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

[ba-brewer]

I have not done the sweet marias subscription thing, but used to buy the samplers. They seemed to do a good job of giving a mix of current beans. There would be some Ethiopian or other African coffee in the mix along with a pretty good variation of the other growing areas.

They had something called Odds and Ends or something like that and that seemed to have some none current bean, but the coffee was good.

 

[applescrap]

Been way to long, cheers and working back to pku. Ugh the lack of app just lambasted my hbt world. Haha talldan the family looks beautiful as ever. I see another lovely child. Your passion for the hobby is awesome.

No subscription here, you know what I like to drink. Btw one of the bl deals was splendid. And I am going to have to look back and see which one it was but wow. Yet another deal situation was meh. The konga from burmans they said was meh, is and was. Haha I got some Kenyan. Faith estate top lot from burmans, lol it is cheek puckering. Why oh why do I keep trying. I am going to have to try a darker roast with it.

 

[TrickyDick]

Got my Christmas Blend tweaked and really happy with how it's tasting this year. This is usually the only blend I do each year, everything else is single origin, so it's kind of a fun surprise and something I look forward to. My friends who buy from me also look forward to it and have really been enjoying this one too which is fun to hear. Roasting up a bunch during December was always a lot of work on the Behmor, the Bullet makes the busy month a lot easier.

This past weekend I tried the cocktail Churchill's Breakfast for the first time, brewing up some Japanese-style cold brew that I mixed into it. If any of you are into bourbon, you would most definitely looooove this cocktail. I don't know why it took me so long to find it but I'm going to make up for lost time, that's for sure.

Churchhill Breakfast? Do share the recipe or is it just cold brew coffee and booze?
So what was the final blend on your Christmas Coffee? I roasted some stuff up for gifts to friends, but I really pooched the roast on a couple so I gotta re-do.
What kinda charge temp do folks use for 2lb roasts? (W/New IBST upgrade because they're different)???
Maybe I should stick to 1 lb, but I have a lot of coffee drinking friends - more so than beer drinking friends actually.

Merry Christmas y'all!
TD

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Here is the recipe I was going with for Churchill Breakfast. How To Make Churchill's Breakfast — Cocktail Chemistry
Not a quick one but it's tasty.

My Christmas Blend was 50/50 Colombia Pavon and Ethiopia Hambela Goro. I wanted to use Burundi instead of Ethiopian but SM sold out of the one I had eyed before I pulled the trigger. They then sold out of the beans I bought right after I bought them so they seem to be moving some product (or purchasing smaller lots).

I can't comment on the preheat situation because I haven't upgraded to IBITS yet. I am still roasting on the v1 software but I think they aren't supporting it anymore because I've noticed some changes in my roasting. Nothing that's affected me but I'm probably going to need to actually update my software and finally get IBITS. I'm what you'd call a very very late adopter

 

[Ruint]

Hey TD, it is roasters' choice for what temp to charge to. It is typical for most though, that they'll raise the preheat. If you look in the maintenance/user manual, I believe they have a reference or recommendations for preheat temp and batch size. I will look some more, I know I have seen it, not remembering precisely where though....

 

[applescrap]

I'm going to have to go back and review Joe Morocco videos on preheat. I dont charge because I roast one batch and really never have. But when I do two pounds or more back to back like at Christmas time for gifts the roaster obviously becomes charged. Initial thoughts is that first it must be considered and treated like any other condition that is present. I find myself not adjusting and having a roast with too much progression.

Precaution I think is in order to ensure the roast times are where you want them, and my charge batches are often much quicker. Since I never did install the probes my guide is experiential. The color, smell, swelling, time of roast, loudness of crack etc... all help guide me. Haha, you are all there too I am sure, I can smell a batch tipping from a block away.

Wish I could say which is better, charge vs no charge, labeling on these multiple batch day is non existant and the coffee makes it superfluous in some respects. Darker is like chocolate and lighter is fruit scone. Both are killer, but and also what if my charge batches haven't been roasted well enough. Ultimately I come back to no charge and my charge roasts are often tipped and or progressed in a negative way.

I like to roast on cold winter mornings. No proof but I think the cold buffers the heat at least in the beginning for a better light roast with less tipping. If you are making tons all the time, then repeatability is the goal. Joe said in production is either right or wrong, not good or bad.

The answer for the two pound batch is depends. Outside temp variables I think could play a role, coffe origin wetness freshness etc...plenty of factors. Just my opinion, rushing this part of the roast too muc has no value to good coffee. Essentially progressing the outer much faster than the inner. S... I am about to go into turning point for 5 minutes. Haha, better wrap this up. It's the drying you are looking for related to this charge. Once a bean is to dry it's hard to sear it right, and if it's not dry enough the nice sear will be thwarted by the green inside. A charged roaster in general I think takes more talent and skill as it's another variable must consider.

 

[applescrap]

Merry Christmas! Worked on that last night. Hope all and everyone is well. I recently blended roasts of same coffee. It was like drinking every variable of that coffee at once. I need to try blending. I have some Kenyan and Ethiopian roasted I could start there. Lol lol the Kenyan smells exquisite like a perfect kenyan, that's why I havent touched it.

I got a mr coffee moka type pot I think that's what it is. Base and top, funnel in base, top screws on and water percolates up and into top. Stovetop espresso or whatever. Any tips thoughts? Best wishes coffee friends, miss you and

No I am not going to take a moment to complain about the app. I have complained about the app enough and we all know how sad I am that there is no app. So no. I will not complain about the app anymore and am sorry I have.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I'm bummed the app is gone, I have the hbt shortcut on my phone and all that but I still miss the notifications so I'm right there with you Apple. I feel like the participation has plummeted since the app went away.

 

[TallDan]

I got a mr coffee moka type pot I think that's what it is. Base and top, funnel in base, top screws on and water percolates up and into top. Stovetop espresso or whatever. Any tips thoughts?

Only real tip I have is to boil the water in a kettle first, then put it in the moka pot. That keeps the pot and coffee from getting too hot before the water is pushed through. It's been a long time since I've used the one I have.

 

[TrickyDick]

I think my Christmas Blend will be the nicely roasted Nicaragua Pacamara peaberry (past crop) blended with some Ethioipian Genji Challa Dry Process. probably close to 3:1 maybe 4:1 on that. Most of my coffee drinking friends are probably starbucks fans still and the Nicaragua is roasted through 1C and then a bit longer. Nice chocolate profile I think they will like without being charred.
The churchill breakfast sounds like a lot of work, I may have to try one! I wonder how it would taste with aged rum and the sugar cane syrup substituted for the Rye and Maple.
Darn Water cooling PC pump died (again)..... Never again will I go water cooled.... been using same case/system since I ordered it. I think planning version 4 of the guts, if I could find any parts. Everything is sold out. Ammo, Toilet paper, PC parts and gaming consoles
TD

 

[Ruint]

@TrickyDick, sorry to hear you are having problems with your pc's water cooling pump...have you tried....https://www.frozencpu.com ? They might have what you need.

 

[pshankstar]

I decided to change it up a little bit. Normally I buy five pound bags of beans but this time I decided to buy more varieties in two pound bags. Plus some reusable tin containers with valves instead of bags that wear out over time.

 

[Ruint]

Those look to be some very good tasting coffees P!!! Nice selection. I have several hard containers too, but I find myself using the bags more often just out of convenience. That and mostly because I have more selection than containers!

 

[TrickyDick]

@TrickyDick, sorry to hear you are having problems with your pc's water cooling pump...have you tried....https://www.frozencpu.com ? They might have what you need.

Thank you. I did order a replacement pump (!!!! $100 plus S&H and tax) for a PC that I'm trying to replace but can't because I can't get parts because they are all sold out!! Very frustrating. Well it turns out that the PC throttles the CPU to prevent overheating to an extent. I put a Fan blowing on it too for the time being, and seems to help a lot! remains to be seen if I get the new pump before I get the new PC parts. Probably the pump will come first. this is the third pump.... No more water cooling for me...

 

[pshankstar]

I hate asking this b/c I am not a fan of this and I am sure many here are with me but I have to ask. My wife loves the coffee I roast and it has ruined her like it has with me when we are out and want to get a coffee. Our neighbor's wife is pregnant and she gave me some flavored decaf coffee for my wife to enjoy b/c she occasionally likes to have coffee in the evening but the caffeine affects her so she would like to have some decaf coffee in the house. After trying this flavored decaf coffee this past weekend she mentioned she misses having flavored coffee in the house (i.e. this "Jamaican Me Crazy" flavored decaf coffee) to enjoy periodically.

With that being said I tried researching this the last few nights trying to figure out how these roasters flavor their beans. 95% of the searching came back to buying flavored coffee. From what little information I could find, it sounds like they have flavor extracts/oils they mix in with the beans after roasting. I couldn't find where I could buy these products to make some flavored decaf coffee at home. I figured I could find a cheap decaf bean to make from time to time for her and flavor it, but I am striking out.

So with my confession of what is going on, does anyone have any info they can share with me? Again, I am a bit embarrassed asking this here and don't particularly like these flavored coffees but a happy wife makes a happy life, right? Thanks in advance!

 

[NGD]

No expert on this, but a few links I found. Seems pretty straight forward. Hope these help. If your using google, try switching search engines.
https://coffeeflavoroils.com/How_to_Flavor_Coffee_Beans.htm
https://theroasterie.com/how-is-flavored-coffee-made/
http://homecoffeeroastingbasics.com/how-to-flavor-coffee-beans-at-home/

 

[pshankstar]

No expert on this, but a few links I found. Seems pretty straight forward. Hope these help. If your using google, try switching search engines.
https://coffeeflavoroils.com/How_to_Flavor_Coffee_Beans.htm
https://theroasterie.com/how-is-flavored-coffee-made/
http://homecoffeeroastingbasics.com/how-to-flavor-coffee-beans-at-home/

Thanks! The first link you shared I had not seen before, but the other two I have. The last one I looked at multiple times but never saw they have links to sites that sell the oils until now. Maybe because it's easier to see on my laptop vs. my small phone screen/mobile browser when I am researching at night.

Yeah the process seems pretty straight forward but finding these oils/flavoring additions have been the pain point, but I guess I need to go old school and browse the sites on a computer not a mobile device. HAHA

 

[NGD]

Hi everyone. After talking about wanting to try roasting coffee for the last 6 months I was gifted a Barwell roaster of and 10lbs of Ethiopian Limu for Christmas. I’ve only done 3 roasts so far but I can’t produce anything thats worth a damn. At this point I’m placing blame squarely on the person roasting and not on the beans or equipment.
Searching around I’ve found some suggestions as to how others roast but no “beginners” guide as to how to start off, what charge temps to aim for etc. I will say that low and slow to first crack produced a nice flavor of grass and cat pee (30 min). Could anyone recommend a good book or website to get me started in the right direction? For some reason google and duckduck keep funneling me towards green coffee extract.

 

[NGD]

@pshankstar I hear you. I usually browse on my mobile device and absolutely miss things due to the way some sites format for mobile (or lack there of). Hopefully some of that helped.
You asked a question I had myself but no way was I asking these coffee snobs (written as I take a sip of Jamaican Blue Mountain while waiting for my order from Bodhi to arrive).

 

[pshankstar]

Hi everyone. After talking about wanting to try roasting coffee for the last 6 months I was gifted a Barwell roaster of and 10lbs of Ethiopian Limu for Christmas. I’ve only done 3 roasts so far but I can’t produce anything thats worth a damn. At this point I’m placing blame squarely on the person roasting and not on the beans or equipment.
Searching around I’ve found some suggestions as to how others roast but no “beginners” guide as to how to start off, what charge temps to aim for etc. I will say that low and slow to first crack produced a nice flavor of grass and cat pee (30 min). Could anyone recommend a good book or website to get me started in the right direction? For some reason google and duckduck keep funneling me towards green coffee extract.

I am not familiar with that roaster off hand and would need to look it up, but I have to run out the door to pick up school materials for my kids. I'll try to jump back on and see what I can find or offer any suggestions I may have later today or tomorrow.
How do the roasted beans look? Are they oily for example? Can you upload some pictures? How much are you roasting at a given time? Are you hearing the first crack when roasting? Are you roasting inside or outside? The ambient room temperature I'm sure would play a factor too.

 

[ba-brewer]

Hi everyone. After talking about wanting to try roasting coffee for the last 6 months I was gifted a Barwell roaster of and 10lbs of Ethiopian Limu for Christmas. I’ve only done 3 roasts so far but I can’t produce anything thats worth a damn. At this point I’m placing blame squarely on the person roasting and not on the beans or equipment.
Searching around I’ve found some suggestions as to how others roast but no “beginners” guide as to how to start off, what charge temps to aim for etc. I will say that low and slow to first crack produced a nice flavor of grass and cat pee (30 min). Could anyone recommend a good book or website to get me started in the right direction? For some reason google and duckduck keep funneling me towards green coffee extract.

I am not familiar with that roaster but it looks similar to the stir crazy base folks use to make UFO turbo oven roasters. I had a UFO roaster for a while it produced good coffee. If you after some more roasts you are not happy with the results maybe see if you can add a turbo oven to improve the roast.

What do you not like about the coffee you roasted and how long does it take you roast coffee?
If you roast too slow you bake the beans and not roast them. I believe the rule of thumb is you need to complete the roast in under 20min to prevent baking them. Too fast can can be a problem too. I personally like most coffee to hit first at about 8 to 9min with the roast completed to just before second crack at about 12mins.

Take a look at the sweet marias website that is where I got information to start roasting.
https://library.sweetmarias.com/category/roast/roast-basics-getting-started/page/2/

 

[shelly_belly]

@pshankstar I tried an ethiopian decaf from sweet maria's and it made a really decent espresso. I would think it would make a good cup of coffee too. It's not the one In stock now but that one looks good too.

 

[TallDan]

Hi everyone. After talking about wanting to try roasting coffee for the last 6 months I was gifted a Barwell roaster of and 10lbs of Ethiopian Limu for Christmas. I’ve only done 3 roasts so far but I can’t produce anything thats worth a damn. At this point I’m placing blame squarely on the person roasting and not on the beans or equipment.
Searching around I’ve found some suggestions as to how others roast but no “beginners” guide as to how to start off, what charge temps to aim for etc. I will say that low and slow to first crack produced a nice flavor of grass and cat pee (30 min). Could anyone recommend a good book or website to get me started in the right direction? For some reason google and duckduck keep funneling me towards green coffee extract.

Echoing what @ba-brewer said, 30min is too long for roasting a small batch of coffee. Something about your process is off, either you didn't give the roaster enough power, enough pre-heat time, or tried to roast too large of a batch. I don't know much about that roaster, but based on a quick look, i'm not sure that I would trust a single word from that website. For starters, you never want to "bake" coffee, baked coffee is bad coffee, it's considered a defect.

You didn't say anything about what your process was, so it's hard to say what might be going wrong, but here's some things that I would try:

* make sure the roaster is well pre-heated before you start (this goes for any roaster, i pre-heat my mill city for 30min or more before i roast)

* use smaller batches - i'd try in the neighborhood of 225g / 8oz, if that's around what you did, go smaller, like 125g

* do NOT go low and slow. Hot and fast is what you want, for small batches, like that roaster would be best at, look for 15 min or less, maybe much less

I got started with the information from sweet maria's, so that's the only place I can suggest to start. There's quite a few books out there, I haven't read any of them myself, but Scott Rao's books, particularly the recent "best practices" come highly recommended.

 

[NGD]

Hey guys, thank you for the suggestions. Got busy today with kids/school etc. Finally had time to sit down and respond.

I am not familiar with that roaster off hand and would need to look it up, but I have to run out the door to pick up school materials for my kids. I'll try to jump back on and see what I can find or offer any suggestions I may have later today or tomorrow.
How do the roasted beans look? Are they oily for example? Can you upload some pictures? How much are you roasting at a given time? Are you hearing the first crack when roasting? Are you roasting inside or outside? The ambient room temperature I'm sure would play a factor too.

