Flint, to answer your question yes its before the end of first crack. I typically hear one or two pops in the cooling tray. I used to do about 17.8-18% development time but am now experimenting with slightly shorter ratios, typically somewhere in the range of 16+% now. Definitely enjoying better flavour clarity!

Chert wrote:Tasting Notes (changed to adjust your impressions according to how they resonated to me with a cup I had this morning of my second roast):

Flavor: Orange blossom, raspberry, black cherry, vanilla, sugar cane, black tea, with pineapple & lychee emerging in the cooling cup.

Aftertaste: Clean, balanced, structured, slightly drying compared to the very sweet initial taste.

Acidity: soft, mellowed with sweetness.

Body : silky.

Balance : Nicely structured cup, if a bit light in body.

Overall : An excellent cup, especially in terms of aroma and sweetness, low on nuance.

Palate in training here, I think the V60 I had today resonates in the way I adjusted your impressions above, does that make sense?

Question for you both: Are these roasts dropped before first crack has finished? I may try a roast like those and try to lower the temp right around 1Cs with goal to extend the duration of first crack.

Those tasting notes make a lot of sense, Flint -- your second roast ran a bit longer and deeper than mine, so I'm not surprised that it emphasized the caramels a bit more at the expense of some of the aroma & acidity. I'd bet that I'd score your roast higher than mine on the aftertaste but not as high on aroma/flavor/acidity.

I dropped mine right as first cracks were tapering to a finish. I don't remember any cracks in the cooling tray, so you can think of FC-end as simultaneous with drop. The roast was moving a bit faster than I had expected based on roasting other similar coffees, and I wanted to keep it light enough for brewing, so I cut development time a bit shorter than usual to keep the finish temperature from getting too high.

edited my first post to include brewing notes. (:

Gave it another go, significantly more developed.



Much sweeter this time around! I largely agree with the notes above: big sugary sweetness, mellow fruit / acidity, still a touch of that quasi-tomatoey note. Made a great brewed coffee, for sure.

After six days of rest (and having finished off the previous washed Colombian bourbon I was pulling shots with), I figured it was time to try pulling shots with my roast of the LM Yellow Bourbon. I'm sipping the first shot as I speak and I the results are great.

I pulled a 18g in, 38g out shot, ground on the EG1, with 30s of low flow preinfusion followed by about 50s of flow using full lever pressure on the Strega. The aroma emphasized vanilla and caramel, with nice undertones of milk chocolate and spiced cherry jam. The taste presented more of these notes but also some of those interesting tropical notes (pineapple especially), and a hint of pink grapefruit. There are also some interesting spicy undertones that became more prominent as the shot cooled off, somewhere between clove and cinnamon. The aftertaste is sweet and juicy, with a pleasant lingering cherry/pineapple quality.

Sounds great! I haven't been able to roast yet but I'm looking forward to trying it as espresso since that's what I drink most days. Curious if I can get the similar notes as your strega with a long pre-infusion on my e61.

I look forward to roasting another batch. I quite like the result at the City + range I hit with my first three, but I am itching to see if this is the one that I roast successfully at City / light roast level. Thus far the shots are sweet and rich but I don't get the nuance taste I hope to enjoy. And the pourovers are similar. However, yesterday although the V60 pourover I made was a bit over-extracted, I took away an impression of watermelon as a flavor note that was quite appealing.

I just started monitoring the exhaust temperature in the tube that feeds the Huky at charge and serves to exhaust and draw air through the roaster.

I think I have to re position the lead, and until I am sure it measures air temp and not the metal on the side of the exhaust tube, that curve is probably meaningless.

But here is my next roast which I took to 16% development and was able to extend first crack so there were pops at drop.

Hi @marista !

Another Quest M3 owner here. I'll be roasting some of the Las Margaritas in the next weeks, and wonder if you'd share your method with the Quest? I certainly have my own ways, but I'd be curious to compare results.

Best wishes, Charles

Hi Charles!

Absolutely, i'd be happy to send you the .alog files if you'd like. My quest is the 2015 model, non-perforated drum so i'm not sure if its the same as yours. I've been experimenting a little bit more recently with my heat application, rate of rise and development time ratios so i'd love to discuss if you've noticed any trends as well. I can check roast colour numbers as well since i have access to javalytics at my workplace. (: