Ugly roast curve, great coffee

Discuss roast levels and profiles for espresso, equipment for roasting coffee.
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endlesscycles
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#1: Post by endlesscycles »

I was going to toss this batch after the fuel ran out mid roast, but kept it around just to taste. Curiously, it has extraordinary clarity and raw sugar sweetness. The acidity is focused, but not sharply so. The acidity is actually well integrated with the sweetness. I would have assumed the roast would be baked or rough, which it was neither. In fact, it was cleaner than the redo roast that followed a perfectly smooth and convex curve. I'm sharing simply to remind that all the assumptions we make might be worth testing, even if it means keeping a mistake from going directly to the waste bin.

-Marshall Hance
Asheville, NC

osanco
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Joined: 11 years ago

#2: Post by osanco »

Thanks for sharing this.

I have wondered if there is a difference between externally measured bean temps and actual interior temps?

It looks like you measured a 50 F drop between about 6:15 and 7:15. It's possible that the interior bean temp decreased by less than that. If I understand your post, you don't feel as if you stalled the roast to negative effect?

This is your fluid bed roaster?

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endlesscycles (original poster)
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#3: Post by endlesscycles (original poster) »

Yes, fluid bed. In fact, I actually picked up more baked notes in the control roast that I wouldn't have noticed if it was not tasted side by side with this roast. The control didn't go full bore 30F/min into FC, and it was dropped at 1:30 405F instead of 1:00 410F. Both were roasted at very high airflow.

I can imagine the very center of the coffee being 50F behind the surface temp, but most of the coffee definitely lost heat, no doubt.

This makes me wonder how a smoother version of this might look / taste. That would be very fast to yellow, then either creep along until some point to full heat to finish it off, or straight line 15F/min to finish, which seems better to me. Both are too "against the rules" for me to believe it, but I sat there with multiple cupping bowls tasting it side by side with the control roast, and I preferred the mistake.
-Marshall Hance
Asheville, NC

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LDT
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#4: Post by LDT »

I have a question and a comment. First the question: from a physical/physchological standpoint, I wonder if our taste buds and other sensory organs function the same over time. Could it be that what we liked yesterday may be percieved a bit differently tomorrow? Sometimes I have wondered this about my own perceptions of what I like in coffee. Enough of the theoretical and on to my comment.

I attended the SCAA function in Portland, OR the last time it was here and remember a sales person with a company known for its gas-fired, drum roasters commenting on how many different ways you can roast green coffee beans and still obtain a pleasing result. Makes you wonder about all the attention given to profiles. :?

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endlesscycles (original poster)
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#5: Post by endlesscycles (original poster) »

There are also a lot of ways to get bad tasting coffee. What I want from my coffee is more a matter of what I don't want: roast or bake. What's there when I don't taste them is just the coffee, sweet and focused.

More sweet, more focused, more good.
-Marshall Hance
Asheville, NC

dustin360
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#6: Post by dustin360 »

Haha, rad. I love happy mistakes when roasting. From your other posts it seems like this would never be an intentional profile for you(time wise). But personally I dont think the timing of the roast is way out of the range of possible tasty profiles(3:45/6/1). I did some timing experiments when I first started roasting, where I would stretch certain parts of the roast, and then cup the results. One of the things I learned was stretching out the Mid phase on a high acid coffee, could turn that acidity into sweetness.


Maybe this roast stalled before caramelization started, which would prevent it from being "baked". According to Schooly caramelization starts around first crack. (I hate using the word baked, because it gets throw around without clear definition so often).

Any way it would be fun to run a roast with this same profile(minus the dip) in a straight line, as well as one that is really slow after drying and then speeds up after 3 or 4 mins, and then one that slows to a crawl where the dip happened.

Please share the experiments you run!