I'm Back!

I had to lay off with roasting inside the house because the wife was not pleased with the smell lingering around. Last time I did a roast the smell was pretty intense. I decided to put things on hold until I could get a chance to do it outside.

It has been nice for about a month now but with all the garden work and things we've been doing around here I hadn't had time to break out the popper until yesterday.

As I sit here enjoying this nice cup of leftover Sumatra topped up with Columbian beans, I remember why I was so excited about doing this. Excellent tasting, smooth, fresh cup of coffee. I have to get back to doing this regularly again. At the same time I am still thinking it's time to find myself one of the old school poppers or give this heat gun method a try.

Jamie - since likely it is only you who will read this - get yourself a popper or heat gun and get started.

-rick

New Toy

I picked up a new toy for myself last night, as mentioned earlier. Eager to give it a try I pulled out the only coffee I have in the house right now that isn't green. My stand by West Coast Dark Roast from superstore. I ground it as fine as I could with my grinder and packed this puppy as full as I could.

This was my first time ever trying espresso from a machine like this. I've heard nothing but good things so I had pretty high expectations. Let me tell you, they were met or surpassed. Even with regular coffee. What a strong espresso. Full of flavor, not too bitter. No crema though but that could be because of the beans. Eager to try some choco in here or even some President's Choice espresso. This is a neat gadget to add to your collection and for 10 bucks you can't go wrong. Even if you use it 5 or 6 times it pays for itself.

Sumatra Updates

It has been a couple of days since I last updated the blog. Not much to report right now.

The Sumatra that I roasted on Saturday afternoon (7:15) turned out to be really great. I think it was the best roast I've done on Sumatra. It was strong and tasted like a nice dark roast coffee. It didn't have strong after taste or bitterness. It had good flavor. I will be restocking this bean and I think it will be a regular roast for me.

Last night I found a stove top espresso machine, finally. I wanted a small one that only made a little bit. Sarah does not like it and rarely is there anyone around who would want to partake in some either. On top of the size requirement I didn't want to spend much money. Luckily I was able to find the perfect one at Kitchen Stuff Plus. It says '3 cup' which I am assuming is 3 x 2oz. Cost was $10. I hope that I can give it a try later today. Need some espresso first.

Harrazu Chocatra? Chocazu Haratra?

Saturday afternoon the baby had a nap so I did some roasting. Quite a bit actually. 6 in a row. I did 2 batches of Sumatra(7:15ish), a batch of Ethiopian Harrar (6:35), some Choco (8:45), Costa Rican Tarrazu (forgot to put the timer on but roughly 6:30-7:00). When all was said and done I had little bits of the Ethiopian, Choco, and Costa Rican left over. I topped it up to half a cup with Sumatra and roasted it for 7:30 to try to get a nice dark roast. I figured I would call it something demented like Harrazu Chocatra. What the hell right? Chances are it would be a weird mix with that many different beans in there... Turns out I was wrong. Dead wrong. It made a really excellent cup of coffee. Strong/dark tasting but not bitter. It was smooth and not acidic whatsoever. It had tones of chocolate in there as well. Even my wife who isn't much for coffee enjoyed it. She thought it was actually flavored with chocolate. This is a good mix. Something I may mess with again in the future.

I've yet to try any of the other roasts but I've bagged it all up and brought it to work, except for the Sumatra. Updates to come later today.

New Roasts... Gumatra is born!

I got a chance yesterday to do a few more roasts. 4 actually. Here is the breakdown:

1/4 cup Guatemala 1/4 cup Sumatra code name Gumatra
Roasted for app 7:30. I lost my notes because I didn't save the file. Argh!

1/2 cup Choco espresso
Roasted for 8 - 9 minutes

1/2 cup Sumatra
Roasted for 7:30

1/2 cup Sumatra
Roasted for 8:30

I was paying less attention to actual time and really listening for the cracks and paying attention to the smell. I have a feeling most of my earlier roasts have been medium - city roasts. I was getting distinct 2nd cracks on these 4 roasts so I know they are roasted darker.

