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

[jammin]

@TallDan - I was really close to buying a 5lb bag of that. How has the PB been roasting for you? Ive had trouble in the past getting it to behave - early 1C, etc.

 

[TallDan]

@TallDan - I was really close to buying a 5lb bag of that. How has the PB been roasting for you? Ive had trouble in the past getting it to behave - early 1C, etc.

I've just done one batch so far, and it wasn't too bad.

 

[corkybstewart]

We're at our daughter's house, this is how she and her boyfriend make coffee. It's taken longer than it should have for me to learn how to use it but I've got it down now.

 

[ba-brewer]

This one looks interesting.
Ethiopia Dry Process Bombe Basha

edit: Seen this one in a recent email from sweet maria's but looking at the specs it says it was an august 2021 arrival so it might be old news.

 

[TrickyDick]

ordered 5lb Bombe DP at SMs just now.
anyone else?

 

[TrickyDick]

We're at our daughter's house, this is how she and her boyfriend make coffee. It's taken longer than it should have for me to learn how to use it but I've got it down now. View attachment 765910

How you like that machine? I like their products, but haven't taken the espresso plunge yet - maybe I never will.

 

[corkybstewart]

How you like that machine? I like their products, but haven't taken the espresso plunge yet - maybe I never will.

I have nothing modern to compare it to but it makes good coffee-I drink mine black and have no need for all the bells and whistles. We have a 30 year old espresso machine that was very inconsistent so it stays in the cabinet. We normally use a pour over funnel for our coffee at home.

 

[MaxStout]

I take the same approach, preferring plain-old black coffee. Never been much of a coffee drink guy. I usually make it in a 1L press. If I'm in a hurry I have some reusable inserts for our Keurig--load up with freshly-ground and pop it in the machine. We have a Clever Dripper, but haven't used it in a while, so it sits in a kitchen cupboard.

 

[TrickyDick]

I agree @corkybstewart , no need for bells and whistles. I use auto drip Behmor. I have begun fiddling with brew temps, 195 for African and 205 for Americas. I don't usually drink other varieties. Can't say its a huge difference but seem to pick out a little more fruit character in the dry process africans by dropping temp a tad. I rarely do pour over because of time. Weekends only.

 

[corkybstewart]

I agree @corkybstewart , no need for bells and whistles. I use auto drip Behmor. I have begun fiddling with brew temps, 195 for African and 205 for Americas. I don't usually drink other varieties. Can't say its a huge difference but seem to pick out a little more fruit character in the dry process africans by dropping temp a tad. I rarely do pour over because of time. Weekends only.

I roast/brew Central Americans, mostly Guatemalan and costa Rican, and an occasional Sumatran. We do pour overs because we each just drink one big cup of coffee in the morning, and no more. My wife adds contaminants like cream and sugar so hers is much stronger than mine. And the earthworms in my compost piles love the grounds and filters.

 

[corkybstewart]

I take the same approach, preferring plain-old black coffee. Never been much of a coffee drink guy. I usually make it in a 1L press. If I'm in a hurry I have some reusable inserts for our Keurig--load up with freshly-ground and pop it in the machine. We have a Clever Dripper, but haven't used it in a while, so it sits in a kitchen cupboard.

I tried several reusable Kuerig devices and never got a cup of coffee I thought was remotely good. I sold my Kuerig machine 4 years ago so maybe the reusables are better now.

 

[MaxStout]

I tried several reusable Kuerig devices and never got a cup of coffee I thought was remotely good. I sold my Kuerig machine 4 years ago so maybe the reusables are better now.

To me it's good but not great. You were probably spot-on, as there aren't many variables you can work with on a Keurig. I just use it for my morning joe. Pressed or pour-over coffee is much better, especially with a fresh grind of good home-roasted.

The trouble with the Keurig reusables is that it barely holds enough coffee to yield anything more than an 8oz cup. I can fit maybe 15g coffee into one, which, at the 1g/16ml ratio I like means no big cups. If I want to fill up a big yeti mug for the road I need to run it twice.

Edit: These are the reusables I have. But they're probably not much different than the ones you used.

 

[pshankstar]

I know I tossed this idea out few weeks (maybe months ago) about some people trying to buy the same bean and report back tasting notes. Maybe even roasting notes too.
Do any of these tickle anyones fancy? It’s todays email from Sweet Maria’s.

 

[ba-brewer]

This showed up in an email today, looks interesting so picked some.

Ethiopia Dry Process Hambela Buliye

 

[pshankstar]

This showed up in an email today, looks interesting so picked some.

Ethiopia Dry Process Hambela Buliye

I saw the email too. It does sound good.

 

[ba-brewer]

I saw the email too. It does sound good.

I am over my limit already, but last year I almost ran out of dry processed Ethiopian so I bought some anyways. How fast things disappear from sweet maria's you need to buy when you see it or might be too late.

I did buy some of the Mexican and the dry processed Honduran coffee you posted a little while back. I have not roasted any of it yet, I will do those on my next roast in about a week.

I would be open to trying to purchase the same coffee and share roast notes. I think the hardest part would be getting things coordinated unless we did something like the royal jewels type things. I missed out the royal jewel coffee before mostly because I prefer to buy only a few pounds of particular coffee vs 5 or 10lbs. I roast mostly Central American coffee and Ethiopian, might be easier to do a Central American coffee if people were to the buy coffee direct vs how the crown jewel was done in the past.

 

[MaxStout]

I'm with you on the Central America and Ethiopia coffees. Those seem to work the best for me. Just finished a 10 lb. lot of Ethiopia a few weeks ago, it was one of my favorites.

