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

[jammin]

] I know you have a baratza vario with steel burrs and a kone, what grind setting do you use? .

I brew a 24oz Chemex every morning for my wife & I with the Able Kone. I use the Baratza Vario-W with steel burrs as well for the morning pot. I love nearly everything about that grinder, especially the grind quality & weight based dosing. The grind adjustment system though however is awful. I don't think a shared setting is helpful do to the nature of this system (challenging enough even on mazzer-style collar based systems).
I will say though that finding a setting that gets your complete draw down time just under 4 minutes (30s bloom included) produces the best cups for me.
Surely you have a goose-neck kettle (100% worth it) which is how I heat & pour my brew water. I do a 30s bloom & pour quickly and centered into the grounds. My goal is to keep the grounds concentrated & get that initial pour deep into the pile. After bloom I also try and keep the pouring circle concentrated & centered. I pour until the crust of ground nears the top of the filter and then sweep out to break it & flatten out the mass. The pour continues until no more water will fit. This gets me to about 500g of brew water and as it draws down I continue to pour until I reach my goal of 700g brew water. I try & reach this goal as expediently as possible in order to keep my brew time under 4min. The method to the madness is to allow for as fine of grind as possible w/o going over my 4min brew time goal.
TL;DR - pour your brew water expeditiously with the goal of the shortest draw down time permitted. Tighten the grind up until your overall brew time approaches the 4min mark.

 

[TallDan]

Thanks for the feedback. I didn't really want to get all technical and run computer profiles and all that. I basically just wanted a more sophisticated machine than my corn popper with higher capacity and more control. I think the Behmor fills the bill pretty well in that regard and does do a pretty decent roast. I bounce back and forth between 1/2 and 3/4 lb. batches and use the 1 pound setting. I'll probably just stick to the 1/2 lb. batches.

Maybe if I were the ultimate connoisseur seeking those elusive fruit flavors and precise control I would move up, but I'm getting a good cup of fresh coffee...and that's what I want.

You can definitely get the fruit flavors from the right coffee with the behmor. If you do consider another roaster down the line though, don't be too afraid of artisan. Ironically, with the Behmor, i had to mess with power levels throughout the roast, but with my MC, which has analog control over the power level, I generally do not touch it during the roast. I do control the airflow during the roast, but do fairly coarse/basic adjustments.

I brew a 24oz Chemex every morning for my wife & I with the Able Kone. I use the Baratza Vario-W with steel burrs as well for the morning pot. I love nearly everything about that grinder, especially the grind quality & weight based dosing. The grind adjustment system though however is awful. I don't think a shared setting is helpful do to the nature of this system (challenging enough even on mazzer-style collar based systems).
I will say though that finding a setting that gets your complete draw down time just under 4 minutes (30s bloom included) produces the best cups for me.
Surely you have a goose-neck kettle (100% worth it) which is how I heat & pour my brew water. I do a 30s bloom & pour quickly and centered into the grounds. My goal is to keep the grounds concentrated & get that initial pour deep into the pile. After bloom I also try and keep the pouring circle concentrated & centered. I pour until the crust of ground nears the top of the filter and then sweep out to break it & flatten out the mass. The pour continues until no more water will fit. This gets me to about 500g of brew water and as it draws down I continue to pour until I reach my goal of 700g brew water. I try & reach this goal as expediently as possible in order to keep my brew time under 4min. The method to the madness is to allow for as fine of grind as possible w/o going over my 4min brew time goal.
TL;DR - pour your brew water expeditiously with the goal of the shortest draw down time permitted. Tighten the grind up until your overall brew time approaches the 4min mark.

I forgot that you have the same basic setup. What brew ratio are you doing? I've been using 50g of coffee, 800g of water and end up with about 730g of brewed coffee. Based on your numbers, It sounds like you're going with a grind on the fine end of what I've tried, or maybe slightly finer. I start my time as i start adding 100g of water. I do a 60s bloom, then pour in another 300g. After that, I add 100g in 30s intervals. It typically takes me about 15s to pour 100g.

 

[Ruint]

Been putting it off for too long. Finally time for the complete tear down cleaning. I do a basic cleaning every roast session, and use a full size shop vac for lifting chaff out of nooks and crannies. Even with all that, you can see the build up. Here are some before pics

 

[Ruint]

Here are some Afters...

 

[Ruint]

A couple I missed

 

[Ruint]

I used cafiza tabs, hot water, and lots of elbow grease. I am actually looking forward to see the performance difference on the next roast!

 

[Ruint]

1 more pic....of a very seasoned drum....started as a stainless steel drum, which I ain't cleaning!!!

 

[jammin]

@Ruint - fantastic work! it's incredibly satisfying to complete a deep cleaning of your roaster. brings a great deal of pride & a sense of joy for keeping your equipment in top shape. makes a big difference in performance & longevity - great job!


