Whats in my coffee roaster this week

[hunty]

Just pan roasted a batch of Indian monsoon malabar medium/city, still finishing a pan roasted batch of Ethiopian Harare oromia, full city/Vienna, absolute chocolaty earthy goodness.

[hunty]

Two batches, a Sulawesi Blue and a Harrar Longberry, to combine into a Mocha Java blend.

Both fairly fast roasts overall (Harrar faster), with the Indo dropped a hint before 2C at 222.5° and the Ethiopian a bit earlier at 220.5°…
Indo was nice this morning as a doppio, some good acidity remaining but some nice bite from the slightly darker roast. Not a lot of the fruit you get with a lighter roast of these puppies though…

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Bro, laying down lessons right here, graphs and numbers, I like it, got no idea what your talking about, but I know one day I will find out.

[LeroyC]

Regarding the relative caffeine levels in different coffees, the old ‘dark roast = more caffeine’ thing is generally considered a bit of a myth. It’s actually not as simple as that and caffeine levels vary more between different types of beans than they do between roast depths. There’s a lot of other variables at play too. In saying that there are occasions when a darker roast might equal more caffeine in the final drink. The caffeine content of a darker roast can sometimes equal a larger proportion of the total make up of the coffee. This is due to the extra development the coffee gets and the lower levels of some oils and other volatiles. Darker roasts are also more soluble so you can end up with a higher extraction as well.
The other factor is brew method. As most darker roasts are used for espresso based drinks the drink will generally contain less caffeine than a light roast used for filter coffee. Even if you’re using the same dose of say 20g you can end up with twice as much caffeine in a filter coffee than in an espresso depending on the filter brew method used and total extraction time.

[LeroyC]

Unfortunately not the result I was hoping for. Still a hint of sourness. Only 3 days old but from past roasts I remember the sourness doesn't go away. I've just done some more reading on roasting decaf and from the sounds of things I just need to slow the whole thing down. Time from FC to drop is reasonable (3:15ish) but I think if I aim for a lower charge temp/turning point and even slower maillard phase I might have more luck.

I don’t know anything specifically about the Decaf WOW from CS, but from my experience with decafs I’d say you’re right. I’ve had some real success with one decaf in particular, a Swiss Water Colombian. I ignored the fact it was a Colombian and roasted it the way I would all decafs - relatively low heat and slow and gentle. First crack is always virtually indistinguishable so you’ve gotta go on other indicators. I always gave it a good amount of development, but never went as far as second crack. It always came out looking quite light in colour regardless. It was at its best as an espresso and was sweet and juicy, but I also used it in ‘half-caf’ blends and even made the odd Aeropress with it.
All the specifics will be different with your coffee and roaster obviously, but it sounds like you’re on the right track. The other thing I found was that decafs needed longer to rest and often weren’t at their best until about 2 weeks post-roast.

[Janus]

Roasted a batch of the Panama Rati Hartmann, a batch of the new Yirg and a random blend. The Rati Hartmann to 215c is very nice and wonderful aromas 2 days in, Yirg is ok but i'm not getting the citrus notes i had in the previous bag (the beans are visually a little different to the last bag too - unsure if this is due to them being from a different supplier or just storage methods differing over time). Could be i'm not roasting the Yirg well though.
Glad the Rati are nice, the roast session previous to this nothing seemed to taste all that great.

[DesigningByCoffee]

Two batches, a Sulawesi Blue and a Harrar Longberry, to combine into a Mocha Java blend.

Both fairly fast roasts overall (Harrar faster), with the Indo dropped a hint before 2C at 222.5° and the Ethiopian a bit earlier at 220.5°…
Indo was nice this morning as a doppio, some good acidity remaining but some nice bite from the slightly darker roast. Not a lot of the fruit you get with a lighter roast of these puppies though…

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Still getting nice results – but I remember why I worked slowly lighter in my roasting…
While these both are making nice espresso and milk based coffee, they both end up tasting kinda the same – smooth and chocolately.
But the reality is that Sulawesi and Harrar are such completely different beans (or can be, to be more exact)!
So I guess that's the trade off. Taking these particular beans almost to 2C gives a nice chocolatey Mocha Java blend as you'd expect – but you the lose the varietal interest.
And which do you want? Chocolately flat white or berries and summer fruits in espresso or filter? Not sure we can have our cake and eat it

[DesigningByCoffee]

Bro, laying down lessons right here, graphs and numbers, I like it, got no idea what your talking about, but I know one day I will find out.

One step at a time

[greenman]

And which do you want? Chocolately flat white or berries and summer fruits in espresso or filter? Not sure we can have our cake and eat it

So true, my family love chocolate notes in their flat whites and complain loudly if I serve them a blend with some fruity notes. Recently to overcome this I have been roasting the Volcan Galeras Especial for espresso and a fruit bomb Guji Shakiso Oromia (lighter roast) and adding it to the filter basket (7 grams) with the Colombian as I am making my long blacks and espresso, this way I keep everybody happy!!

[DesigningByCoffee]

So true, my family love chocolate notes in their flat whites and complain loudly if I serve them a blend with some fruity notes. Recently to overcome this I have been roasting the Volcan Galeras Especial for espresso and a fruit bomb Guji Shakiso Oromia (lighter roast) and adding it to the filter basket (7 grams) with the Colombian as I am making my long blacks and espresso, this way I keep everybody happy!!

Too true
Certainly that's why blending is a great option. And like your Columbian observations, I've found that the various Brazilian beans can give a nice milk-chocolate flat white even when roasted a little lighter, and so when added to a nice fruity Sidamo Guji or Harrar simply add some lovely sweetness to espresso rather than overpowering with cocoa flavour & texture. Win Win!
And single dosing can help too – one just for them – a different one for me!

[LeroyC]

Honduras COCAFCAL FTO.

[DesigningByCoffee]

A fair swag of roasts over the last little while… Panama Rati (a little thin - needed a slightly slower ramp to build sweetness) Biftu Sundried (mmmmm yum - fruity cocoa bomb) Guat Jac (the slower roast to just before 2C gave an awesome, smooth sweet fruit bomb ristretto this morning) and Yirgy … gernerally great however it comes!

[Hipsi]

Keeping busy I like it! A couple of things I notice with your plots that I’ve wanted to ask about. You’re using a Bosch gun right? You seem to have so much more stability in your ROR than I do, mine tends to have spikes all over the place. Also, do you manually record the heat or is that something you’ve rigged up to be automated?

Cheers
Trav

[DesigningByCoffee]

Hi Trav
Yep - the Bosch 630. The red line/points I log manually, simply adjusting the slider in Roast Monitor to log the gun temp change so I can remember what I did
I'm not sure exactly sure about the RoR stability/instability issue between our setups. However, there are a couple of possibilities.
My setup is fully insulated and lidded (although I dropped the lid last night and the fibro broke grrrr! I might be building my new roaster quite soon!) , which helps enormously – open systems can change with wind gusts.
Also, the 800g batches I do are much more stable than the smaller 350g ones - I guess the probe tip is more likely to be always covered and there is a much more stable bean mass..

Cheers Matt

[Hipsi]

Thanks Matt, I adopted your fibro lid idea (thanks to heaps of leftover from recent renos) and the pan is insulated so it’s not that. Possibly just the roast sizes. I think maybe I should put some work into extending the stirrer and investing in a Bosch (my ozito wouldn’t cope with an 800g batch).

Cheers
Trav

[LeroyC]

Thanks Matt, I adopted your fibro lid idea (thanks to heaps of leftover from recent renos) and the pan is insulated so it’s not that. Possibly just the roast sizes. I think maybe I should put some work into extending the stirrer and investing in a Bosch (my ozito wouldn’t cope with an 800g batch).

Cheers
Trav

Trav ‘spikes’ aren’t necessarily a bad thing. It really depends how big the spikes are. Your probe might be giving you a very true indication of what going on in your bean mass, unlike a very smooth curve that might look pretty but not always be a true reflection of the conditions in your roaster. I’m not saying Matt’s profiles are no good or anything, but don’t feel like you should be aiming for a perfectly smooth curve.