Growing coffee

[RayTCoffeePro]

Vinitasse, Other wordly ??????

This is getting weird

[Vinitasse]

Depulping coffee cherries is your job

RayT, please think a couple of seconds before submitting a post cuz you're coming across as rather otherwordly and nebulous

[RayTCoffeePro]

Depulping coffee cherries is your job

[Kevo]

I imagine with all those coffee beans in them, they'd be too hard to catch anyway!

[Elvis3577]

I left my drying tray outside last night by accident, and it must have been about elevenish when I thought about it.
Well, ... it seems that slugs and snails like coffee too !
Don't worry about pellets anymore to catch them, crikey....
I won't let that happen again. Just hope it won't affect the taste all that slime...

[GrahamK]

Well , no risk there. As I tried to hull them they virtually pulverized in my hands, and turned to dust....

"Natural Selection" doing its job :-)

GrahamK

[Elvis3577]

Graham said :There is a risk is that if you get bad beans, or what are sometimes called "stinkers" they can actually ruin the whole roast batch, so I don't think its worth taking the risk personally.

Well , no risk there. As I tried to hull them they virtually pulverized in my hands, and turned to dust....

In the mean time I've done two roasts in my new popcorn machine.
First one was quite a light roast because I didn't want to charcoal them like I did before. Let it degas for about 18 hours and had a drink.
I thought it was drinkable , and my wife kind of liked it quite a bit. No idea how to describe the taste , but it's very different to what we buy....
Did a second one yesterday afternoon, bit darker, and it's in a glass jar on the benchtop degassing as we speak. That's for tomorrow morning. ;-)

Got a third batch sundrying on the porch. Straight from the plant onto the net.( after getting the floaters out that is ), so in a weeks time or so I'll find out if it tastes differently.

Ta.

[Divey]

Thanks Chokkidog, I sure have some reading on my hands now.

[chokkidog]

Hmmmm, after that last post I'm a little concerned that I may have my terminology of the makeup of a Coffee Cherry arse up. I thought the mucilage was the red thick covering that is on the outside of a cherry. I have no idea what the slippery stuff is called that is on the outside of the beans, and, I thought washed coffee was beans that had the 'red outer skin' removed and then placed in water.

Can someone with more experience clear this up for me?

Hi Divey,

Wiki has plenty of information under 'Coffee Production', including bean cross - section diagrams.

Google has a squillion references too, under 'Coffee Processing'.

Have a read and if you still have any questions, post them up.

Although it's Vietnam specific there is pretty comprehensive info on coffee growing here:

http://www.defoundation.org/assets/K...BookFinal1.pdf

Also some info on your query re honey process....

http://cqcoffeeroasters.com/pages/processing

[GrahamK]

However, as someone mentioned on the phone last week, it's still a coffee bean. I've kept the ones from the last pick and will treat them the same way and see if it makes any difference.
At the end of the day you'll grind it anyway and in theory you can't tell the difference anymore....
Wether that thesis holds , I don't know yet.
So, let's try and find out ! E.P.

There is a risk is that if you get bad beans, or what are sometimes called "stinkers" they can actually ruin the whole roast batch, so I don't think its worth taking the risk personally.

Divey - The mucilage is the slimy covering after you have pulped the bean (i.e. removed the fruit layer skin etc). The fermenting process uses the natural yeasts found in the mucilage to ferment off the mucilage. The fermenting takes a day or two, and are ready when they stop being slimy, (fermenting for too long also not a good thing), after which you rinse them (creating the "washed" beans), before drying. Washing can help prevent defects as well.

Once dried you then remove the hull to get to the bean itself. I have read that it benefits from some quiet time (a few months), before hulling, but not sure how true that is.

See: http://www.coffeeresearch.org/agriculture/flavor.htm

GrahamK

[Elvis3577]

Hi Divey.

Maybe I've got it wrong...and that wouldn't surprise me...;-)
So I just got this link quickly : Anatomy of the Coffee Fruit and Bean | Casa Brasil Coffees
Hopefully that explains it.

Ta

[Elvis3577]

Oh ... just thought of this as well....
With the floaters I have found that there's physically something wrong with them.
Hence the fact that most often there is an air-pocket in the bean that makes it float. Even when taking the red skin of I noticed that the floaters have an almost yellowy colour to them and sometimes semi translucent , where the good ones are a bit darker and at least feint greenish looking. So I wouldn't use to plant or grow new stock from either.
However, as someone mentioned on the phone last week, it's still a coffee bean. I've kept the ones from the last pick and will treat them the same way and see if it makes any difference.
At the end of the day you'll grind it anyway and in theory you can't tell the difference anymore....
Wether that thesis holds , I don't know yet.
So, let's try and find out !

E.P.

[Divey]

Hmmmm, after that last post I'm a little concerned that I may have my terminology of the makeup of a Coffee Cherry arse up. I thought the mucilage was the red thick covering that is on the outside of a cherry. I have no idea what the slippery stuff is called that is on the outside of the beans, and, I thought washed coffee was beans that had the 'red outer skin' removed and then placed in water.

Can someone with more experience clear this up for me?

[Elvis3577]

Hi everyone.
I picked a few hundred grams of red cherries just over a week ago now. Had one batch on rain water for three days and the mucilage was still there... So took it off anyway. The other batch that I picked a bit later was on rain water for a day and drained it. Still with the mucilage on , and visibly different from each other . The first batch looks more washed out, paler. The second a bit more yellowy. Probably explains the name honey ....
I got them on a home made drying rack ( a portable timber frame with a net nailed/stapled over it, and a second smaller one ; a Chinese take-away container with an old nylon from my wife ) So I can move them around with the sun , or even bring them in overnight.
Still unsure on when and how to make the call on when it's okay to stop the drying and take the parchment off.
I've got some more beans on the tree ( as well as lots of green ones ) that are nearly ready to be picked and will do the 'dry-fermenting' with those ones.

Coincidentally , we were at Big W on Saturday and they have a 700W domed popcorn maker about a foot square with a built in wire-agitator for 40 bucks. Bought that, thinking and hoping that's almost perfect. Although I might have to tinker with the agitator a bit. Hoping I could be ready to roast the first batch this week.... ?
I'll let you know how it all went.

Cheers.

[GrahamK]

My first 2 years I washed/fermented, but used a honey style for the last 2 years. With manageable batches I think its easier to prevent them getting mouldy etc.

Still not sure how much of a difference it is making taste wise. Honey processing a bit of a pain when its during a wet rainy period and stays sticky. The ants also like it that way. But found a good drying rack makes a big difference.

GrahamK