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

[applescrap]

What is the best coffee for berry notes? Is it possible to get those notes roasting in the popcorn roaster?

Ethiopian yirgacheffe dry processed. There are some costa ricans and others but depending on price why not just get the ethiopian is my thinking. The tasting notes will say berry. My favorite I have had so far is konga, with strong blueberry notes. Haha, thanks to jammin and some sage steak advice , I dont care paying more for the ethiopian. I have never tasted berry in a Kenyan but hope to some day. I get deals from bl of some coffee just to remind me how good the ethiopian is. Spend most of that week just longing for ethiopian. Did I mention I like ethiopian, jeez.

A massive popcorn roaster is my dream roaster. But I would live with a mill city drum

 

[applescrap]

That seems about right for 12oz in the Behmor. The more beans, the longer to 1C, but also it's more momentum to slow down at 1C. Sometimes with the bigger loads you can turn the power down and the beans just keep going because there's so much heat in the drum.

I've been getting to 1C at about the 8:40 mark with the Legacy beans and ending at 10:00 sharp, dropping the roast at 15% development. Usually with the same profile I get to 1C in about 7-7:45 depending on the bean so it's definitely a slower roast.

Last night I roasted in my 3 seasons room. Normally it is 60 out there in the winter but with this weather I don't think it was above 50 in the room. The beans were probably about 55 degrees too when I charged the roaster. The Bullet was a champ though - I could tell right away I was below where I wanted to be so I kicked up the heat and it immediately responded - actually hit 1C a little quick on my first roast. Two roasts was enough though so I'll be waiting until next week when it warms up a tad.

I cant roast the ethiopian that fast without some tipping thats impressive. How are you liking using it so far?

And while Im on scorching, its density, thats what I was getting at. Haha, started just figuring all beans yadi dadi, roast roast. Thats not the case they are all so different. Dont want to go to deep down this hole as a hack, but the dry process coffe I now see why is tricky to get really right. Man this roasting thing is driving me nuts. Who knew heating some seeds could be such a trip.

 

[MaxStout]

Ethiopian yirgacheffe dry processed. There are some costa ricans and others but depending on price why not just get the ethiopian is my thinking. The tasting notes will say berry. My favorite I have had so far is konga, with strong blueberry notes. Haha, thanks to jammin and some sage steak advice , I dont care paying more for the ethiopian. I have never tasted berry in a Kenyan but hope to some day. I get deals from bl of some coffee just to remind me how good the ethiopian is. Spend most of that week just longing for ethiopian. Did I mention I like ethiopian, jeez.

A massive popcorn roaster is my dream roaster. But I would live with a mill city drum

Hey @applescrap, what roast level are you doing those Ethiopian beans to optimize that berry flavor?

 

[Br3w4u]

Hey @applescrap, what roast level are you doing those Ethiopian beans to optimize that berry flavor?

Yeah what he said, also where do you buy them? Sweet Maria’s is out of stock.

 

[Br3w4u]

Has anyone tried a gesha variety?

 

[ba-brewer]

When you see dry process Ethiopian beans at sweet maria's you need to buy them on the spot as they might not be there long.

Gesha coffee can interesting, but personally not worth the extra money.

 

[applescrap]

Burmans

Harbortown turned me on to Burmans. They are constantly posting top berry lots. They also do a deal where they usually offer 3 nice pounds (ethiopia, Kenya, and high end guat) depending on what they have. Note I am only looking for top coffee other than (kona, gesha and bm, etc). I also mostly look for only yirgacheffe dry proccess coffee, which based on something I read last night from coffee review, they are apparently excelling at right now. It comes as no surprise to me. The two brothers are clear on what is top notch and what isnt. Haha, especially in price. Gratefully I am not looking now, because.....

Bodhileaf

Htb turned me on to them too. I got bodhileafs christmas deal the last two years. They offer 30 percent off on any region coffee, I go straight to their best ethiopian. That hipster is legit and his shops are clean and classy. Stupid fast cheap shipping for me. Every week on tuesday they send an email with 30 percent off a coffee or region. They quit for a while but now are back. On saturday they offer 30 off roasted, which my buddy buys. This weeks 30 off is nicaragua las delicias (sp) at 5.39 or 26 for 5 pounds. With 30 off comes to about 25 for 5 pounds to my door. The ethiopian was 4.39 on christmas.