I only had a 1/4 cup of the Guataemalan coffee left so I had to do something with it. I threw it together with a 1/4 cup of Sumatra and roasted it. When I brewed the Gumatra and it turned out to be a really awesome cup of coffee. It was strong and had really nice flavor. It was a little tangy, a little earthy. It had tones of darkness but also some of the characteristics of a lighter flavorful coffee such as Costa Rican Tarrazu. Overall I am very impressed with it. I will be trying more 'blends' in the future. Thank God for leftovers huh?

When I got to work I ground some of the Choco. Last time it wasn't dark enough but I saw the potential in it. Today it was much darker. It smelled much stronger when I ground it. It looked much darker. I am not 100% sure if its dark enough yet but it produced a good espresso. Even got the thumbs up from Mumin, my expert guinea pig. It kept the good flavor but it was enriched by the darker roast. I am a little pissed that I lost my notes because I am not sure exactly how long I roasted it last time. I think another 30-45 seconds may produce the roast I need for this to be at its peak quality. I'll try this again on the weekend and see how it goes. I'm somewhat disappointed in my espresso machine though. Again no crema. I read the faq on the DeLonghi website and they say that this can happen when the beans are not fresh... how about 18 hour old beans fellas? Are those fresh enough? I think I will buy the stove top espreso machine this weekend and give it a shot. I saw a nice one the other day but it was just too big. I need a small one for making enough just for myself.

Anyways, all in all I am pleased. I think its safe to call this batch a :

Choco and more Tarrazu

Last night I did some more roasting.

First I did 2 back to back roasts of Costa Rican Tarrazu. Each for around 5:30. I Brewed some this afternoon and it tasted pretty good but I am not sure if its as good as what I made on the weekend. Strange right? The only difference is that on the weekend I roasted in my kitchen and last night I roasted in the basement and it is colder down there. Not sure if its cold enough to make a difference or not but that is the only difference. I'd say I am pretty pleased with this roast but not as much so as my last post.

Next I did a half cup of the Choco espresso. I was not sure how long to roast for so I did not want to overroast it. I let it go for 6:15. I heard a first crack. I thought I heard a 2nd crack but I am not 100% sure. It could be an extended first crack. there was no constant popping like I've heard before. I did smell a faint charring type smell just before I finished. I ground it and it did smell good. I brewed it in my DeLonghi espresso machine. I'm not sure about my espresso machine at this point. It seems like it is taking a longer time to brew espresso and I am not getting much crema. Regardless, I brewed it and was eager to taste the results. I first noticed that the color was very different than the President's Choice Espresso I've been drinking lately. That stuff brews almost black. This stuff came out looking kind of like hot chocolate. It smelled pretty good. It actually did taste pretty good though nowhere near strong enough. It was OK at best. I posted on the Green Beanery facebook group to see if anyone could give me some advice but so far nothing.

Sumatra: Roast/Brew #1

Roasting notes:
1st crack 2:30
2nd crack 5:00
end 6:30

Looks like a nice full city roast. Smells a tiny bit burned , approaching dark roast.

Let this one sit about 18 hours as well. Grinding brought on a really great smell. Sweet/candy like coffee smell.

The brew came out great. The coffee has a certain earthy/spicey flavor to it. Not too strong but its there. Makes for a really nice after taste. Each sip gets progressively better. My first sip I thought, this came out OK. By the end of the cup I was left thinking that this was awesome.

I've got a good baseline down for this bean. Next time around I may roast 15-20 seconds longer just to test the results. I may also do one roast a little lighter just out of curiousity.

Costa Rican Tarrazu: Round 2

After pretty decent success with my first attempt with the Costa Rican Tarrazu I was eager to give it another shot. As mentioned in my last post I thought I would roast for a shorter time. Here are the roasting stats:

1st crack 4:05
2nd crack 4:45
end: 5:20

The beans showed a nice chocolate brown color. The smell was nice / sweet.

