feeling great...I think I get it now.

My favorite hack for getting through the day with a cold is Sudafed (the good, meth lab pseudoephedrine version), and a couple cups of coffee.

/OT

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Roasted up a lb of the Kenyan today. Took it just a shade darker than last time and tightened up the roast, clocked this one at 12:45. I need to build a proper cooling tray next. The roast is more even than the picture tells, and boy this one smells heavenly. I do miss roasting indoors.