Archive for May, 2008

Not the best roast…

Bolivia Cup of Excellence: San Ignacio Juana Mamani Huanca.

Not my best effort at the roast. Rushed the warm, and pushed 1rst crack up about 2+ minutes. Shit. And it shows in the cup. Green and tight on the tongue, florals and fruits aren’t well developed. It still has some real nice sweetness that comes out as it cools, but it should be more delicate, balanced than this.

Well, still tweaking the roaster, but damn, wish i’d done this with a coffee that I didn’t have so little of, or that cost so much ($25/lb). Oh well, at least it was only 125g. And I still some.

But, on the bright side of things, I fiddled with the air/fuel ratio on the pinhalense tonight and have a much better flame now, one that has a slight hiss and a good tightly formed flame - not the laziness that it was before. Seems it needed more air (O2). I hope that this means that I’ll be able to mve at least a full load through the times I’m expecting… till now, 300g has been somewhere about a slow 30min. ugh.

Brazil. Carmo de Minas. Fazenda Esperança.

This is alertness beautifully balanced with elegant patience. Summery. Well structured. It’s clarity cuts through me like sitting in the sun porch on bright mornings. Bright warmth, eye squinty and attentive.

Beautiful, clean, light and floral sweetness. Grapefruit like undercurrent helps round out structure - especially in the mid range temperatures as the cup cools. It shows a lighter body than most other Brazils - even compared to the more citrusy, nutty sul de Minas region or certain Central American coffees - this tends toward the light side. But don’t take this for thin. It has depth and structure.

Brazil Carmo de Minas. Fazenda Esperança at a light roast. just about city plus

Said sample of Brazil Carmo de Minas at a light - city plus - roast in order to preserve the delicateness of the yellow bourbon varietal. You can see that the surface color is still mottled as it hasn’t progressed far enough past first crack to even the surface out… Not a bad thing at this stage of roast. The interior is very even and consistent with the surface color.. and by the way, this is the first roast that I am satisfied with since hooking up the Pinhalense…

Chaff Collection

I found where the chaff has been going… just under the cooling vents, and before the entry to the impeller.. that is the hole in on the left side of the floor.”


The underbelly of the Pinhalense, chaff collector

Decaf Design, old journal scans

Wanted to get this posted.. I have some things to write about this, but not the time at the moment, so will do that later…

(Use the zoom to be able to read them)

bean insides…

I have a habit of pulling beans during the roast process, breaking them open to see how evenly it is progressing. Not an absolute indicator, by any means, but still better than glancing into the roaster and looking at the outsides only.

This one taken about 1rst crack… give or take 30sec. I don’t quite remember.
viewing the interior bean development around first crack.

some images of the new roaster

Here’s a little slideshow of the new roaster. I’m planning to take some more details this weekend and will post those as well.

cheers

yep.-)

Pinhalense, Deft Coffee. Sample Roaster Box