I let the beans sit for about 18 hours before brewing.

Upon grind the coffee smelled excellent. I made half a pot so I had 2 nice mugs of this coffee. In all honesty both these cups were the best coffee I've had in recent memory. I would have to call this roast a great success, my best results so far. I will for sure be using this timeline as a guideline for how long to roast the remainder of my Tarrazu beans.

Follow-up

I gotta say it's been a good day so far. Sure the baby was up at 7am and wouldn't go back to sleep but what better reason to brew a good pot of coffee? First up: Ethiopian Harrar. The batch of 1/3 a cup. I filled the water line in the coffee machine to 4 since this is less coffee than I normally use. The beans were a nice shade of brown when I ground them and they smelled very good. The coffee was very smooth. No acidity whatsoever. Somewhat of an earthy flavor. Good coffee. I am pleased with the results.

Next up: Costa Rican Tarrazu. This is a coffee that I am familiar with so I had high expectations. The bean color was really nice both before and after grinding. The smell was very good. The flavor was excellent. Not too strong but very good. This is pretty much exactly what I was expecting. If anything I think I will actually roast a little shorter next time around. 5.5 - 6.0 minutes or somewhere in that area.

My doubts about my popper are still there but I'm getting good results regardless. Mainly I think I want something to compare to so I get a better idea if my popper is doing a good job, average job, or bad job.

Visit to Green Beanery

I made my way to downtown Toronto this morning to visit Green Beanery.

I ended up with 4lbs of green beans. Here is a rundown of what I picked up:

2lbs Sumatra - fair trade organic
1lb Costa Rican Tarrazu - free trade
0.5lb Choco - custom blend espresso
0.5lb Ethiopian Harrar - free trade

While I was there I had a cup of their Sumatra and it was quite good.

I got home from there about 2.5 hours ago. I've done 3 roast attempts since then. Standard roasting, no warming up the machine or anything like that.

Here is the breakdown:
Half Cup of Ethiopian Harrar
7:00 minutes total roasting time
The coloring of the beans looks a little uneven. I am suspicious that maybe the popcorn popper can't handle half a cup. Overall the roast looks promising though and the beans do appear to be showing some signs of light oiliness.

One Third a Cup of Ethiopian Harrar
7 minutes total roasting time
Looks basically the same as the first go'round with this bean, meaning there is some uneven coloring. Maybe its not the popper but the bean?

Half Cup Costa Rican Tarrazu
6.5 minutes total roasting time
Heard a distinct first crack right around 3 minutes. This is the first time so far I've really noticed it so early. Usually it seems to be around 4 minutes. Overall the coloring of the roast seems more consistent than previous attempts which could mean it is the beans. Overall this batch looks the most promising.

Will be trying these tomorrow and following up with results.

Brew Number 5

Failure...

This is the biggest failure since Nighthawk and Dragon wrecked their dad's boat while making the first music video for Prestige Worldwide.

I ground the coffee and it had a light milk chocolate type color to the grind, similar to batch 2. Unfortunately when I brewed in the french press the color did not change much. The flavor was mild, weak which is disappointing because the smell of the beans was good. The taste is kind of what would be expected from the smell except much more watery.

From my estimation what happened here is that warming up the machine for 2 minutes caused the beans to roast on the outside quicker than normal and the inside suffered for this leaving me with an incomplete roast.

Trial and error is what its all about. Looking forward to getting some more beans and continuing with this.

For anyone who is reading my blog - yes its true. I've gone off the deep end. I am spending far too much time, energy at this new found hobby. Feel free to laugh at me and mock me. It's all good.

Batch #5

I thought that I needed to land somewhere in between batch 3 and batch 4 to get my best possible results with these beans. I tried to take the best things I learned from these batches. Batch 3 I thought was good because it was roasted for less time. With roast 4 I think I did well with warming up the machine.

