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What's your window for resting roasted coffee before drinking it?

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  • What's your window for resting roasted coffee before drinking it?

    I expect this topic has been done to death, still opinions can change.

    I'd love to hear the views of snobs on how long they rest the beans after roasting before they drink the coffee.
    1. What's the shortest interval you'd tolerate. Would you forgo your morning coffee if you'd only roasted the beans two days ago? (I wouldn't )
    2. What about at the other end. When do you toss your beans? After two weeks, a month, longer? (Mine never last that long, although I have used old beans to top up the grinder when I've run too low.)
    3. Finally, what is your perfect zone - eg 5 to 10 days, 3 to 7 days? (I find coffee tastes differently at different times. It can be surprisingly good yet taste different as time passes, or it can be horrid if drunk too soon or too late, depending on the roast.)

  • #2
    Basically, I'm pretty much the same as you for the first two points.
    Re: Point #3, I usually aim for five to ten days and nearly always finish within fourteen days. Never had to toss any roasts at any stage...

    Mal.

    Comment


    • #3
      With modified roasting, I can use roasted beans few hours after however these beans quickly degrade and the best consumed within 3 days.
      Traditional roasting and for the most beans, I prefer 3~5 days resting (depends on the beans): for example, India Monsoon beans are quite good after two weeks of resting.

      Comment


      • slip80
        slip80 commented
        Editing a comment
        San, what do you mean by "modified roasting"?

        Cheers

    • #4
      Always prefer 4-5 days rest as a minimum, usually about a week. But if the need arose earlier than this, I would certainly dig into them. And would never toss beans. Either cold brew, donate to someone else, or just drink it if neither of those is an option. I don't usually roast enough that too old becomes a problem.

      Comment


      • #5
        For dark roast 14 days, for light 21 days. Some darks are 100% ready at 8 days so there are differences from bean/roast to bean/roast.

        I probably should add that I've logged over 100 roasts now and recorded the stats for each one (roast metrics, days rested etc) and the above is my conclusions ... so far

        Comment


        • #6
          Hi, new to the forum but have been roasting for about 10 years.

          I might be missing out on something but I don't bother with resting. I run out of coffee, I roast, then drink.

          I have had mostly good results, but I'm exclusively roasting for filter.

          I've found the best cups have been the day after roasting but also the worst.

          The good were never quite as good as that first day and the bad would get more tolerable as time went on.

          Comment


          • #7
            Like a day because I constantly forget to stagger my roasting times. When I, yet again, discover there's only a couple of beans left at the bottom of the previous bag, I rush a roast out for use the next day.

            Comment


            • #8
              Well thanks to Flynnaus I now have a Behmor. And after 6 roasts of only the one type of bean I can give my expert opinion... Just kidding.
              But from first impressions: Day 0 to day 3, my first few batches were smelt and tasted grassy and unpleasant and I was stressing I'd pulled them too early (despite progressively darker roasts each time). But now at day 5 they have settled and are turning quite pleasant, and I hope they last long enough to keep trying through to day 14-2 as suggested above, however I think I'll just need to roast some more.

              Comment


              • #9
                Bean resting time could be affected by the roast itself so there is no perfect resting time: the best resting time it’s the time you like the flavour of your coffee. Similarly, some people like dark roast, some lite and both of them roast coffee to the right level for that individual.

                Comment


                • #10
                  Originally posted by bogongtiger View Post
                  I expect this topic has been done to death, still opinions can change.

                  I'd love to hear the views of snobs on how long they rest the beans after roasting before they drink the coffee.
                  1. What's the shortest interval you'd tolerate. Would you forgo your morning coffee if you'd only roasted the beans two days ago? (I wouldn't )
                  2. What about at the other end. When do you toss your beans? After two weeks, a month, longer? (Mine never last that long, although I have used old beans to top up the grinder when I've run too low.)
                  3. Finally, what is your perfect zone - eg 5 to 10 days, 3 to 7 days? (I find coffee tastes differently at different times. It can be surprisingly good yet taste different as time passes, or it can be horrid if drunk too soon or too late, depending on the roast.)
                  Personally I start drinking mine 45mins mins off the roaster. Especially something new as I like to see how it improves, doesn't improve or to aim to detect a fault in the roasting process or bean. I find a lot of coffees come of age around 5-7 days for me.

