Home Roasted Coffee Swap

[passedpawn]

What’s your water to grounds ratio? I still need to figure out the sweet spot.

I used a pourover. The ratio was about 15:1 water:coffee. I actually measured the coffee used, and the resulting coffee that I ended up with. That was about 14:1 ratio, but with some of the water left in the grounds I think 15:1 is about right. That's a little stronger than I usually make it. 18:1 is considered ideal.

 

[TallDan]

I go 16:1 with the chemex. 50g coffee 800g water.

 

[jimyson]

Received a nice package from @TallDan today! Very excited to try his homebrew. I’ve been spoiled this week with getting some from 3 different members.

The first thing that stood out was how nice the handwriting was on everything. [emoji23]

The package contained a Hefe, BA Flanders, roasted Ethiopia Halo Bariti, green Ethiopia Halo Bariti, and green Jamaica Blue Mountain.

I should have a review posted tomorrow. We’ll see if I can pull off a review of tasting the bean with a few different brewing methods to see which stands out as best.

Thanks for the delivery!

 

[TallDan]

I can’t take all the credit for the Flanders, I only brewed 5 of the 30 gallons that went in the barrel, but I do like how it turned out!

I’ll be interested to hear what you think of my roast compared to yours with the same beans. I haven’t been all that excited about any of my roasts lately, but I might just be overly critical.

 

[jimyson]

I can’t take all the credit for the Flanders, I only brewed 5 of the 30 gallons that went in the barrel, but I do like how it turned out!

I’ll be interested to hear what you think of my roast compared to yours with the same beans. I haven’t been all that excited about any of my roasts lately, but I might just be overly critical.

I bet you are overly critical.

I decided that I needed an afternoon cup.

The aroma almost reminds me of a mix of dark chocolate covered strawberries and fresh blueberries. Nothing over the top and fairly subtle. This is likely because it’s roasted darker. There is a slight carbon smell too. Full City + to Vienna roast.

I decided to start with a 17:1 pour over using the V60 and 197F water.

The cup came out very subtle as well. Nothing stood out. Again, I got some berry and dark chocolate aroma. There was little to no acidity. It had a full body with some light carbon aftertaste. It was a good cup of coffee. Easy to drink. I bet a lighter roast on this would bring out some of those berry flavors a bit more. It will give it a slight bit of acidity which I look for with an Ethiopia.

So far, I think I’m going to roast this to a City + or maybe into Full City to get some of those chocolate notes.

I’ll be pulling some shots of this over the next few days and may even hit the Aeropress.

Good job @TallDan

 

[jimyson]

I pulled a shot this morning of @TallDan coffee. I’m still an espresso novice so I may not produce the best shot. However, it was really good. Slightly too acidic so I’ll get a finer grind for the next one. I’m also thinking that I need to decrease from 15g to 14 or maybe 13 on my machine.

The aroma had a lot of blueberries. The flavor was berries and chocolate. Maybe a little flat. No carbon flavor. I think as I adjust a few things, it will get even better.

 

[jimyson]

Decreased down to 14g and a finer grind. Acidity gone and slightly bitter. No berries and more bakers chocolate flavors. I think there is a sweet spot in the middle somewhere.

 

[TallDan]

@jimyson Thanks for some great feedback, You make my coffee look good!
If you're easily noticing blueberry, I think i might be desensitized to it or something. I really haven't been noticing it in any of my coffees lately despite the fact that many of them have blueberries in their tasting notes.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

After a couple days and four batches, I've got some notes on the coffee @pshankstar sent me. He roasted these on a Fresh Roast, which I'm not familiar with but was very excited to see how they tasted. There is something really fun (to me) about brewing coffee you didn't roast but know will be good.

1) Peru Dry Process El Palto: I brewed this in the Chemex via the Able Kone to try to keep some of the oils. First sip - chocolate city! It reminded me of a chocolate tootsie pop actually. It was interesting because I usually notice chocolate flavors once the coffee cools, but this one gave me the chocolate as it was hot. As it cooled it had some fruit flavors that came through. I noticed a little bit of a "green" flavor as it cooled and the more nuanced flavors came out, so I wonder if it didn't roast just a little too fast. It's tough to be critical of, because the roast was really quite good, but if I were to offer a little constructive criticism, it would be to try to slow down the roast just a tad so the inside of the bean develops a tad more. That would take this roast from great to exceptional.

2) Colombia La Galunga Don Jose: Brewed via Chemex/Able Kone as well. This one tasted to me like a typical Colombian, with some nice cocoa flavors. Maybe a little thin, I see he noted about 16% development - could probably be stretched to 20% to give it a tad more body. Very good coffee though, and it disappeared before I knew it ;(

3) Ethiopia Guji Gigesa: This was without a doubt my favorite of the bunch because it was soooooo smooth and fruity. Maybe the fluid bed roaster helped really bring out the fruit flavors - I'm not sure. But the soft fruits were so luscious, and the coffee had a really nice amount of body to it. Really well done - I liked this one a lot.

4) Malawi Sable Farms Peaberry: This is a bean I would never buy because I have quit on peaberries, but I have to say I might be missing out. This was really quite good. I love beans from neighboring areas, so I don't know why I never thought about Malawi, but to be fair the description is a little funky (seaweed salad is mentioned by SM's). I brewed this with the Able Kone and it brewed a bold cup with some really nice dark fruit flavors. I didn't get the seaweed flavors, which doesn't bother me, but mostly chocolate. I'm going to try this as an espresso in the next few days because I'm pretty curious how this turns out as a shot.

That's all I've got for now. I'm going to keep playing with these a little bit over the next few days so I'll update if I get any other things to say. @pshankstar you did a great job with these - really really nice work. I enjoyed each of these, and this was a nice selection with very different flavors from bean to bean. Keep up the good work sir!!!

 

[pshankstar]

Thanks @HarborTownBrewing for all of the feedback! It is nice to hear all of this from someone who is very familiar with coffee and the roasting process! One thing I have read about the Fresh Roast SR500 and other air roasters like it, is they can roast very quickly and sometimes leave a bit of "green-ness" to the beans. Really need to roast a couple of batches a couple of different ways and make them with my Hario instead of my Bonavita Connoisseur coffee maker to pull out more characters from the beans and their roasts.

It's funny you mention the Malawi Peaberry, b/c when the beans arrived I saw the seaweed salad description and thought to myself "What the heck was I thinking"? I feel like early on I did get some of that seaweed character in one of the first roasts, but never got it since. I know I made some changes to the roast but without pulling out my log book, I couldn't tell you what exactly. The Colombian beans were the biggest hit in our house and with extended family. I would say the Ethiopian was my favorite, followed very closely by the Peru beans. Some days those opinions flipped on which one I preferred over the other one.

I think moving forward I will play around with running at a lower temp to roast the beans and stretch out the roasting time. I have about a 1/4lbs of some of those beans to play with to see if I can see a difference. The Banko beans I received from @Inkleg I will probably do this method for sure, for I think the Banko beans are very fruit forward, right? Anyhow, thanks again for the information and I'm glad you are enjoying the beans!

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

On the Banko, I'm not quite sure. On my behmor I took Ethiopian beans slow, but on the Bullet I have to take them fast. I really really liked the Guji you sent me so whatever you did with that... Do it again haha.

 

[jimyson]

@Inkleg, for your Aeropress.

https://handground.com/grind/66-recipes-for-amazing-aeropress-coffee

 

[pshankstar]

On the Banko, I'm not quite sure. On my behmor I took Ethiopian beans slow, but on the Bullet I have to take them fast. I really really liked the Guji you sent me so whatever you did with that... Do it again haha.

Thanks! I’ll try that when I roast some. [emoji1417]

 

[Inkleg]

@Inkleg, for your Aeropress.

https://handground.com/grind/66-recipes-for-amazing-aeropress-coffee

Wow! A lot of good info there.
Thanks

 

[jimyson]

Success! A slight bit of acidity up front. Not much berry but you can taste it ever so slightly. No bitterness outside of the bakers chocolate finish. 13g in.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Couple of shots of Malawi from @pshankstar. Man, this is spectacular; my wife loves it too. Sort of reminds me of a 70 percent chocolate bar with a little strawberry - like sweetness.

Nicely done.

 

[pshankstar]

Seeing all of these espresso shots is really making me want to pull the trigger on an espresso machine! Especially the photos where it is with coffee beans I roasted and sent out. *DROOLING*

I'm glad the Malawi beans are excellent with espressos. I think @jimyson enjoyed some shots with those beans too.

 

[jimyson]

Seeing all of these espresso shots is really making me want to pull the trigger on an espresso machine! Especially the photos where it is with coffee beans I roasted and sent out. *DROOLING*

I'm glad the Malawi beans are excellent with espressos. I think @jimyson enjoyed some shots with those beans too.

Thinking I need to pull another one today.

 

[jimyson]

Did anyone NOT get their coffee?

I also want to thank everyone for participating.

 

[pshankstar]

Did anyone NOT get their coffee?