For batch 5 here is what I did:

1. warmed up the popper for 2 full minutes before dumping the beans
2. roasted for 7 minutes total
3. heard a first crack around 3:50 - 4:00
4. second crack was coming around 6:00ish

The beans look good in terms of color. The smell did not get too dark/burned.

High hopes for these beans. One thing different about this batch also is that I'm going to brew it in the french press.

I'm planning on going to green beanery this weekend to get some beans.

French Press

A friend at work saw my blog and asked me about using his french press that he recently picked up. I had to search through my basement and desk before it struck me that I'd left it in a bag in my garage when I took it home from work one day. I dusted it off and got to work on testing how to brew a really good cup with this method.

I measured the water and it works out that it holds as much water as the coffee pot holds when it's at the '6' (half way) line, which is app. 900ml. Given this fact I figured I would start with using the same amount of grounds. Here is how I brewed the coffee:
1. Boiled the water and let it sit for about 5 - 6 minutes until it had cooled enough
2. Added 9 tbsp ground coffee (mixture of Starbucks House Blend, Christmas Blend, and Second Cup Paradisio Dark)
3. Put the plunger in and pushed/pulled it a couple of times to mix the coffee and then pulled it up to the top to let the coffee steep for 5 full minutes.

This produced a very tastey cup of coffee. Full body, full flavor. The bottom of the cup did have some 'muddy' type residue but no actual grinds. It is best to avoid the last sip. This is a very easy way to make a really good cup of coffee and just as fast as using the drip machine.

Since I had good results with my french press I decided I'd try it again with regular store bought pre-ground coffee. For the last 18 months of so I've been using President's Choice West Coast Dark Roast as my daily coffee. Most people seem surprised by this, and I was shocked when I first tried it to. I mean, this coffee is $12.99 for a 2lb bag of whole beans or only $7.99 for a 2lb container of pre-ground beans. This is not your 'coffee-shop' coffee but its actually really good and is way better than any other grocery store brand I have ever tried. Its a great job for the day to day cup since its very friendly to my wallet. Normally I buy the whole beans and grind them myself but I decided to give the pre-ground a try just to see. It is quite good as well. One thing I have found is that with the whole bean you need 9tbsp for a half pot or the french press. With this pre-ground coffee you only need 7tbsp. Even this store bought pre-ground coffee does the job in the french press.

Different Ideas

No new roast to talk about today. However, I've been thinking about expanding a little bit and talking about all things coffee. Different ways to brew (drip, french press, etc), different ways to drink it (espresso, cappuccino, etc), and all sorts of other stuff. Just brought my espresso machine to work and set it up. Ready to have a cup now and forget about my 2 hour drive to work this morning.

Preparation D aka attempt #4

After drinking batch 3 yesterday I was pretty excited to get another roast going. I did so last night at around 9pm. I tried something different this time. In some of the reading I did yesterday I saw one guy recommending to 'warm up' your popper for a little bit before dumping in the beans. Up until this point I'd been starting out the process with the beans already in the popper. I thought, why not. Makes sense right? They will get darker if they start out at a high temperature rather than having to warm up with the machine. I started the machine and let it run for 1 full minute before dumping the beans in. I noticed a distinct difference in how quickly the beans started turning color. By 3 minutes they were a couple of shades darker than roast #3 at the same timeline. I missed first crack because I had to run out of the room for a second but it came somewhere around 4:00 - 4:30 again. In total I let this roast go for 10:30. Beans looked a little darker than batch #3. The smell is definitely darker with a hint of charring.

I am a little puzzled by the whole thing though and still unsure about my popcorn machine. I have to do some more roasting for sure. I would kind of like to find an old school 'poppery 2' or similar machine to try just to see if the results are different.

This pic from Sweet Maria's represents pretty well what I was able to produce from roast #4. Full City +

When I ground the beans it smelled terrific. That sweet candy-like scent of freshly ground coffee. I brewed the coffee the same way described in one of my previous posts. The cup tasted good. It was distinctly darker than the previous batches, as expected. It had more of a 'charcoal' flavor. Based on what I've been reading I believe I lost some of the 'origin' flavor and gained more of the 'generic' darker roasted coffee flavor. All in all it was a very good cup of coffee and I am pleased with the results.

