I'm trying to understand the theory behind achieving sweetness in coffee.

I get that bitterness comes from over-extracting, sourness from under-extracting, but I don't necessarily believe that sweetness is merely the midpoint between the two. There must be some known factors that contribute directly to coffee sweetness, but what are they? I just know that there are times when the coffee I brew comes out tasting almost cloyingly sweet, kinda like I'm gulping down milk chocolate or a fruit-caramel bomb laced with raw sugar. Other times, there's just a little bit of this and that but no sweetness. And all this out of the same batch of coffee! My brewing methods look pretty consistently like this:

beehouse dripper
23.5g coffee to 360g water
205 water temp
bloom 45g for 40s, then pulse in ~100g increments to reach 2:45-3 min brewing time.
Grind size is medium-fine. About 1.2 turns on the LIDO 2.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Start with sweet coffee. What are you brewing?

I'm pretty sure I'm using sweet coffee because I get sweet results - just not consistently. But to be specific, right now I'm brewing Guatemala Cuilco -Finca El Regalito (from sweet maria's) roasted to city+.

I'm simply looking for some guidelines that help nail the sweetness with brewing. For example: brewing hot vs cold, coarser vs finer grind, brewing length, pouring method, etc.

cimarronEric wrote:Start with sweet coffee.

Hola @Eric, a few brand names would be interesting.

treq10 wrote: I'm simply looking for some guidelines that help nail the sweetness with brewing. For example: brewing hot vs cold, coarser vs finer grind, brewing length, pouring method, etc.

Maybe this will help?
http://www.baristahustle.com/wp-content ... ompass.jpg

Bill33525 wrote:Hola @Eric, a few brand names would be interesting.

Turning Point, Compelling & Rich, Mountain Air, Sweet Bloom, Roseline... there are so many good roasters with their own flairs but bring sweetness.

treq10 wrote:I'm pretty sure I'm using sweet coffee because I get sweet results - just not consistently. But to be specific, right now I'm brewing Guatemala Cuilco -Finca El Regalito (from sweet maria's) roasted to city+.

I'm simply looking for some guidelines that help nail the sweetness with brewing. For example: brewing hot vs cold, coarser vs finer grind, brewing length, pouring method, etc.

I'd guess, since you get what you want some of the times via your current method, it's a matter of the extractions being better sometimes than others. Manual brewing, just like with espresso, is beholden to consistent technique. Practice, practice, practice.

treq10 wrote:...there are times when the coffee I brew comes out tasting almost cloyingly sweet, kinda like I'm gulping down milk chocolate or a fruit-caramel bomb laced with raw sugar. Other times, there's just a little bit of this and that but no sweetness. And all this out of the same batch of coffee! ...

Hi. I had this same issue when I started fooling around with pourover, albeit with V60's. So, this is what I did. Whether it works or helps you I can't really say.

1. Use coffee with known sweetness, as others have mentioned.

2. The fact that you are getting different results while keeping everything the same means that - everything isn't the same. Something is changing. It looks like you are weighing inputs and output so that is good. One thing that I didn't see was pre-heating. For example, here is Tom Owen's method of pre-heating (and brewing with a brewer similar to the Beehouse):
For me, though, in the end, the thing that helped the most in making me consistent was a refractometer. It isn't a solution, though. Like using a naked portafilter to improve distribution for espresso, it is merely an aid.

3. You've probably read it a million times, but, one more time, grinder. I have a Lido2 (older one with Italmill burrs). I can make the same cup with the Lido2 and with a Vario (with steel burrs) and the Vario cup will always be sweeter than the Lido2's. That isn't to say that the Lido2 cup won't be great; just that the Vario cup will be better.

Oopps, just realized, this is brewing and not roasting so I deleted my post, but you might want to consider looking at your roasting process.

yeah. brewing is not where sweetness comes from.... for the most part, brew evenly and thoroughly and you'll taste what has been grown and roasted. Its by roasting good coffee evenly, neither baking nor stalling at any point during the roast that sweetness emerges. I sincerely do not believe it can be done in a small roaster with any degree of repeatability. See what the more well known shops are brewing and buy from those roasters for a solid reference point.