I bought two bags of coffee from Stumptown this week and found both to be excessively underdeveloped. There is nice, delicate acidity that points to the flavors indicated on the card, but there's also a biting attack in the finish which is indicative of underdevelopment.

Any tips on how to minimize this unpleasant flavor? I use a V60. Generally 20g coffee to 360g water in ~3 mins.

Rather than start a new thread, I'll add and ask a similar question....

I bought a bag of roasted beans (first time in a while) as it was supposed to be an amazing bean. I cannot get a truly good cup for the life of me. I've tried chemex, v60, kalita, different temperatures, different grind.... It's so frustrating.

Let me ask you something OP - when you're brewing, do you experience pooling in your v60 cone, like the grounds are not soluble enough and absorbing the water? (I"m experiencing that). While I get hints of good flavor, its always dominated by sour acidity and hints of what I call "hot dog water". Is that what you're getting also? That to me indicates under extraction and I've tried everything on Perger's Coffee Compass to counter act that. I'm wondering if I"ve just been fighting an underdeveloped roast and its never going to extract properly.

I once had this issue with multiple bags from Populace, few others on here did as well when they ran a special. They were roasted super light and I think under developed as well. I was getting poor shots and gushers going way finer then I ever have on my Vario and it was struggling grinding as the beans were ridiculously hard. Friend had a K8 and tried as well and was barely better.

A few things I will always try when I am jot getting good results is to go and see how the roaster recommends to make a cup.

Sometimes following their brewing parameters will yield better results.

You can also call or email Stumptown and see if they will help, or maybe even offer to ship you something else you might like.

Otherwise I think sometimes it's a matter of taste, if you don't drink super light roasted coffee regularly those acidic flavors can be too much. I can't handle it if I have been drinking dark roasted coffees for a while.

Would you say the "biting attack" is more bitter/drying or sour/astringent? 3 min sounds a little fast for that amount of coffee/water on a v60. Maybe try grinding a bit finer? Under-development usually tastes like cereal/grassy.

dale_cooper wrote:That to me indicates under extraction and I've tried everything on Perger's Coffee Compass to counter act that. I'm wondering if I"ve just been fighting an underdeveloped roast and its never going to extract properly.

The only other thing I can suggest to try is a long French press immersion (10 min or so) finished off by filtering through a V60 cone. I start similar to the technique in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st571DYYTR8 and then I filter through V60 paper. I get good results with light coffee but if it's badly underdeveloped it may still not be enough.

I'm literally willing to ship these bags of coffee to anyone who has their cupping (palate) and brewing game on point...

Virtuoso, Lido, Feldgrind, Sette - doesn't matter what I use, I am NOT getting a proper brew with v60 or kalita. I'm also monitoring water temp, nothing works. I get closer but still not good.

I'm faiiirly confident my brew process is sound, as its not like every light roasted coffee tastes like this. My light roasts only taste closer to this when I don't roast them properly and they were underdeveloped. I enjoy acidity, but if there isn't sweetness and fruit to balance it, its terrible. It's hard for me to accept that two different pro roasted bags can both be quite bad like this. It makes me wonder if I'm totally missing something or if even pro roasters can make mistakes in certain batches...

FWIW, one of them doesn't taste bad as espresso - quite tangy but not bad at all. Then again my espresso palate is not refined, and I just started making espresso


Any takers?

Dale/Joe - if you've still got some, mail it to 1740 S broadway in Denver, CO "Attn: Doug" and we'll cup it together and see how it brews - we've got a Q grader on staff!

Have you had any success with these coffees yet? I have recently seen several companies that generally roast very lightly start recommending much stronger brew ratios than I had previously seen. You might try 27g coffee and 350g water (1:12.9) and see how that turns out. The stronger ratio seems to smooth out the excessive brightness of very light coffee.

On underdeveloped coffee you may try the same trick as brewing with older coffee. Grind coarser, up your dose and steep time. However keep in mind bad coffee is bad coffee and there is not much you can do to improve it. On the other hand you may simply not like that style of roasting.