I believe batch 3 was more flavorful. I think for batch 5 I may do somewhere in between. Maybe I will warm up the popper for a minute and then do a 9 minute roast.

Cup #3

I'm feeling pretty good about my progress so far.

The look, the smell, the flavor are all there. I would consider this to be somewhere in the middle of a light and medium roast. It isn't very dark in look or flavor. It isn't what I would call strong. It was really smooth and had a very nice flavor and a really good aftertaste.

I should specify how I am brewing. This is basically how I brew all my coffee, give or take a tablespoon of beans based on strength.

I'm drinking the coffee black as to get a better idea of the real flavor of it.

1/2 cup of ground beans
fill the coffee pot to the 6 line (which I believe is around 3 cups of water). I used bottled water on this one since I am at work and its readily available.
I am using a regular run of the mill drip machine like this.

So far I have to say I'm liking the results. Maybe I don't have the best machine or the best beans and I am new at this but it is encouraging to know that for a few hours of my time and about 25 bucks I've managed to produce what is a better cup of coffee than most people drink in the run of a day. I'm really looking forward to expanding this with some longer roast times, some different variations of beans, and eventually some custom blending.

Brew Numba Two

All my expectations were surpassed on this one. Beans were not overly dark so I was not expecting a DARK coffee but I got a solid cup here. Rich, flavorful, perky, a little zip to it. Anyone familiar with Hava Java (or any other shop that uses Global for their beans) it reminds me of Kickstart. Probably not quite that good but similar qualities.

Kind of hooked on this whole experiment/blog right now. I think its because I was home sick the other day and started watching Gonzo. It got me geared up to do some writing. All I need now is for Jay to show up at my door with a huge old convertible car and an invitation to some convention in Las Vegas.

Pics

This single pic best describes my efforts so far. It shows the green beans and each of my 3 roast attempts. You can see I'm getting better at it.

The rest of the pics (not the best quality) can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.ca/rick.pearce/CoffeeExperiment#

Roast #2 is just finished brewing... will give a review after. Seems fairly promising. When I ground it the house began to smell of coffee.

Updates...

Attempting to brew batch #1... Color and smell not appealing. Dreading the taste of this.

***update*** brewed roast #1 and it was not as bad as expected. Picture coffee made by someone who has no clue what they are doing and they put in like 4 scoops of beans for the entire pot or another scenario could be that if you had one good cup of coffee and split it 4 ways and then topped up those 4 cups with hot water.

The beans from roast #2 are smelling like real coffee... Looking forward to tasting it to see if it turns out any good.

Roast #3 has the most promise. I think for #4 I'll do for 10+minutes.

Having thoughts of just running a roast until it burns to a crisp... just to test the limits.

pics to come...

#3

So, round 3. I've learned a couple of things from the first two runs so time to try for a better roast.

1 thing that I did differently was I 'jimmyed up' a tinfoil 'hood' for the popcorn machine so that the chaff would go in to the bowl and not fly around everywhere. As it turns out this was not the best idea since I covered up some air vents on the top and those ended up bending a little because of the heat that was retained.

First crack came a bit later for some odd reason - not until nearly 5 minutes. Having said that I think everything else happened a little sooner and I may or may not have got a 2nd crack at around 8.5 minutes. I stopped the roast at 9 minutes total. Through this roast the smell was much stronger than previous attempts.

Overall these are the darkest looking beans I have produced. I've noticed that after a few hours the beans look a fair bit darker than they do coming out of the roast. I knew they would continue to roast after coming out of the popper but the change happens over more time than I expected.

Took some better pics of all 3 rounds, will upload later. Hopefully it will give a better idea of what I am doing.