For my first roast I tried to roast 8oz. I just realized I screwed up in my notes by not taking the outside temp prior to hearing starting. I would guess it was around 45F. I started the roaster at 130C and let it warm up for 10 minutes prior to dumping the beans. The roaster has a vented lid that I kept on before and during the roast. The first batch of beans had a really wide range of colors. From cinnamon to what I would guess was full city. I didn't take many pics but I'll upload one from my cell. No oily beans but I assume given the inconsistent range of colors that 8oz was to large of a batch. I've done 4 batches now and each one has been smaller and the beans appear to be more even.

I am not familiar with that roaster but it looks similar to the stir crazy base folks use to make UFO turbo oven roasters. I had a UFO roaster for a while it produced good coffee. If you after some more roasts you are not happy with the results maybe see if you can add a turbo oven to improve the roast.

What do you not like about the coffee you roasted and how long does it take you roast coffee?
If you roast too slow you bake the beans and not roast them. I believe the rule of thumb is you need to complete the roast in under 20min to prevent baking them. Too fast can can be a problem too. I personally like most coffee to hit first at about 8 to 9min with the roast completed to just before second crack at about 12mins.

Take a look at the sweet marias website that is where I got information to start roasting.
Roast Basics - Sweet Maria's Coffee Library

While I'm not familiar with the UFO turbo ovens except from old commercials I think your correct. I've seen these roasters under a few different brands. This particular model doesn't seem to have a name. It's only 800 watts with some random model number on the back. I ran across a website using the turbo oven as an attachment with a 3" tall strip of Aluminum to help eject chaff. May go that route if I can find a turbo oven. First roast was likely baked. The chaff on some beans was glued on and first crack took several minutes to finish.

Echoing what @ba-brewer said, 30min is too long for roasting a small batch of coffee. Something about your process is off, either you didn't give the roaster enough power, enough pre-heat time, or tried to roast too large of a batch. I don't know much about that roaster, but based on a quick look, i'm not sure that I would trust a single word from that website. For starters, you never want to "bake" coffee, baked coffee is bad coffee, it's considered a defect.

You didn't say anything about what your process was, so it's hard to say what might be going wrong, but here's some things that I would try:

* make sure the roaster is well pre-heated before you start (this goes for any roaster, i pre-heat my mill city for 30min or more before i roast)

* use smaller batches - i'd try in the neighborhood of 225g / 8oz, if that's around what you did, go smaller, like 125g

* do NOT go low and slow. Hot and fast is what you want, for small batches, like that roaster would be best at, look for 15 min or less, maybe much less

I got started with the information from sweet maria's, so that's the only place I can suggest to start. There's quite a few books out there, I haven't read any of them myself, but Scott Rao's books, particularly the recent "best practices" come highly recommended.

I certainly mad the mistake of low & slow. Here is the layout of my first 2 batches

Batch 1-Outside temp Approx 45F, Size 8oz​

Temp	Time
130C	0 minutes
Increase to 140C	8 min
Increase to 160C	9 min
Increase to 180C	20 min 10 sec
Increase to 200C	25 min 44 sec
Stop	28 min 32 sec
Notes	Uneven roast. Color ranges from Cinnamon to City+

Batch 2 Outside Temp Approx 45F, Size 4oz​

Temp	Time
160C	0 minutes
Increase to 180C	4 min 30 sec
FC	9 min 22 sec
Increase to 200C	11 min 20 sec (Note: cracks more audible)
Stop	16 min 10 sec

The second batch had much better aromatics and flavor but still way to earthy and kind of nasty. The first batch tasted I juiced grass my cat pissed on. I'll probably have to dump it unless I could roast it a bit longer. I'm guessing that a huge no-no though. My plan for next batch is to start at the 200C mark and rock it til first crack, then maybe reduce temp to 160C for a bit.

On the second batch I grabbed my IR gun and found the temps on the hotplace was all over the place. In some spots the hotplace was 525F. In others it was 340F. Chaff came off noticeably easier with the second batch.

edit: here is a pic from my first roast. Going off this I’m guessing 8oz was to much. I’ve since scaled back to 4oz and the coloring is more consistent.

 

[NGD]

To add to my long winded post. Here are some reviews of the roasted version of the Ethiopian I have. Now I don't feel as bad.

