Author Topic: Coffee Roasting  (Read 27600 times)

anutcanfly

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Re: Coffee Roasting
« Reply #45 on: March 02, 2012, 05:25:16 PM »
He has a pretty good selection too!  I was thinking about those myself so I could reduce my caffeine intake without reducing the volume.  I could even have several lattes.... what a happy thought!

Have fun MrsKK! I'm enjoying it so far!  :P

anutcanfly

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Re: Coffee Roasting
« Reply #46 on: March 04, 2012, 06:02:43 PM »
This weekend I tried the coffee I roasted individually and in combination.  I'm finding it's hard to describe what I am tasting!

Burman's Espresso Blend - Espresso roast

A passable espresso, but not exciting.


Indonesian Gr. 1, Sumatra Tabu Jamu - Full City Roast

This coffee tasted nasty!  I will roast the rest to a full dark french/Italian roast and use it for blending with nice tasting coffees that are roasted lighter.


Brazil Bob-O-Link  - Vienna Roast

This was fine.  It will be a nice coffee for blending.  It doesn't have any strong opinions to voice.


Brazil Fazenda Aurea - Espresso

I liked this brazil better, still mild and easy going as the other brazil.  It may just be the darker roast that appeals to me.


Colombian BCT Premium Huila - Vienna Roast

I liked the Colombian.  It would be a good sipping all day coffee and would be good in a blend.  It had a pleasant nutty taste.  Not too acidic nor flat.


I wish I could give better descriptions, but I'm floundering at that.

I tried mixing all four mix in equal portions.  This made a passable espresso and latte, but nothing worth singing about. 

25% Indonesian Gr. 1, Sumatra Tabu Jamu - Full City Roast
25% Brazil Bob-O-Link  - Vienna Roast
25% Brazil Fazenda Aurea - Espresso
25% Colombian BCT Premium Huila - Vienna Roast


I thought about it and decided to leave out the Sutmatra and one Brazil.  I also added in a portion of my first roast, that was over roasted, to add in all the dark, smoky, charred notes I was missing.  Now we are getting somewhere!   :P That is the best yet so far! 

33% Brazil Bob-O-Link  - Vienna Roast
33% Colombian BCT Premium Huila - Vienna Roast
33% Burman's espresso blend - Italian/Spanish roast

That's useful to know.  Any beans that produce a flavor I don't like can be roasted very dark and still be useful for mixing! Sparing the better tasting beans for lighter roast.  I will continue to roast beans separately so I can use different roasting styles for my blends.  I keep CO2 around for beer making, so I'm going to try adding a blanket of CO2 on the roasted beans to help slow down deterioration, as it will take me a month to drink the amount of coffee I make roasting 4 types of beans, separately, at a time.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Coffee Roasting
« Reply #47 on: March 06, 2012, 07:58:46 PM »
Karen -
Their decaf is water wash processed not processed using formaldehyde and tastes just about the same as the regular coffees. I buy both and often blend them to reduce the caffine somewhat.

Anut -
I have the Indonesian Sumatra Mandehling Gr.1 and it is best slightly past the second crack until you see the oil coming out onto the bean. The Indonesian Gr. 1, Sumatra Tabu Jamu is probably similar. Go to about #14 on the chart below.

First Crack -  Sounds like rice crispies when you put the milk in the bowl. Very faint like crumbling tissue paper. This is when the chaff (skin like spainish peanuts) starts coming off the bean.

Second Crack - the bean actually cracks releasing gases and moisture and often jumps around like popcorn much more pronounced. The small bit of chaff between the bean halves begins to fall away.

anutcanfly

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Re: Coffee Roasting
« Reply #48 on: March 06, 2012, 10:55:00 PM »
Thanks DeejayDebi,

I'll give the Sumatra a second chance.  It's too bad the Columbian went out of stock before I could buy anymore!  All the styles I will use are during second crack.  The smoke makes it difficult to see, but to count into the crack means you need to be able to hear when it first starts.  I can hear once it gets going good, but not sure I'm hearing it start, as the crank makes a lot of noise.  I'm starting to get the hang of and will happily use the Sumatra to practice getting to a Dark French roast, without crossing over to Italian.  Very glad I didn't toss out the first batch I over roasted.  Who would have thought it could be good for blending!

I placed an order for beans from Sweet Maria and I noticed that much of it was out of stock.  When do most beans come in?  Is there a season that's best to start looking?

Anut  :)

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Coffee Roasting
« Reply #49 on: March 06, 2012, 11:34:36 PM »
They are coming in every month. Sometimes weekly depending on the vender. I had trouble tryin to get anything from Maria's they were always out of what I wanted. So far Burmans only ran out of the Honey Palmares but it should be coming in June? I think and I will order a WHOLE bag if I can afford it. I can drink 50 pounds in 2 years.

Never throw away any odd beans they are good to mix for many things adn if you REALLY don't like it put them in the bottom of your flower pots. They like coffee too. I really hated the Kenya but my tomatoes loved it! To perfumey. Almost perfumey enough to make me sneeze! The whole beans are good for drainage and ground for a dirt mix. Oddly enough some bugs don't like coffee like those army bugs.

anutcanfly

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Re: Coffee Roasting
« Reply #50 on: March 06, 2012, 11:51:42 PM »
 ;D  Now there's a few recycling tips I would never have thought of!  I'm pretty sure an Italian Roast would make all beans taste much the same, allowing me to use them in a blend.  Here's a question, when you have a batch of beans that have already been roasted lighter, say Full City, but you don't like them and want them real dark, say Italian.  Can you roast them a second time?

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Coffee Roasting
« Reply #51 on: March 07, 2012, 04:01:28 AM »
Hmmm good question I never tried it but why not? I have heard of double roasting but that is just roasting longer til they are almost burnt to a crisp!

anutcanfly

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Re: Coffee Roasting
« Reply #52 on: March 07, 2012, 04:28:03 PM »
Might as well try it, since I would otherwise throw them on the compost pile.  I'll post how it comes out. 

I wonder if I can blend the Starbuck's I have in stock with something that will breath some life in it as it's totally flat tasting.  Better than acrid, but still not appealing.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Coffee Roasting
« Reply #53 on: March 08, 2012, 06:53:36 AM »
Well if the sumatra jamu does work for you you might want to try the Indonesian Sumatra Mandehling Gr.1 I found it to taste much like the old Starbucks before they changed it or whatever they did. Either it's not as good as it used to be or I just got spoiled.

anutcanfly

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Re: Coffee Roasting
« Reply #54 on: March 08, 2012, 06:01:23 PM »
I'll try the Sumatra grade 1 on my next order.  This go round I decide to try Sumatra FTO Gayo Tunas and Indonesian Org RFA Flores Bajawa, which is similar to Sumatra.  I think I'd better stop ordering beans as I have 44 pounds in stock now!  I tried to get small quantities of a wide variety to play with, plus larger quantities of base blending coffee beans.  So many I wanted to try were not in stock--drat!  I'll post my impressions as I try them.  Let me know if you run into anything you find to be exceptional!  If it's anything like wine, the great ones disappear very quickly!  Sweet Maria's has a lot of espresso blends to pick from, and I ordered a pound of a couple, but I think using someone else's blends would take part of the fun away from roasting coffee.  Her prices are quite high on a lot of stuff, but she did have a great deal on a brazil that didn't have a pedigree, but was as good as the ones that did.  I bought 10 pounds for $4.77 a pound.  Starbuck's did change something.  All of a sudden their coffee went flat and the prices went up.  You can drink it, it doesn't taste bad, but it doesn't taste good either... just flat.  My sweet heart noticed it too, that's why I started my search for alternatives.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Coffee Roasting
« Reply #55 on: March 10, 2012, 06:19:05 AM »
The green beans will keep for about 2 years in bags or containers but longer if vacuum sealed. I probably have close to 150 pounds of green beans in the house. Maybe more - there's 50 pounds sitting in the kitchen I haven't packaged yet just from the past few weeks. Very contagious.

I figure Starbucks did something the last few trips were not good. You think at their price they'd give you a decent brew but they are building to fast and the product is paying the price.

anutcanfly

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Re: Coffee Roasting
« Reply #56 on: March 10, 2012, 05:49:55 PM »
Wow! I thought I was getting carried away!  :)  I've been getting mixed messages on the storage aspect of green beans.  Sweet Maria is saying that green beans need to be used within a year.  Longer if you vacuum pack, but that only applies to wet processed coffee.  Dry process don't do well vacuum packed. 

I'm not too worried about it, but I think I will try not to buy too far past what I can consume in a year.  I figure my sweet and I go thru 36 pounds a year.

I wonder how long Starbucks will get away with it.  It could be that most people don't really notice or care.  Canned coffee is still quite popular... shudder!  One of the happiest memories of my childhood, was getting a lifesavers stuck halfway down my throat and having a teacher give me coffee hoping to melt it.  Not quite sure how that works, but I was in heaven!  I fell in love with coffee as at a very young age... Brandy too.  Grandma would give me brandy to sooth my sore throat when I was sick.   :P

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Coffee Roasting
« Reply #57 on: March 11, 2012, 01:31:53 AM »
I don't know that I have seen any difference in the dry or wet processed beans in vacpacking but I do buy most wet. We go through about 5 pounds a week in the winter and maybe 7 in the summer. I am stockpiling coffee and other long lasting products for my retirement stash. I am retiring in December and unfortunating I am a government employee. That means I get to collect somewhere between 50 and 80% of my actually retirement check for the first 6 to 8 months until they complete the processing of my retirment claim. No one knows who decides if it's 50 or 80% but they are backlogged a miniumum of 6to 8 months. This has apparently been going on for 10 years and they have done nothing to fix the problem. The sad part is you don't even know it's going to happen normally until you retire. I found out by accident and have been passing the word ever since. Luckily for me I have been saving for retirement since I was 18 and should be fine. Many people have lost their homes over this ... ah well this is another story.

OFF SOAPBOX ....

anutcanfly

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Re: Coffee Roasting
« Reply #58 on: March 11, 2012, 01:57:05 AM »
Flip!  That is so rude!  I'm glad you got a heads up in time!

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Coffee Roasting
« Reply #59 on: March 11, 2012, 02:19:57 AM »
Yeah at this rate I won't need to but groceries anyway!