                  I say 45 mins off the roaster as that is the time it take for me to get home and get the machine warmed up.

                  Cheers,

                  Chris

                  Comment


                  • allinone
                    allinone commented
                    Editing a comment
                    I often roast in the morning, fast cool - then straight into the Espresso machine for a taste so maybe 10 minutes, these are then bagged up and when I successfully predict consumption the time maybe 7 -10 days.
                    Yes some get better as time progresses.
                    But if it smells like coffee, looks like coffee and tastes like coffee well it must be coffee, I suppose.

                • #11
                  What are your roast times and batch size? As I mentioned in my Pay It Forward post, the afterburner might need replacing. A faulty afterburner could mean longer roast times.

                  Comment


                  • Deliboi
                    Deliboi commented
                    Editing a comment
                    I found some posts where Andy talked about 200g on P5 manual until first crack and then scaling back to P2/P3 and then cool - so I've been running with that. 1st crack is starting between 10 and 11mins in those 5 roasts. 1st crack lasting 1 - 1.5mins. ambient temps on the day may have played a part in the variances as could 1st roast vs back to back.
                    Do you think that's too slow?

                • #12
                  Originally posted by bogongtiger View Post
                  I expect this topic has been done to death, still opinions can change.

                  I'd love to hear the views of snobs on how long they rest the beans after roasting before they drink the coffee.
                  1. What's the shortest interval you'd tolerate. Would you forgo your morning coffee if you'd only roasted the beans two days ago? (I wouldn't )
                  2. What about at the other end. When do you toss your beans? After two weeks, a month, longer? (Mine never last that long, although I have used old beans to top up the grinder when I've run too low.)
                  3. Finally, what is your perfect zone - eg 5 to 10 days, 3 to 7 days? (I find coffee tastes differently at different times. It can be surprisingly good yet taste different as time passes, or it can be horrid if drunk too soon or too late, depending on the roast.)
                  1 - Shortest interval I think I have done is 1 day. Usually something like returning from holidays and having no (or only old) beans on hand. Get out and roast ASAP and then work through the freshness/crema issues rather than miss out on coffee (or heaven forbid...buy roasted stuff!). Case in point, got back from QLD a few days back, now drinking Panama that was roasted on 9th. Tastes good, will get better over the next 2 weeks!
                  2 - Only beans I've tossed were 6 weeks + and I had nicer ones lined up to use. Similar situation to above, we had been away and the beans got old in our absence. Never got to the point of turfing any when in regular use.
                  3 - For normal practice, I try to rest for 5 days minimum but does not always work that way. Sometimes might have 14 days on them before I get to them. I find different beans/roasts give different sweet spots. Most frustrating is when you are just about to finish off the beans from this roast and they are beginning to taste even better. That's when the notebook has to come out and remind you to give those an extra week rest next time.

                  Comment


                  • #13
                    I started to question my own post (above) which I wrote from memory (never a good idea) so I went back and reviewed my tasting logs.

                    Here's a more accurate "Roast and Enjoy" chart based on my logs and not my memory:

                    Light - rest for 3 weeks, enjoy for 30 days after that

                    Medium - rest for 2 weeks, enjoy for 20 days after that

                    Dark - rest for 1 week, enjoy for 10 days after that.

                    This assumes that you are storing your beans in a zip bag with a one way valve.

                    Note that many enjoy their beans well outside of my guidelines. If you enjoy it, drink it!

                    Comment


                    • #14
                      Scientific answer on the coffee freshness question by Dr. Samo Smrke of Zurich University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhsLtIIxNTo

                      Comment


                      • tompoland
                        tompoland commented
                        Editing a comment
                        Thanks San I stumbled across that video about a year ago and for those who have an interest in "peak flavor" it's very worthwhile viewing. SCA has some data too.

                        Adding to that, like most things to do with coffee, there are so many variables and so much subjectivity (opinion) that I eventually decided that the ultimate judge had to be my palate.
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