I wont buy bl top grade coffee as a rule. This ethiopian is no exception. This yc is dynamite. Strawberry, chocolate sconey, exquisite but haha it gets better. For 7.50 or 8 a pound maybe even nine, I will gladly pay the difference for a burman top lot. And not only Burmans. Roastmasters, royal crown jewel, wherever I can find it. I will in the down time come back to the bl yc if I cant find anything, likely as long as they have it. A year, sure. Maybe that Burman 3 pound.

roastmasters

jammin turned me on to them. Dont know much other than their konga when available was my favorite with the famed blueberry.

royal coffee

jammin turned us on to these guys. Through analysis of the coffees they sale. Comes in big lots that get split quickly round here!

 

[applescrap]

Last night I was reading that higher altitude coffee is physically better. Also as the bean drys naturally in the sun the cherry bakes its sweetness and goods into the bean. Apparently the cooler climate without frost at say 2000 meters makes the coffee ripen slowly. This means all the sugars and flavor forming compounds have more time to develop and ripen in the bean. This is seen inside the bean, because the inside has a honeycomb like pattern. This dense honeycomb pattern in yirgacheffe coffee for example has more sugar and flavor pockets than a bean that is half filled and more empty inside. Painting with a broad brush of course. I read that coffee aficionados look for high altitiude coffee because the flavor and aromatics possible due to how they grow. Is gesha yirgacheffe that was planted in panama?

The roasting point is that dense coffe absorbs heat more quickly. But that creates a few problems. And I am going off the Morraco video here. The dense bean as it absorbs more heat the outside has the potential to heat much quicker than the dense inside. Also, an evaporative cooling effect from the middle of the bean, the middle is somewhat protected at first as well. As its water evaporates it creates a cooling effect in the middle. So it can be easy to move the outside of the bean through color changes without the middle being ready for the browning and maillard reactions.

Its strange that I have seen charts allude to giving dense beans more heat. When in actual fact less dense beans (air vs metal) conduct heat not as well and it needs more heat potentially. I have attached a like to royal coffee article and at the bottom is solid roasting advice for dense beans. Between that and Joe Morroco of the roaster guild plus my own experience I can say that dense beans need dried at a slightly lower temperature to ensure the inside is more even with the outside in development. From there read the royal article as the dance becomes tricky. Heat is then carefully ramped up and maybe or maybe not at 1c. Its important to remeber the whole process is development. 1c. is a reaction, not a magic moment. It is part of the process from beginning to end. Cheers to roasting!

https://royalcoffee.com/green-coffee-analytics-part-iv-density/

 

[pshankstar]

I tried the Legacy Farm Beans this morning with my drip coffee maker (Bonavita Connoisseur). I get a faint bakers chocolate, a slightly smoky character too and some earthiness. It was a big change from the Ethiopian beans I've been using the past week, but not in a bad way at all. I wouldn't say it is one of my favorite beans, but I think it is a good bean for a great price and I would buy them again.

I roasted the beans on Tuesday the 29th before bed and they have been resting since then, so a good 60 hours or so. I do want to try these beans with my French Press (I love my Rite Press) and maybe the pour-over (Hario V60). I'm very curious to see how it tastes brewing it with these two methods. I'll continue to report back.

On another note, I swung by the local coffee shop while waiting for my wife's vehicle to get inspected. The roaster/owner was out due to a family emergency so I couldn't speak with her. I'll swing in another time and try to catch her after the dust settles and report back too.

 

[shelly_belly]

My Legacy Farms beans shifted gears today and had much more flavor than the previous days (4 days post roast). I've been mixing it 1 to 1 with some Ethiopian Kochere Hama for some excellent espresso, cappuccino and aeropress pours. I roasted it for 7.5 mins which is about 30 seconds shy of second crack on the popcorn popper. At second crack I start to get tipping and those little circle explosions. It's a great bean for the price and I'll order some more.