@TallDan sounds like we run a similar routine with the only slight difference is that i pour the water in more aggressively. i think most info you read on the web would be more aligned with your routine. i think the vario steel/kone combo may benefit/get away with a bit finer grind? keep us posted in what you find working well. i don't know a lot of people running this kit either so i haven't heard much either.



2020 roasting tidbit:
I weighed my propane cylinder this evening in prep for a fresh fill. i wanted to record this year's roasting metrics and thought id start with a fresh tank. turns out my last fill was in April and i wrote down the numbers on the tank.
so over the course of 8 months i burned 7lbs of LPG or ~ 1.67 gallons ~ 152k BTUs.

 

[Ruint]

It's probably me, but......that damn roaster has been all over the board today!!! First roast went kinda smooth, temps were a little off thru most of it and I just wrote it off as due to the cleaning. Start of the second roast, started with a 300 degree difference between beans and drum, went into alarm mode flashing different codes, which made me jump thru several different hoops and chase nonsense down. None of the codes were correct, like bean caught in sensor, or fan not spinning. I dissembled the machine just for verifications that were not true to the codes. Put it back together, and so far....smooth sailing and it's behaving!!! Ghosts in the machine punishing me for waiting to do that thorough of a cleaning??? smh!!!

 

[TallDan]

I roasted this morning and had some ghosts too! ET sensor bounced around some on what should have been steady temperatures. Didn’t affect my roast at all but the graph wasn’t as pretty as it should have been.

 

[jammin]

Had my first roast session of the year today & had a small snag as well. The front pillow block for the drum bearing got loose. 5mm hex & a couple turns fixed it up quickly.

I started out with a zero gas heat setting when I bought this roaster years ago. The theory was to start out using stored heat in the drum & “soak” the beans for about a minute. Last year I put a lot of work into developing a higher airflow/convection roast profile that had been working out really good.
I finished the year with a throwback to the old school, direct heat profile. After drinking 2lbs of that profile it really brought everything together in terms what I like in the cup. High airflow seems to be FAR better for my taste. I get a lot less body but a huge increase in sweetness & terroir.

I’ve got more thoughts on this but for now it just feels really good to have put enough work/reps into these profiles that I can execute them with intention & get distinct results in the cup.

here's a shot of my first roast of the decade

 

[jammin]

Fun Brazilian posted @ SM's. Dry Process Yellow Bourbon. Something about that particular varietal that tends to make a good cup every time i have it. I don't need any coffee right now but a good brazilian like that is always scarce when i need it (espresso!). Hmm..


Brazil Dry Process Pedra Branca Yellow Bourbon
Robust cocoa roast flavors are matched by unrefined, molasses-like sweetness, with dried banana and berry accents, and rum candy in the aroma. City+ to Full City+ Good for espresso.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I finished the year with a throwback to the old school, direct heat profile. After drinking 2lbs of that profile it really brought everything together in terms what I like in the cup. High airflow seems to be FAR better for my taste. I get a lot less body but a huge increase in sweetness & terroir.
View attachment 661422

I'm drinking a Burundi right now that I'm sort of underwhelmed with and I think this would be a helpful approach. Do I understand right that you just hit it hard with heat and the boost the airflow? Drop the heat at 1C?

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Been doing some chemex/able kone brews this week after a bit of a hiatus from manual brewing. @HarborTownBrewing I know you have a baratza vario with steel burrs and a kone, what grind setting do you use? I've been all over the place with it this week, with the coarse adjustment from 4-7 and haven't really found a sweet spot.

I have the older Vario which doesn't actually have labelled marks (which stinks) but for the Kone I'm adjusted to just a little more than half way on the left slider and about half way on the right slider.

One tip I believe @jammin gave me a while back was, around 3:00 into the brew when it starts to slow, pick up the cone about 1/4 inch and drop it back into the Chemex. When it drops it loosens up all the fines which clog up the bottom, and re-encourages flow to finish the brew off properly and without over-extraction. Most of my brews are right on the 4:00 mark when I do this. 50 g coffee, 800 g water for a 1:16 ratio.

 

[Ruint]

Ordered some Jamaica blue mountain from Burman's this morning.....hoping it is as enjoyable as it is priced!!! It sounded good, and as I have not had a decent blue mountain in a long time, thought wtf....why not give it a try now!
I am also going to try my hand at doing another blend, as my first went over very well. Got some Indian cherry to put in it for the caffeine boost they are stating, as I want this coffee to pack a good "pick me up" punch! Looking at some of the other choices for beans to go with it, which might prove difficult, because they warn you that the Indian cherry is not suited to drink by itself!!!! Lmao!!!!!! Yah, yah, yaaah.....I want some of that in my cup!!!

 

[TallDan]

I got 5lb of a Blue Mountain a while back. Nice clean cup, good coffee, and I'm glad i tried it, but just not worth the price. I gave away some of it just because i wanted others to also be able to try it as well.

 

[pshankstar]

I have been blending these beans together for a wonderful cup of coffee. 65g of coffee to 1.3L of water in our Bonavita Drip Machine. 35g of the Ethiopian beans and 30g of the El Salvador beans. Swapped the amounts and noticed a difference for sure and love it like this.
Just thought I would share this with you all.