Round #2

Got up early this morning to give it another kick at the can. Here are the details:

- 1/2 cup of beans again
- Right around 4:10 I heard a "first crack". Not sure if this is the so called first crack they talk about on the instructions. It was just a few cracks and was not constant. I heard a few and then a few more at around 5:20. After 5:40 or so it was more constant. At this point I am unsure if this is the actual first crack or if I went into second crack.
- While all this is going on I am getting a burning smell similar to burnt popcorn
- I was using the ipod again as the stopwatch. I shut the whole thing down at 7 minutes this time and the beans are darker than last night though they are still not anywhere near a full city or dark roast... somewhere around a medium I think. According to sweet maria's "Total time for a lighter roast should be around 4 minutes, full city roast around 5, and darker roasts closer to 6.5 minutes. Roasts develop quickly, so be vigilant." ... I wonder if she means 4,5, and 6.5 minutes after first crack? More testing needed to be done for me to figure this out.

- I have another set of pictures to compare the roast color. I'll also grind/brew and give taste results. This batch has much more promise than the first. I believe that the outside temperature last night was the issue.

here we go again...

So here goes. I'm a coffee junkie... been that way for at least the last 10 years. I've finally got myself to the point where my addiction to coffee is compelling me to do something constructive with it. At first I thought I would grow my own coffee plant. I did some research on it last spring and it got put on the shelf because of too much other stuff going on at the time. I recently remembered that idea and followed up. Well - as it turns out its a long term hobby if you are interested in getting an actual yield of coffee beans from your tree. Could be anywhere from a couple of years up to 6 years depending on the maturity of the tree you start with. That was a road block, I am not patient enough for that.

I figured the next best thing for me, since all I really wanted anyways was to make my own coffee, was to buy green beans and roast them myself. A couple of days research, and plenty of reading on sites like this: http://www.greenbeanery.ca and http://www.sweetmarias.com and I figured I was ready to rock. I'm going with the Popcorn Popper method as described here: http://www.sweetmarias.com/airpopmethod.html

So today I took the plunge. I went to The Green Bean Cafe in downtown Oakville. They roast their own beans there and also sell green beans. I had a cup of Costa Rican while I was there to get my beans and it was delicious and priced well ($2.10 for a large). I picked up 1lb of Guatemalan for $8. Next stop was Value Village since all of those sites recommend old school popping machines and the only place to find them are thrift stores. I had no luck. Furthermore everyone in there was giving me the evil eye like I was out of my element. Not sure what thats about but... I guess I smell of rich mahogony and they knew that I am friends with Merlin Olsen or something. I went to the Superstore because I saw a popcorn machine there the other day. Another downer for me, none on the shelf. Trusty Wal-Mart hooked me up for $14.88. I got a Duraband machine, Model # WCP-800 (specs: 120Vac, 60Hz, 1200w).

Now that I got my beans and got my popcorn machine I'm ready to rock... Or so I thought.

Since this was my first go at roasting I didn't want to risk setting off the fire alarm and waking up the baby who had just gone to bed. I went outside on the back deck and setup shop near the bbq. At the time it was -12 feels like -21(weather network).

I used 1/2 cup of green beans. I put them in before I started the machine as per instructions mentioned above. I setup my ipod stopwatch to monitor the progress.

3 minutes go by, no first crack but starting to look 'cinnamon'.
5 minutes still no first crack - is the machine too loud?
9 minutes and I'm expecting to see my beans getting really dark... no way, still very light and no signs of first crack.
In total I left the thing going about 15 minutes before I called it quits and took the whole setup inside. The beans are light and don't look or smell too appealing. Still I will grind them and taste the coffee and post my results. I took a side by side picture with my end result compared to what I started with, I will post the picture tomorrow.

For now I am thinking I've got a few potential problems:
1. The temperature outside messed up the process by not allowing the machine to get hot enough.
2. Maybe the popcorn machine just is not capable of getting hot enough.
3. Maybe the beans are not good *looooooooooong shot*

I am going to give it another try tomorrow from inside. Results to follow.