Hi,

Yesterday I loaded some coffee into the GS/3 that I roasted on the Quest M3 4 days ago and was surprised by an overabundance of crema (not in a good way). I've worked with plenty of coffee that needed more than 4 days' rest to produce a drinkable cup, but this was ridiculous, and the result tasted very basic (as in PH), ala freshly roasted coffee that still had a lot of degassing to do.

I'm thinking maybe I stalled the roast somewhere during first crack and maybe it's under-done, but that's just a guess. The don't appear as smooth as I would expect, but then again the greens were several years old and I'm not even sure what they were (except I know they're Guatemalan, and very small!).

If I grind then let the beans sit for a few minutes to degass before pulling, the beans don't taste horrible (relative to my other roasts at least). This would normally indicate that the beans needed a few more days of degassing, but again, they're 5 days out now and they're behaving as if they were freshly roasted.

Has anyone ever experienced this before?

Thanks,

Frank

If the bad crema is a result of excess CO2, stalling would not cause it, since the beans are outgassing throughout the roast. The effect would be rather the opposite. Perhaps the beans arre so old, that they are dryer than the usual minimum of 10%. With less water vapor steaming out of the beans, the CO2 may also have a harder time getting out.

Just a theory. Wonder if anyone else has observed this with older beans.

Haven't heard of that before at 5 days out though I don't have the experience of some on here.dunno

Lack of moisture seems like a decent theory -- they do look a bit like a dessicated mummy post-roast. I took the batch I roasted immediately after these (same beans) closer to second crack, thinking that I had under-roasted the first batch, but they look the same. I haven't tried them yet but they'll be in my hopper next.

As I telling another member here, living in Portland, just a few blocks from Heart roasters and so many others, sometimes home roasting feels like folly I finish so many cups of coffee at home that I would put in the bus tray after one sip if I were in an actual shop. At least this last batch got the high praise from my wife of being "drinkable."

Thanks,

Frank

What is the percentage weight loss after roasting? Was it less than 15 percent?

dogjamboree wrote:As I telling another member here, living in Portland, just a few blocks from Heart roasters and so many others, sometimes home roasting feels like folly I finish so many cups of coffee at home that I would put in the bus tray after one sip if I were in an actual shop.

Something wrong with this. Given that you're using a Quest, you should be able to match the quality of just about any professional roaster. What we, as small-batch home roasters can't do, is get anywhere near the consistency. What we can do is throw out our mistakes; they do.

Demand more from yourself. Worth saying that I learned a big part of that lesson here.

Like everyone else, my first guess was that your problem was related to too-long storage/moisture loss. But that's a guess. There may or may not be anything wrong with those old beans. Four days is not a long rest, and some roasts take nine or ten days to settle down. If, after a long rest, they are still problematic throw them out along with whatever greens are left.

BDL

Not sure what the post-roast weight was -- I'm noting that information after all roasts now, but I wasn't in the past.

To BDL's point, I'm enough of a newbie roaster that there are probably half a dozen things I could have done to cause this to happen. One last piece of data to close out this thread -- the beans went from still having too much crema on day 7, to having almost none on day 8...go figure.

Thanks for all the responses, as usual.

Frank

Hey Frank,

It's sounding like those greens went south a while ago. Toss 'em.

How long have you been roasting?

Are you getting much in the way of advice for the Quest? I know it's got an extremely large and helpful user base. They should be able to dance you though the newbie blues pretty quickly.

I don't have any time on a Quest, and I'm just stumbling along in the dark myself, but let me know if there's anything I can do.

Rich

Thanks for the offer Rich. I roasted on a Behmor for about 6 months before buying the Quest about a year ago, but I didn't get around to learning how to use it and actually roasting on it util about a month ago. In that period of time I already feel like I've come a long way, but not nearly far enough

I've been using the old greens in order to get to know the roaster, but I think you're right, it's time to move on to fresher stuff. I just got a 20-pound bag of Guatemalan's (can't remember which off the top of my head) from Sweet Maria's that I'm excited to put through the paces.

Everyone on the forum here has been great in answering questions so I'll keep asking!

Thanks,

Frank