 

[TallDan]

This week I saw that Prima Coffee is now selling the Cafelat Robot in the US, avoiding costly shipping/import when buying from Cafelat directly.
Decent says they'll be taking orders for the v1.3 machine in a few weeks.

I'm trying to be disciplined here, but I'm issuing a warning to my wallet.

 

[pshankstar]

This week I saw that Prima Coffee is now selling the Cafelat Robot in the US, avoiding costly shipping/import when buying from Cafelat directly.
Decent says they'll be taking orders for the v1.3 machine in a few weeks.

I'm trying to be disciplined here, but I'm issuing a warning to my wallet.

What is this mythical creature you speak of? It has peaked my curiosity.

 

[TallDan]

What is this mythical creature you speak of? It has peaked my curiosity.

Which one?

The Cafelat Robot is a manual espresso machine with a fantastic reputation:
https://prima-coffee.com/equipment/cafelat/robot-barista-green-cafel-pp

The Decent DE1+ is the total opposite end of the spectrum:
https://decentespresso.com/overview

 

[jammin]

I think he was referring to “wallet discipline”

I mean, one could easily deduce that’s a bit mythical around here haha

 

[Inkleg]

I think he was referring to “wallet discipline”

I mean, one could easily deduce that’s a bit mythical around here haha

Hey! You started this and I have feelings ya know...........along with a boatload of great coffee.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

It's amazing how lazy some coffee roasters/shops are. Just found this while I was digging up info on a coffee I had purchased a while back. Sweet Maria's description on the left, and a description from "Kings Arms Coffee" on the right. It's literally word. for. word.

 

[pshankstar]

Dang that is pure laziness from them!

 

[ba-brewer]

It is my understanding Sweet Maria's seeks out their own coffee, so the coffee at Kings Arms probably came from the Coffee Shrub. Seem like SM would not mind if they just used their information.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

It is my understanding Sweet Maria's seeks out their own coffee, so the coffee at Kings Arms probably came from the Coffee Shrub. Seem like SM would not mind if they just used their information.

I'm sure it came from Coffee Shrub. I just can't imagine selling a unique product like coffee and literally copy /pasting the exact description from their site.

I'd guess the coffee has different characteristics when this company roasts it VS what SM has described... They should probably start by listing the flavors they are getting out of this bean.

I see it a lot from small roasters, and the ones I've tried have not been that great of roasts. Maybe the roster /owner just isn't a great taster or roaster and uses what they get from the importer.

 

[ba-brewer]

It is funny sometime when I am looking for information on something new and almost every site I look at has the same information, most time word for word.

 

[applescrap]

The yemen roasted like a dream. Took heat well and had a slow and not as loud of crack. The ethiopian dp cracks louder and much more rapidly. I kept wanting and trying to turn heat down at the end but it seemed like it would stall. Not quite as good as the ethiopians but still very good. Perhaps not the best roast but not a ton of fruit and chocolate. Its interesting enough. That black friday burman coffee was the stuff. I roasted it all and gave it away at Christmas. Wish I had 20 pounds of it. I will look for it, when I need more.

 

[ba-brewer]

Getting ready to roast some coffee and seen I was almost out of Mexican coffee so I went to Sweet Marias to find the coffee from above. No luck but seen a couple new dry process Ethiopian beans. Ended up buying these.

Ethiopia Organic Dry Process Sidama Keramo
Ethiopia Organic Dry Process Sidama Bombe
Guatemala Xinabajul Mejor de Peña
Costa Rica Tarrazu Don Mayo La Loma
Nicaragua Jinotega Finca El Lino

 

[Ruint]

Very disappointed with seeing that extreme laziness in advertising goods as your own product or goods....I guess I am a little guilty of plagiarizing some of the descriptions of the coffees that I have gotten from various vendors. That is most often, after I have roasted them and been able to pick out the flavors described. Some of the descriptions are just way too embellished, or more than likely, the cupping session used to pick those flavors out are not going to be present in, or even close proximity to, "normal" consumption rituals and practices. I know my pallet is not super developed to pick out all the subtleties that coffee can have, but it can most certainly discern the dominant ones. As I have been doing fresh roasted/ground coffees I will say that my taste has definitely gone thru a "learning phase" or at the very least....an "unlearning" of what coffee should/could be. Flavors in the cup are much more easily recognized and appreciated than when I first started truly enjoying good coffee. At first, you can tell the flavor is better, but you really notice the bitterness isn't/wasn't there. The coffee is so smooth as to what you did know it to be. A month in, you then only start to forget about the acridness you associated with a cup of coffee. After that, it is really, really difficult to be able to drink any other coffee. This is how it was for me at least. I know there are some people out there that truly think coffee is coffee, and blah blah blah...it's just coffee so how much of a difference could there be? I know all of us that regularly post in this thread know the difference or we wouldn't bother sharing our passion.