Howdy, everyone! I have a bit of an issue with my pour over.

Starting about 2 months ago, almost all of my coffee has tasted... odd. And not in a good way. It doesn't even really taste like coffee anymore. The beans smell a bit skunky. And when I brew, the beans smell incredible, fruity, almost heavenly. But as soon as the brew cools a few degrees, the skunky smell returns, and it brings a very bad and abnormal flavor with it. My roommate described it as "mothballs," to give you an idea.

To give you an idea of where I'm coming at...

I typically brew with a Chemex or a Hario v60 (favoring the chemex). I am incredibly consistent with the way I brew on both of these, using 29 grams of coffee for each (though ever so slightly different grind size) run through my Bunn G1 (almost brand new). I finish with a total of 490 grams of water run through, giving me approx. 16oz in the cup. I time my pours, go in the same increments, everything. My grind size and my brewing style is usually incredibly consistent.

The beans I use (I'm getting ready to take some heat for this) are home roasted. I use Ethiopian beans almost exclusively. I've been on the same 5 lb bag of green coffee beans for about 3 months now. Now, I do roast in an air popper. However, I've been doing this for nearly 8 months, following the same process every time I roast, bringing it to first crack in 6 minutes and finishing 1st crack at 7:45 (I've got very good with this thing). I'm not saying this roast is ideal, but I am saying that it's the same process every time, and it never tasted bad before two months ago. I'm currently using Ethiopia Gedeo, but I normally use Yirgacheffe.

Before you hate on this popper, understand that I know it's not ideal. There's just no local roasters around here who can beat the results I have from this thing (they're not specialty roasters by any means).

So, here's my problem. My coffee tastes weird and bad all of the sudden. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Is it just that I was lucky for the first 6 months with my roaster and now it's finally coming back to bite me? Or do you think that it has something to do with my using Ethiopia Gedeo? Or have I been using a bum brewing method all this time? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I'm willing to try anything to get a cup that tastes like strawberries. I've managed 3 times in my life to get a sweet cup with heavy strawberry in it, and I will forever be on a quest to make this my daily cup. Any suggestions I'm willing to try. Thank you so much!

P.S. any bean suggestions that will bring out super sweet, fruity notes would be greatly appreciated.

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Then, get back to us.

Nothing wrong with popper roasting. Many of us started that way.

Odd that it suddenly changed. Aside the obvious test of try another bean, have you tried cleaning the grinder? Maybe try filtering your water or a good cleaning of your water heating vessel?

How are you storing your green coffee? Is it possible that your greens have gotten some mold them or maybe been affected by extreme heat? How does the green coffee smell now.

Skunky? There is a chemical reaction which occurs when caffeine is heated too rapidly that produces a fishy/tuna odor. Is that possibly a smell that you are experiencing with your popper?

Did you try with different sourced beans?

I've been had with some bad bean batches that were too old and stale (but not skunky or tuna fish - never had fish nor rodents in my coffee).

Also - one tip I love from (I think) Jim Schulman is to try a can of Illy. I think you would be safe to say that if Illy loses the skunk - it is the beans that are at fault (or a roaster/roast profile - but skunk?); if the skunk stays - it is a grinder/brew issue.

About 10 years ago, a coffee roasting friend of mine decided to play a prank on me at work and dumped some stinky coffee that he had badly burned in the trash can at my desk at work. What he didn't realize was that I was out sick that day, so instead of me finding it and getting rid of it instead it sat and got worse and worse. Eventually all work came to a halt as the smell got so bad the whole office stopped what they were doing to frantically search for the source of the horrible smell. I got to experience it for myself the next day, although according to coworkers it had faded some by then: a horrible rotten fish smell. I had no idea coffee could smell like that.

Anyway, as others have said, you may have been experiencing a milder version of this. Poorly roasted coffee can smell (and presumably taste) surprisingly nasty.

cannonfodder wrote:Nothing wrong with popper roasting. Many of us started that way.

Odd that it suddenly changed. Aside the obvious test of try another bean, have you tried cleaning the grinder? Maybe try filtering your water or a good cleaning of your water heating vessel?

Unfortunately, I've tried all of the above. It just sort of happened one day that they started tasting really bad. I even replaced my water filter to make sure.

Boldjava wrote:Skunky? There is a chemical reaction which occurs when caffeine is heated too rapidly that produces a fishy/tuna odor. Is that possibly a smell that you are experiencing with your popper?

I'm not going to call it a fishy/tuna smell. It doesn't smell good, but fish isn't what I'm getting from it. But, if I'm honest, what surprises me most is the lack of smell. Like there's almost no aroma to it, but what aroma there is doesn't smell good. Along with that, the beans are hardly gassing off at all.