Always had good luck with Guatemalan, too.

Just started into some El Salvador, first time. These beans go through development phase real fast--didn't expect that. I usually go about 20% development time, but with these it ended up well into med roast at 20%, farther than I wanted to go. A bit too roasty. Will back off to maybe 16-18% next batch.

 

[TrickyDick]

Roasted the first pound of the Ethiopian Bombe and seems to be the biggest blueberry Bombe ive had in years.

 

[pshankstar]

Roasted the first pound of the Ethiopian Bombe and seems to be the biggest blueberry Bombe ive had in years.

Nice!! It appears to be sold out otherwise I would have ordered some.

Speaking of fruit bomb beans. The Klatch Ethiopian Wush beans I roasted the last batch super light and the basil character on the description is strong with this super light roasted bean. I’ll be sure to roast it a little darker again to get the blueberry characters and no basil.

 

[TrickyDick]

by the end of the year, I’ll be through using my past crop overbought surplus of beans. Roasted Java beans on Sunday along with bookisa and Bombe and silcho bedame special process. Never had that last one turn out as great as I was hoping it would. Fun to try though,

 

[MaxStout]

Roasted some more of the El Salvador Apaneca. Last time I let it go too far, as these beans somehow absorb heat much faster than previous varieties I've roasted. This time, I moved the gun a little farther, and once it reached browning stage, farther yet. Another difference is that by the time I hear first crack, these beans are a little darker than I expected. Roasted to about 18% development time, got what (I think) is a light roast. Total time roasting was about 8 minutes. Will grind and try some later.

If these still taste too roasty, I might just go 1C + 1:00 next time.

 

[pshankstar]

I wonder if these beans from Royal Coffee are worth trying? At $9 per pound before taxes and shipping I might give it a go but the 11 pound box is a lot of beans for me. I usually get 5 pounds at most. The other thing is the beans appear to be a year old according to their information. I wonder how they store these beans that have been around for a while?
What are peoples thoughts on this deal?

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Man have I been awol from this site. Anywayyyssss...

Today I pulled my first shot of espresso in probably over a year - went with India Mysore Nuggets and it produced a delicious shot. Even though the Gaggia has been sitting idle this whole time, it didn't miss a beat.

Gotta make a habit to be more regular on this site again. The lack of app has been the killer for me, along with busier work and less slacking. Life's tough!

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Ordered from Mill47 a few months ago. They ship their beans in these little boxes, really horrible method, lots of beans escape or are too tough to get out of the box. They also don't store well, at least not in my system since all other people I buy from use bags.

Oh well, coffee was fine but the boxes were bad enough I won't order from them again. Here's a picture of the bottom of a box I was finishung today.

 

[pshankstar]

Ordered from Mill47 a few months ago. They ship their beans in these little boxes, really horrible method, lots of beans escape or are too tough to get out of the box. They also don't store well, at least not in my system since all other people I buy from use bags.

Oh well, coffee was fine but the boxes were bad enough I won't order from them again. Here's a picture of the bottom of a box I was finishung today.

View attachment 773424

Welcome back stranger.
Yeah I wasn’t crazy about the boxes either. Moved two pounds to a ziplock bag and the other three pounds into food saver bags until I burned through the two pounds in the ziplock bags.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Someone bought us some coffee as a gift, it was a nice thought. It's from a roaster I hadn't heard of but I guess is known.

Did not expect much, but was really disappointed by the quality of the beans - I had a few beans fall out of the bag and only one was a whole bean. Same thing happened the next day, and the next.

Here's today's sampling... These are 5 random beans that came out of the bag. No joke.

 

[TallDan]

What’s the origin of the coffee? I’d be more surprised if a reputable roaster sold coffee like that from Colombia than Yemen.

 

[mashpaddled]

I wonder if these beans from Royal Coffee are worth trying? At $9 per pound before taxes and shipping I might give it a go but the 11 pound box is a lot of beans for me. I usually get 5 pounds at most. The other thing is the beans appear to be a year old according to their information. I wonder how they store these beans that have been around for a while?
What are peoples thoughts on this deal?

I believe these are all warehouse stored but they store in grainpro bags so humidity isn't a real issue. Coffee holds up fine for over a year as long as it stays dry.

I buy their 20lb crown jewel boxes and usually have one open all the time. They are great value for the quality. Aside from some of the places selling very rare lots, these are some of the best coffees available in smaller quantities. I've had good success buying boxes priced at $5-6/lb. from them. They are great coffees that would sell for a few bucks more per pound elsewhere. Twenty pounds is a lot of one coffee but I own a Bullet and roast 800g batches. Usually two roasts at a time to make heating the roaster more energy and cost efficient. They sell those in smaller quantities but at the premium they charge you're at basically the same price as Sweet Maria which has a lot of comparable offerings.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

What’s the origin of the coffee? I’d be more surprised if a reputable roaster sold coffee like that from Colombia than Yemen.

Oh, it's a blend. It's crap coffee roasted dark and labeled different blends but it all tastes similar - like roasty coffee.

One of their descriptions, "for this blend we sourced one of the most unique beans we've roasted to date: a naturally grown, honey processed, Castillo varietal". Read: Colombian. Hardly anything unique, at least for any of us.

I guess they've got a market, good for them.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I know I've posted about roaster exhaust before but I'm going to mention it again. I changed the filter to my inline fan the other day, and this is how dirty it is after 3 lbs. Just 3 lbs!!!

Do what you need to do when you're roasting, but do take care of your lungs too.

That said, I've got to step outside for a cigar