 

[ba-brewer]

While I'm not familiar with the UFO turbo ovens except from old commercials I think your correct. I've seen these roasters under a few different brands. This particular model doesn't seem to have a name. It's only 800 watts with some random model number on the back. I ran across a website using the turbo oven as an attachment with a 3" tall strip of Aluminum to help eject chaff. May go that route if I can find a turbo oven. First roast was likely baked. The chaff on some beans was glued on and first crack took several minutes to finish.

View attachment 713451

The turbo oven on top of a stir crazy with a spacer is the UFO roaster I was referencing. Your times for the 4oz batch seem much better. It might be possible you dont need to add a turbo oven but it would allow you do larger batches. Maybe do a 4oz batch or a 8oz batch with the roaster set to the highest setting to see how fast it will roast.

Dry or natural processed coffee can wide variation in color of beans, but I think you are right in assessing too much coffee in your roaster. If you do some looking at the UFO roasters people modify or create new stir bars to help mix and turn the burns.

I had bought some ethiopean coffee beans that were very catty once. Was thinking maybe a lion peed on that coffee shrub. In most coffee it is nice to have terroir come through, territory not so much.

A longer roast deeper into second crack may drive off some of the cattiness. The darker the roast the less terroir will be present.

 

[TallDan]

To add to my long winded post. Here are some reviews of the roasted version of the Ethiopian I have. Now I don't feel as bad.View attachment 713455

Ha! Well, if it's just not great coffee, it's just not great coffee. If you like dark roasted coffee sometimes, maybe this is one to roast darker. You won't taste much more than roasty flavors then.

Any chance you can roast in a warmer location? the 45F ambient temps probably aren't helping much.

 

[NGD]

Howdy everyone. First off a big thanks to you guys for your suggestions. I did 2 roasts last night and created something drinkable. Its certainly not great and a far stretch from the only other Ethiopian I've had but with enough bourbon it's palatable. There was still some of the grassy and pee flavor there but not nearly as prominent I think because I took the roast darker than I have been. The mouthfeel was also different. I'm not quite sure how to describe it but perhaps more rich and smooth.

Batch #3: 4oz
Preheat at 220C (428F) for 8 minutes, add 4oz beans and let it ride for 11 minutes. Tried a sample as soon as it was cool enough via pourover.

An issue that popped up is the roaster is heating way above 428 in some parts and not stirring enough. With my IR gun I measured 518 in one spot and 400 in another spot within a few seconds. I had a few beans reach FC at 4 minutes. I've been letting leaving the lid on during the entire roast. I also occasionally shake the roaster to try and disperse the beans more but I need to find a better way to agitate the beans while roasting.

Batch #4: 2oz
Preheat to 200C (398F). FC around 12min but very spotty. Increased temp to 220C at 16 min. Ended the roast at 22 minutes around 2nd crack (would that be SC?) Tried a sample as soon as it was cool enough via pourover.

This batch was a bit odd. I had a helper, kept no notes because my helper was chatting my ear off, so of course turned out better than my previous batches. about 3 minutes in I started using a wooden spoon to stir the beans. My helped decided she would take a break from playing guitar and help stir. This lead to us leaving the lid off until the 20 minute mark. FC was not nearly as audible as it has been. 2nd crack was more noticeable.

Things I've learned so far. I need to be far more aggressive with the heat initially as Ruint suggested yesterday. I should look into a UFO mod and a warmer place to roast, then take this bean darker than I usually like or "Meow".


So now my question is, is there anything I can do to salvage some of these other sample roasts I've done or should I scrap them?

 

[ba-brewer]

Drinking coffee right after roasting is not the best coffee to me, but that is up to the person drinking it.

Ethiopian and Dry process coffee in general I give a couple days to age before starting to drink. Those coffees I roast lighter and drinking too soon sometime taste a bit sour to me.

Central America coffee seems to be ready faster and I start drinking the next day.

I would give your coffee a few days to age before dumping if you don't like.

 

[NGD]

I’ve been typically resting the coffee a few days while after vacuum sealing. This Ethiopian is washed, not sure if that makes a difference though.

Will try these latest batches again in a few days.