Hearing 2nd cracks for a Brazilian Santa Alina

by **irrelevancy** on Tue Jul 26, 2011 10:30 am

Hi guys

So the roasting escapades continue, and I'm continuing to play with my Gene Cafe and trying to improve my home roasting.

Now I'm having trouble with another batch of coffee - a Brazilian Fazenda Santa Alina (?Helena) CoE. Basically I get to first crack (only a few pops), but wait...and wait...and wait...and can't get a 2nd crack! First batch came out charred at 18minutes on my Gene cafe.

So my second lot went in....at 16 minutes it looked and smelt like a City+/FC, but there wasn't any cracking, so i just took it out and cooled in (manually). On visual inspection definitely around a city plus. I let it rest for a few days and sampled it as an espresso. It came out having an odd aroma...almost pungent, and the espresso it left a bitter aftertaste. Could it be burnt (but it was way too light to be burnt!)? I'm not sure what's happening!

Anyway, just wondering whether you guys have tasted espresso from the same bean - what is it meant to taste like?

Thanks!
Sing

by **Carneiro** on Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:09 pm

Is this CoE from Santa Alina a Yellow Bourbon?

I've tried to roast 200g of a Yellow Bourbon from them (but it's not the CoE) at Quest M3 and it's a hard job. I think it's a natural (or dry) processed coffee and it doesn't take too much heat nor seems to like a long roast. I still have to try a low air flow and moderate heat to see if I can not scorch it on a good RoR.

But, I really don't know if the coffees are that similar... Anyway, it doesn't seem a coffee to get to 2nd crack.

Márcio.

by **another_jim** on Tue Jul 26, 2011 2:32 pm

No cracks is sometimes a sign that the coffee is so severely dried out and damaged that nothing will help. If it's less dried out than that, Marcio is right: use less coffee, maybe more heat early, to get to the 1st crack fast, with some moisture still in the beans.

Sniff a bit when you get out of the first crack. Let the roast develop some caramel aromas, but stop when you start smelling distillates -- spicy, pungent, peaty flavors. That may save the coffee if it can be saved.

by **irrelevancy** on Tue Jul 26, 2011 9:14 pm

I see...I was wondering where you guys pick up this information about the technical aspects of roasting?

I read Davids book "Home Coffee Roasting" (supposedly the bible of roasting), and there wasn't much technical stuff in there.

PS what's a yellow bournorn?

Sing

by **another_jim** on Tue Jul 26, 2011 10:10 pm

irrelevancy wrote:I read Davids book "Home Coffee Roasting" (supposedly the bible of roasting), and there wasn't much technical stuff in there

Yep, inspirational and short on technical info, just like the bible. The technical stuff is mostly on line.

by **Carneiro** on Wed Jul 27, 2011 4:22 am

Quotable quote there?

Sing, Yellow Bourbon is a varietal of Coffea Arabica. There are plenty of information on varietals around.

Márcio.


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