Tuesday September 16:
I too am enjoying my first effort after much rest; (see somewhere above).
I brewed yesterday and today in an AreoPress. Monday's was better than Tuesday's.
Slight sweet fruit notes (cherry?) finished with some kind of blend of spices (light pumpkin pie?) and a nice chocolate finish with some other exotic unidentifiable agreeable florals. There were no harsh or earthy flavors at all. A very smooth cup.
I liked the taste but I think my next roast could be better.

Friday September 19:
From an AeroPress, back to Oolong Tea flavor up front, slight florals in the aftertaste. Nothing to write home about but no weird flavors. I'll roast this bean again on Sunday.

Have been getting my butt kicked this month-- which has regrettably cut into my roasting time. Using this post as a placeholder (and reinforcement!) to ensure that i roast tonight and post my profiles before September's gone and October's R&L is well in it's way!

Seems like the general consensus is that everyone's going City+ / Full City on this one?

Edit: Below are the results from tonights roast session.

Whelp. To say it rains when it pours is an understatement... Looks like i need to start evaluating what's going on with my Quest Temp probe position and grounding, because FC Temps are all out of sorts... We're talking FC at 440-450F.... with ET's through the roof... Anyway-- while unlikely to ever repeat these again-- i can at least cup them and see how awful they are. I'll spare you artisan graphs and just break down Time to 1C & Development & total roast time.

Roast 1: 17:27 to FCs @ 427F. Drop at 22:31 452F
Cup Notes EDIT: Flaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat, not much acid or fruit. Earth. Meh

Roast 2: 13:28 to FCs @ 428.5F. Drop at 16:00 473.6F
Cup Notes EDIT: Marginally acidity, still not much fruit. Earthy, but not bad by any means... just not great. Still kind of flat.

Roast 3: 10:53 to FCs @ 452.2F. Drop at 12:56 486.1 (this one might be drinkable just looking at deltaT & time)
Cup Notes EDIT: Slightly better acidity, still no fruit. Earthy/chocolate. Kind of yum. Maybe good as cold brew?

Roast 4: 13:11 to FCs @ 444.7F. Drop at 15:27 470.9F.
Cup Notes EDIT: Not better than 3, but not worse than 2. Will try cold brew.
Yeah-- like i said, temperature totally out of whack. All in all, i have 1 stupid long roast, 2 relatively longer roasts and one moderately short roast. More or less went for similar development on 2,3&4 of 2-3 minutes. The test will be whether or not i find a sweet spot on development & DeltaT. Going by typical milestones, i anticipate Roast 1 to be baked @ City, Roast 2 @ Full City, Roast 3 @ City+ & Roast 4 @ City+ again.

Man, if you didn't know my temperatures were bonkers you'd have thought i planned this out!

You definitely want to spend a good amount of time in development. I did have a lot of success with one profile that involved a very slow but steady ROR during that phase; I roasted for 3 more minutes after the first crack began (which sounds like C+ or beyond in my typical profiles), but finished in a temperature range I'd ordinarily think of as on the borderline of C/C+. This roast required a lot of rest to tame its initial harshness, but ended up tasting wonderful.

But if you want to keep things simple the first time out, just go slow and steady to a deep C+. The roast notes on this coffee are lovely, and worth experiencing as both brew and espresso preparations.

tburres wrote:Played around with osanco's advice for low/no fan speed and lower temps at the charge with another bean last night and still got a very fast turnaround, will experiment with a slower drum speed next go around to see if that helps get more of the beans on the BT probe. Having fun!

I added tasting notes to previous posts, but I am more listening in to the group at this point -

My tasting notes:
9/10 roast to C+: 10 oz capp on 9/16 was very enjoyable, rich chocolates, nice finish, not getting tropical fruits. The smell of the ground beans is interesting and I can see where the "pepper" references are coming from. I can't quite identify exactly what I am smelling but I like it. I have enjoyed this Sumatra more than the previous one, but haven't been able to analyze very closely yet due to busy schedule over the past week.

Did what I would call a pourover with my second roast - using a simple Melita Ready Set Joe and paper filter, 25g coffee ground fairly fine on my HG1, 400g water at 200F. I am getting some baking spice, cinnamon maybe and there is a faint fruit in the background, but I can't distinguish it clearly. Very enjoyable to me though.