 

[TallDan]

Ugh. That reminds me, i meant to weigh the Legacy Farms Lempira after i roasted the last batch, but completely forgot. Anyone weigh theirs before and after? Was hoping to confirm high moisture content. I did an 8oz batch in the behmor and kept full manual heat the whole time, and still had a pretty quiet and slightly late 1c. Initial taste of this batch is better than my initial impressions of the first batch though.

 

[MaxStout]

Ugh. That reminds me, i meant to weigh the Legacy Farms Lempira after i roasted the last batch, but completely forgot. Anyone weigh theirs before and after? Was hoping to confirm high moisture content. I did an 8oz batch in the behmor and kept full manual heat the whole time, and still had a pretty quiet and slightly late 1c. Initial taste of this batch is better than my initial impressions of the first batch though.

First batch it went from 16 oz green to 13.05 oz. roasted (Vienna). Second time 16 oz green -> 13.1 oz roasted, at about the same roast level.

Edit: Should mention both were roasted with heatgun and bowl, about 9 minutes or so.

 

[pshankstar]

Ugh. That reminds me, i meant to weigh the Legacy Farms Lempira after i roasted the last batch, but completely forgot. Anyone weigh theirs before and after? Was hoping to confirm high moisture content. I did an 8oz batch in the behmor and kept full manual heat the whole time, and still had a pretty quiet and slightly late 1c. Initial taste of this batch is better than my initial impressions of the first batch though.

The batch I did started at 340g (12oz) and finished at 279g (9.84oz). 17.49% loss for me.
I hope this helps.

 

[shelly_belly]

Mine was 3.0oz green 2.45oz roasted so we're all in the 18%-18.5% range. Most of my previous roasts check in around 15%-15.5%. First crack was about 1 minute later than usual and I dropped it about 1 min later than usual. This was outside at 40F.

 

[TallDan]

Wow. Got better data here than I would have had on my own! Seems to confirm the high moisture of that coffee.

 

[Inkleg]

16.5% moisture loss for me. I jumped in and got a bag of the Legacy too when y'all were talking about it.
Sorry I seem to work more than post.

 

[applescrap]

There are some new awesome videos from Mill city! Joe Morraco works for them now. In s2 e 2 he is with mill city's head roaster and they go over some good roasting info. All of thes video are pretty awesome imo. Sry, I will get to berry roast later today.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I cant roast the ethiopian that fast without some tipping thats impressive. How are you liking using it so far?

The Bullet is really fantastic. I feel a little bit of guilt because it's certainly more roaster than I "need" (I hate that word), but it's really really nice. It's been a long time since I bought anything that was new and good to go straight out of the box (usually I buy things used/depreciated and fix them up a bit). I think that's where my guilt is from.

I have learned a ton about roasting on it now that it's roasting more like a commercial roaster. However, I have a ton more to learn. The infrared heating system is incredibly responsive - I would guess just as responsive as a gas powered roaster. Basically if you tell it you want high heat, you get it immediately; it's not like an electric stovetop where you crank it then wait. With the infrared, the beans start responding right away.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Just saw this posted by an internet friend I don't know.
"So Joe Behm just announced that Behmor will be releasing a 1kg roaster in Q4 2019! More details will be revealed in April but the base unit will be designed to work in both 120/240v."

I don't think there's any more info or formal release at this time but that's a big deal. I'm reaaaally interested to see the design. It would not simply be a double sized Behmor.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Just ordered 35 lbs of coffee from SM's. Was going to order 40 but apparently the $14.99 UPS Shipping Special is only good under 40 lbs.

I'm real excited about the Peru and Kenyan - it's been a while since I have had a good Kenyan.

Peru: https://www.sweetmarias.com/peru-fto-cajamarca-nuevo-trujillo.html

Kenya: https://www.sweetmarias.com/kenya-kiambu-japem-aa.html

Ethiopia: https://www.sweetmarias.com/ethiopia-agaro-kedamai-cooperative.html

Colombia: https://www.sweetmarias.com/colombia-buesaco-alianza-de-granjeros-2018.html

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

On my last coffee email I sent out I sold out of the Legacy Farms Honduras (and someone really wanted it after I sold out). Tried to buy more but it's not available on the site. Reached out to the farm and they said it's available as far as they can see, and other people are ordering it.

If anyone gets a chance, can you see if it's working for you? I have tried a few different browsers and computers and no luck. I need it nowwwwww!

 

[pshankstar]

On my last coffee email I sent out I sold out of the Legacy Farms Honduras (and someone really wanted it after I sold out). Tried to buy more but it's not available on the site. Reached out to the farm and they said it's available as far as they can see, and other people are ordering it.

If anyone gets a chance, can you see if it's working for you? I have tried a few different browsers and computers and no luck. I need it nowwwwww!

It shows that I can add 5lbs to my cart. Maybe try clearing your browser history, cookies and/or cache. Just a thought, I don't know if that will help but it won't hurt. Or try a different browser. Below is the link I was able to use to add 5lbs.

https://legacyfarmscoffee.com/store?olsPage=products/green-coffee-beans

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Man, I tried all that and still no luck. Guess it's not in the cards for me right now. Thanks for checking @pshankstar !

 

[Kealia]

It works for me from my phone. Can you describe the coffee? My wife like nutty, chocolate types that are low acid. Would this fit the bill?

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

It works for me from my phone. Can you describe the coffee? My wife like nutty, chocolate types that are low acid. Would this fit the bill?

To me it's heavy chocolate and caramel - reminds me of a Rolo candy. I've enjoyed it quite a bit, especially for the price!

 

[pshankstar]

Yesterday I stopped into the local coffee shop and roaster less than 10 minutes away. I met with the owner/roaster and she was awesome to talk to! She was excited to meet someone who enjoys coffee like she does. She told me too that I am always welcome to buy green beans from her with whatever she has in stock. She gave me some info on the beans from her roasting notes and what not and we talked for almost an hour. I left with 14 lbs of beans and I feel like her prices were very reasonable too. No tax and shipping fees are a nice bonus too. Here is what I picked up with the info from her shop.

Brazilian - NOSSA Senhora De Fatima
Well rounded cup, hint of brown sugar, caramel and subtle cherry.
$7.06/lbs - I picked up 5lbs

Sumatran - Aceh Ketara Sukarmi TP
Notes of dark chocolate and molasses with a smooth, syrup body.
$7.74/lbs - I picked up 2lbs

Ethiopian - Natural Sidamo
Notes of strawberry and orange with a cocoa finish.
$5.98/lbs - I picked up 5lbs.

Mexican - Chapas
Notes of dark chocolate, mild lemon, and walnut.
$5.90/lbs - I picked up 2lbs.

I have yet to roast any Sumatra and Mexican beans before, so I figured I would give it a shot. I would have bought more but I still have the Legacy Farms and the Ethiopian beans from @jammin to work through. The biggest seller for her is the Bali Blue Moon beans (Sultry notes of dark chocolate and molasses, with black pepper finish), but I held off on buying some of those but maybe next time. I did try a cup of it and it was pretty good.

I look forward to roasting some of these beans later this week and weekend! I will continue to buy beans from this place in the future. I do want to ask her which wholesaler she buys from to get more info on the beans if it is possible. It's more for me to better understand the bean, elevation, cupping info, etc...

I wanted to share this with everyone. Cheers!

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

@Kealia You got me thinking to try it from a different phone (since I've tried numerous browsers and my usual phone). For some reason it worked from my work phone so problem solved!

@pshankstar that is really cool! Thanks for sharing. Those are some pretty decent prices on the beans as well. I've noticed that if you Google around the farm names you'll start to see correlation from a few different vendors. One of the local cafes I go to gets his beans from Theta Ridge, and another I found gets theirs from Coffee Shrub.

 

[NeilMac]

Did a couple roasts, second time for these, nice body, just want to see how the flavour is second time around adn how it differs from roasts.

 

[Kealia]

To me it's heavy chocolate and caramel - reminds me of a Rolo candy. I've enjoyed it quite a bit, especially for the price!

Cool, I'm willing to give it a shot for that price so I picked some up.
Glad my comment triggered your thinking and you were able to get some.

 

[MaxStout]

It works for me from my phone. Can you describe the coffee? My wife like nutty, chocolate types that are low acid. Would this fit the bill?

The LF Honduran I've roasted is very low acid and has a soft warmth to it. Nice coffee.