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  • #16
    Re: Growing coffee

    hi Tony,

    You can speed up step 3 by adding a tiny spoonful of Amylase or similar enzyme(often used in bread making).

    I have had great success skipping this step, leaving the muscilage on to dry. We store the at this point, hulling just before roast. There is some interesting reading on rates of transfer of moisture through the bean in storage and its impact on the profile of the bean.

    Regards
    Cameron

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    • #17
      Re: Growing coffee

      cameron,

      ill try the enzymes. what basically is the effect of leaving the beans to dry with the mucilage on?

      tony

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      • #18
        Re: Growing coffee

        We have found better body and increased berry flavours in ASCA standards cupped tastings with our K7 beans. Any Bourbon varietals I have tried have improved body.

        We are looking to score in these areas(mouthfeel and sweetness) at competitions, it proved successful at the golden bean(silver for the K7), fingers crossed for the Royal show!

        Cameron

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        • #19
          Re: Growing coffee

          forgive my ignorance, but my search for the meaning of ASCA turns up an encyclopedic list of organisations - none related to coffee.

          i do know K7 beans though, as I lived in east africa for a long time and it was there i had the best coffee i have tasted anywhere.

          the best was from the kenya coffee shop in nairobi, which used to prepare its coffee in a big saucepan behind the counter. its still going, but has been overtaken by trendier establishments with variations on the name java.

          maybe the sun-drying of the beans explains why i always found the coffee there so mellow and chocolatey.

          i will dry my next lot without fermenting the mucilage off and see what its like.

          tony

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          • #20
            Re: Growing coffee

            www.aasca.com

            AustralAsian Specialty Coffee Association.

            Im in Newcastle and Ive got 3 coffee plants that are maybe 3 to 4 feet high. I had some white moth like creatures on one of the plants recently. They seem to have gone away... I hope.

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            • #21
              Re: Growing coffee

              Mixed a few crushed cloves of garlic and a small amount of washing up liquid in a spray bottle with water(1 litre) and apply to foliage after flowering.

              This wont affect the fruit. The grubs hate it and it will "stick" until next time it rains.

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              • #22
                Re: Growing coffee

                Wow Cameron,
                I respect the dedication, answering a thread almost a year old !
                So where abouts do I buy a good coffee tree?  I have space in the backyard .. Gold Coast Hinterland, elevated shaded.
                Or is it possible to germinate Green Beans?
                Mark

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                • #23
                  Re: Growing coffee

                  Hi Mark

                  Daleys Fruit Tree Nursery (ggogle them) have coffee plants that are reasonably advanced and can be purchased online.

                  Cheers!

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                  • #24
                    Re: Growing coffee

                    Just found this info .. looks like I can germinate from Green beans

                    "The potential for germination will continue for almost four months, but after this time the germination rate is several fold less and germination time is significantly longer. Fresh seeds should germinate in 2.5 months, but old seeds can take as long as 6 month"

                    http://www.coffeeresearch.org/coffee/homegrowing.htm

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                    • #25
                      Re: Growing coffee

                      Originally posted by 22361C2771430 link=1202128835/21#21 date=1233609468
                      Wow Cameron,
                      I respect the dedication, answering a thread almost a year old !
                      So where abouts do I buy a good coffee tree?  I have space in the backyard .. Gold Coast Hinterland, elevated shaded.
                      Or is it possible to germinate Green Beans?
                      Mark
                      I can drop some fresh K7 beans in once we have finished this harvest if you like.
                      Send me a PM or email

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                      • #26
                        Re: Growing coffee

                        hi everybody,

                        sorry to have been absent so long.

                        i took camerons advice and didnt soak any of my beans but dried them with the mucilage on. they turned out very nice, quite mild, very full body and very chocolatey - at least thats how they taste to me. i roast them in an iroast2 roaster which seems to work very well. i dont agonise too much over roasting settings because i like the different tastes that come from variations in the ambient temperature and different volumes being roasted.

                        im beginning to get a handle on the coffee year now because i kept notes all of last year

                        the picking season ran from 27 july - 22 november. it seems a long time to me, i dont know if thats normal.

                        the four trees gave about 18kg of cherries and about 3kg of green beans after hulling.

                        also a lot of coffee tree seedlings have sprouted under the trees this year. i have put some in pots, but they seem to grow very slowly. they seem a bit delicate in their early stages.

                        if framey wants to give me a call, im on 4979 5978 (work).

                        tony

                        [img][/img]


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                        • #27
                          Re: Growing coffee

                          Beaut tree!

                          You can "force" the fruit by stressing the tree, dont water it. If it gets adequate water a tree can fruit from winter almost to christmas up here.

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                          • #28
                            Re: Growing coffee

                            thanks for the advice.
                            when should the water be cut down?
                            if i do it while the beans are forming id get a lot of floaters wouldnt i?
                            or do you cut the water during blossoming?
                            i see that after the rains in recent weeks there is a bit of blossom coming out again.

                            i had one lot of beans go mouldy while drying and i kept them separate. i thought there might be a kind of botrytis effect, as in wine, but there wasnt.
                            i couldnt taste any difference between scarlet cherries, crimson cherries and the crimson ones that went mouldy. nor could anyone i gave them to to smell. is there an optimum colour to pick at?

                            tony

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                            • #29
                              Re: Growing coffee

                              Great experimenting Tony.

                              Ive found forcing before flowering best.

                              Ordinary hydrated lime will delay ferment of picked cherry, spread on a handful if you have a delay pulping.

                              Actually, Im drinking some dry processed bean right now from Koonorigan, they use this process to great effect. Very fruity, good body.

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                              • #30
                                Re: Growing coffee

                                Originally posted by 4259584F42360 link=1202128835/25#25 date=1234963159
                                hi everybody,


                                i took camerons advice and didnt soak any of my beans but dried them with the mucilage on. they turned out very nice, quite mild, very full body and very chocolatey - at least thats how they taste to me.

                                tony


                                I found a name for our method here:
                                http://www.gimmecoffee.com/galleries/putting_in_the_honey_at_the_ha/

                                "Honey Drying"!

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