I seen your roasting 250g in a 1000g roaster
You will not get good BTs and your TP will be fast..
I find that 400g is the lowest I would use but get much better results with 700g
My TP most roasts I shoot for 1:15 @175°
I can never get my TP to 1:30 unless I roast 1200-1300g
I Charge, Fan Off, Gas Off for the first min. then Gas on, Fan On lowest setting..
I never increase fan more than 10 points from where it starts turning or all the heat is blown out quickly..
Most of my roast is at the lowest fan or just 2-3 points higher till DEV. and even then I just use 5 points unless my temps start going sky high..
I drop my gas 1/3 a full 1 1/2 to 2 mins before 1C to get roast under control. or I'll have to add a lot of fan.

[creative nickname] wrote:This roast required a lot of rest to tame its initial harshness, but ended up tasting wonderful.

I chewed one of the greens post roast. I definitely tasted spicy tomato/vinegar based BBQ sauce.... i think this will be an interesting coffee to say the least-- but i'm not sure i'd be game to drink BBQ sauce in the morning... Hopefully that'll fade out with some rest time.

Added roast details above-- no graphs, Artisan & Quest are fighting (again).

I am enjoying a great capp this morning from my 9/12 roast to FC. Both of the Sumatrans I have been working with seemed to need more rest than I typically gave - I usually dive in after 3 days, but I am finding I get a lot better results at about 5 days - patience grasshopper...

And thanks for the feedback on TP JK - sounds like I am seeing whaI should expect at the lower charge mass.

Jaxx2112 wrote:I chewed one of the greens post roast. I definitely tasted spicy tomato/vinegar based BBQ sauce.... i think this will be an interesting coffee to say the least-- but i'm not sure i'd be game to drink BBQ sauce in the morning... Hopefully that'll fade out with some rest

Yeah, my experience is that BBQ goes away with rest. The coffee becomes a pleasant sweet, fruity, a little chocolatey cup. A week rest really helped. See here: Roast and Learn Together - September 2014

Overall, I think I prefer a 410F final temp to a 428F. I think that'd be City+ vs Full City+. Not what I usually think for a Sumatra.

+1

I cupped both of my roasts Monday. My declining ROR roast had a bitter tang that I thought might be a processing defect. On the whole, it was a complex and well differentiated cup, but that tang ruined it for me. I'm drinking it this morning and that "defect" is entirely gone. Fragrance is spicy beef broth, aroma is sweet cedar chocolate vanilla floral, light malic acidity (opposed to lemon on Monday), sweet lingering blackstrap molasses with a hint of dark chocolate. Not to shabby. I dropped this roast at 410F (what my 410F is compared to your's we can only guess) , but I think I'd prefer it at closer to my 420F.

The good news is I dropped the flat ROR roast at 420F and I'll know (and probably report) what a difference that makes.

Edit:

The flat ROR roast has some chocolate, low acidity, an okay body and aftertaste, but compared to the declining ROR roast, it's..well..flat. Shocking right?

I don't believe my results to be entirely expositive. I'm not sure if my interpretation of a declining ROR roast is anything even close to what Scott Rao is advocating or if my flat ROR roast is anything he'd care to avoid.

-although judging from the cup, I feel like something went wrong. Probably too high an initial drop temp and too high a finish temp.

I'll keep chipping away at it.

I roasted 1.5 pounds in a one kilo electric roaster last Tuesday. I brought the coffee along slowly and stopped 30 seconds after the start of 1C resulting in a C+/FC- roast. Brewed in a TV this morning, I found this coffee to be quite delicious. I picked up many of the descriptors related in the cupping notes. I particularly agree with the assessment that there is a long aftertaste but I did not find that there was any lingering bitterness. I was a little surprised because the handful of Sumatras I have tried in the past have not been among my favorites but this one is very good. I will try it as a SO shot later today. With the sweetness and complexity I am getting from the brewed coffee, I suspect it will be very nice indeed.

Roast 3 Info (roasted 9/20):

Bean: Sumatra Lintong Aek Nauli
Roaster: TJ-067 gas
Charge Mass: 300g
Charge Temp: 250 F
Dry/Ramp/Development: 4:45/3:50/2:25
Finish Temp: 407F
Overall Roast Time: 11:00
Moisture Loss: 16.3%

TP at 1:00
1Cs at 8:35 386F



Tasting Notes:
9/26 - pulled 2 doubles at 18g/188 27g/28s for a 12 oz capp. Noticed a definite sweetness, fruitiness in the aroma of the dried grounds that was not there in previous roasts. A great drink, with definite and distinct differences over the previous roasts and the Guatemalan I have been roasting lately so I am happy to be able to see the variations both in the different origins and the different roasts of this coffee.

Did a pourover/drip today as well - 25g with 400g of water @ 200F. I never understood what was meant by coffee being "juicy" until this cup - very cool! Definitely getting the fruits and I think what I would probably call a pumpkin pie type spice if that makes sense.