Help with Brazilian beans (or South American in general) - Behmor

[jabbba]

Hi guys,

I am trying to do some blending lately but still can’t find a good base bean or maybe I don’t know how to roast it. Recently I tried Brazil Yellow Bourbon and failed miserably. The coffee had no flavour at all as a single origin, and in the blend with Sumatra and Yirgi was not noticeable, just a filler to a couple of awesome single origin coffees.

The only half decent result I had with South American coffees was Peru De Celva, but even then, I had a feeling I was not getting the most out of it. I am roasting in my one and half year old Behmor that lost a bit of power so my batches are smaller and smaller. I tried all settings from P2-P5 and apart from P2 seems like all other power settings are underpowered and I can barely finish the roast. I am afraid to use P1 for anything but African beans.

It would be great if you can share your experiences and tell me what am I doing wrong.

[DesigningByCoffee]

Hi jabbba
Don't give up on the Brasil - they are lovely beans, either as a SO or in a blend.
But you do have to adjust your profile. I roast these overall more slowly than most other beans by around 2 mins, and also take them a fraction higher in drop temp. Here is the profile I use, when compared to the baseline template I use for the PNG/Indo beans…
Hope that helps - just not sure how this would translate onto the Behmor though…
Cheers
Matt

[jabbba]

That looks very much like P5 profile, how far do you go with them, up to 2nd crack, or past?

[DesigningByCoffee]

I go just to 2C, or make a fraction into (20secs into or a couple of proper cracks), but slower is the key - maybe a few more beans?

[jabbba]

Not much to worry about it, that setting is so slow that I always worry about it finishing the roast. You can't add much more time after this one.

I will definitely try it out and see how I go.

What about the other Central and South American ones, would you treat them the same or similar? There is this whole new world I am yet to explore.

[DesigningByCoffee]

I haven't played with too many southerns - but any new bean I tend to initially run to my 'baseline' then adjust profile by flavour outcomes
And yes - whole new world!

[jabbba]

So I did exactly as advised and the roast looks a little more lively than before. Hope it tastes a lot better.

[jabbba]

Just to report back. This was a lovely batch. You restored my appreciation for South American coffees. When blended with Sumatran beans, the result was divine.

[DesigningByCoffee]

Nice
Well done!

[fg1972]

Initially I started roasting South Americans with my standard profile which is a fairly hard ramp up to 200 degrees (1C) at around 10mins. They tasted ok, but often a little bland and also some scorching indicating too much heat too soon so I roasted them with a less aggressive profile which helped getting better flavour and cured the scorching problem.
Just the other night, I thought I'd I try Matt's standard profile on a 300gr batch of Brasil Pulped El Naturale.
I normally don't try my beans until at least 5 days post roast but I tried this batch as espresso after 48 hours and the results are amazing. Beautifully smooth, honey caramel flavours, mind blowing actually.
Kudos to Matt.

[DesigningByCoffee]

So thrilled it worked out for you
Matching that baseline with your slightly smaller batch size (I based that on a 350g batch) would be similar to what I would do for a 350g batch of Brasil by stretching it out slightly.
FWIW, using a 350g batch and that profile, I would ramp faster for most African beans, run that baseline for PNG/Indo/Indian/Centrals and slow the ramp down a little for Brazilians. But I concur completely with your findings - I used to find the Brasil's pretty uninteresting - but slow them down and you get some amazing results

Enjoy your espresso's!
Matt