I also want to thank everyone for participating.

Thanks for organizing it! I had a lot of fun and learned a lot from it too.

 

[Inkleg]

Got my coffee and an AreoPress!

I now have a gooseneck kettle, Able Kone filter and Hario V60! Ya'll are a bunch on enablers.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

2) Colombia La Galunga Don Jose: Brewed via Chemex/Able Kone as well. This one tasted to me like a typical Colombian, with some nice cocoa flavors. Maybe a little thin, I see he noted about 16% development - could probably be stretched to 20% to give it a tad more body. Very good coffee though, and it disappeared before I knew it ;(

Last week I ground up some coffee and threw it in my bag to take to work. A few hours later I brewed it, took a sip, and probably whispered "whoa" out loud. I was trying to figure out which coffee I had packed, then I remembered it was the Colombian @pshankstar had sent me for the Swap. Not sure if it was the couple extra days rest or the V60 but man this turned into quite a coffee. Really nice dark fruit flavors to go along with cocoa.

So, I'm updating my review. This Colombian was very nicely roasted and had great body. Maybe I had a bad brew the first time, maybe it just needed another week to sit. I don't know. But this was great.

 

[pshankstar]

Wow that’s interesting @HarborTownBrewing! The Colombian beans were my favorite out of that group of beans. I have noticed how some beans change from 48 hours after roasting to something different a week later. It almost makes me wonder if I’m doing a disservice to myself by using the beans so quickly after roasting (24-48 hours) but instead maybe I should wait 4-5 days.

 

[pshankstar]

Roasting some of the Banko beans from @Inkleg! They smell wonderful and I think I’m only going to use them for the Hario V60 pour over.

Thanks again for sharing some for me to roast!

 

[jimyson]

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Roasting some of the Banko beans from @Inkleg! They smell wonderful and I think I’m only going to use them for the Hario V60 pour over.

Thanks again for sharing some for me to roast!

I still have some from him but was not impressed with my roasting.

 

[jimyson]

Holy cow. 4:37?! That’s fast!

 

[pshankstar]

Holy cow. 4:37?! That’s fast!

Yeah the air roasters do tend to roast fast. I think it can be a negative with some beans but I’m not positive on that. Still trying to learn and figure things out more. I did see Sweet Maria’s had a session on the roaster I have. I want to watch it and see what I can get from it.

I may have to try and draw it out some with the other half. We shall see after giving it some resting time.

 

[jimyson]

Yeah the air roasters do tend to roast fast. I think it can be a negative with some beans but I’m not positive on that. Still trying to learn and figure things out more. I did see Sweet Maria’s had a session on the roaster I have. I want to watch it and see what I can get from it.

I may have to try and draw it out some with the other half. We shall see after giving it some resting time.

I’ve seen people post that they use an extension cord to decrease the wattage and slow things down. How about putting a potentiometer in the middle? Just some thoughts. Don’t go setting your house on fire now.

 

[pshankstar]

I’ve seen people post that they use an extension cord to decrease the wattage and slow things down. How about putting a potentiometer in the middle? Just some thoughts. Don’t go setting your house on fire now.

I didn’t think of the extension cord but that would definitely help with dropping the wattage. I have considered some mods but haven’t looked into it too much. I hope to watch the SM’s video on it tomorrow or Sunday. Hopefully it will provide me a lot of good info.

 

[aarong]

Great idea. I would like to join next go around.

 

[jammin]

Re: Popper speeds. A potentiometer sounds like a reasonable idea. When I roasted with a Hottop, I would always plug it into a Variac & Kill-A-Watt. This combo allows you to adjust line voltage to the decimal place and is ultra consistent. I think you could run this on a popper and really have some fun.

 

[TallDan]

Re: Popper speeds. A potentiometer sounds like a reasonable idea. When I roasted with a Hottop, I would always plug it into a Variac & Kill-A-Watt. This combo allows you to adjust line voltage to the decimal place and is ultra consistent. I think you could run this on a popper and really have some fun.

When I started looking down this road, I was looking to separate the power supply for the heat and the fan so that they could be independently adjusted.

Of course, I also decided that instead of spending time and money on a very small batch air roaster that I’d just get a behmor instead...

 

[jammin]

^it would very likely be a good investment for your Behmor. Several reports indicate better & more consistent power. It’s surpsing how much line voltage fluctuates and how much better your electric roaster runs at a steady, full 120v input.

One of the best features of the Quest M3 is that it as a built in potentiometer w/an Ohmeter. This allows for a consistent application of power roast after roast.