Light roast coffee for pour-over, how long do you wait.

Coffee preparation techniques besides espresso like pourover.
Acavia
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#1: Post by Acavia »

I used to start brewing coffee around 4 to 7 days post roast, o matter the roast level - although I mostly used light roasts. Also, after 8 to 10 days, I would vacuum-seal freeze 3 to 5 day rations.

For the last few months, I have been waiting 14+ days, and some 18+. Coffee seems better: smoother, richer, sweeter.

Recently I had some Yemen coffee I did not enjoy much. I started it around 16 days, but only brewed half of it, forgetting about the rest until a few days ago when I noticed the bag. I started brewing the rest of it, 42 days post roast. With these 42+ post roast brews, I enjoyed the coffee. It is rich, sweet, complex and it lost some of the natural/dry process taste it had which is what I did not like in the previous brews.

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mkane
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#2: Post by mkane »

PO here 99.9% of the time and we start as soon as 1hr after it leaves the roaster. I'll roast at least 5 - 340g roasts. Most if not all are a medium roast, approximately 420°. Seems as though 3-5 days post roast is optimal. I'll vacuum seal what's hasn't been drank and freeze.

Granted these are not light roasts. I can't imagine waiting 40 days without feeling guilty.

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Brewzologist
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#3: Post by Brewzologist »

Some coffees benefit from more rest than others. Yemeni and Ethiopian coffees are examples of this. I like to rest my coffees at least 3-5 days after roasting, with Africans and Yemenis more like 10-14 days. IMO, coffees do get smoother the longer you wait, but you risk losing floral and fruity aromas and tastes too. I also think acidity suffers if you wait too long. The best thing to do is conduct some taste tests over time and do what works for your taste buds! :wink:
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yakster
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#4: Post by yakster »

Yes, Yemen's are famous for liking more rest. I've started roasting one light roast and a medium-light roast and I start drinking the darker one first so I'm usually hitting the lightest roast with a week or two rest already and I think it's paying dividends.
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Robph914
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#5: Post by Robph914 »

I've been waiting 7-14 days for each new bag of coffee. Doing this has given me much more consistent brews compared to brewing coffee fresh from the roast. Also, if it helps, I've been checking out Sey coffee and they recommend beginning your brewing 14 days after the roast date.

Mbb
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#6: Post by Mbb »

Anywhere from 8 hrs to 2 weeks

Best flavors are often 1-3 days.

But depends on the coffee, and the roast.

Some strong taste do mellow and " improve " over time
But the good sweet flavors tend to go away, imo

Likewise, The water temperature and grind can play a role too. Bringing out flavor that balances, or making acidity overbearing. It's all a continuous balancing act.

But without a doubt, week 1 is best week, with freshest flavors.

mbbrew
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#7: Post by mbbrew »

Rao actually had a post on his instagram about this with some good discussion in the comments. I personally find it to vary wildly from coffee, but I generally don't like anything within the first week. I've had some stuff that peaks after about 2 weeks and some that seems to just keep getting better. Sometimes if I've got a bean that I really really like I will drink the last of it very slowly, and around 3 months seems to be where they fall off, but I've had some unopened stuff that was 3 months post roast that tasted great, I drank it all quickly since I figured it would stale faster than normal though.

K7
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#8: Post by K7 »

Acavia wrote: For the last few months, I have been waiting 14+ days, and some 18+. Coffee seems better: smoother, richer, sweeter.
I pull espresso shots but that's exactly how I would describe as well. I drink light roasts mostly and rest my coffees for 2+ weeks these days, up from 7-9 days previously. In my case it might have something to do with cooler temperature in my house. Used to be 74-78F during summer, now 65-70F. IIRC, there was a paper (by Hendon?) that claimed 10C cooler temperature slows down coffee aging by half.

erik82
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#9: Post by erik82 »

For Nordic roasts I usually wait around 10 days. The first 7 days it just tastes flat and muddy and after that it starts top open up to around 3-4 weeks where everything stabilzes and a very small decline can be noticed. With COVID I had some of my subscriptions from Wendelboe with regular post take over 2-3 months to reach my door and they still tasted really nice but taste declined quicker after you opened the bag.

For this reason I stopped freezing my pourover coffee as I missed way too much great tasting coffee after freezing it at 5-8 days. That's just too short for good quality coffee. After 1,5-2 weeks most light roasted coffees shows it's full potential and you can taste all defects much better so for lesser coffee most of the time it's better to not wait as long and accept the more muddy and flat taste. With really good coffee it's better to just wait for 7-10 days and enjoy it over the next 2-3 weeks.

DamianWarS
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#10: Post by DamianWarS »

Acavia wrote:I used to start brewing coffee around 4 to 7 days post roast, o matter the roast level - although I mostly used light roasts. Also, after 8 to 10 days, I would vacuum-seal freeze 3 to 5 day rations.

For the last few months, I have been waiting 14+ days, and some 18+. Coffee seems better: smoother, richer, sweeter.

Recently I had some Yemen coffee I did not enjoy much. I started it around 16 days, but only brewed half of it, forgetting about the rest until a few days ago when I noticed the bag. I started brewing the rest of it, 42 days post roast. With these 42+ post roast brews, I enjoyed the coffee. It is rich, sweet, complex and it lost some of the natural/dry process taste it had which is what I did not like in the previous brews.
as coffee ages, it does go through further development. darker roasts I wouldn't leave over a month past roast but lighter roast can go longer. This, of course, is not a blanket statement and there's no calculator to figure it out but if the coffee wasn't good at 7, 14, and 18 days but is good 40+ days I would still call that a win even if unexpected. I'm not sure fully what's going on in Yemen but it's where typica-bourbon cultivars originated so perhaps some sort of coffee that is very typica-bourbon like (I think I've even seen names like "ancient typica" being used). I suspect most is dry/natural processed and maybe it's because of the often strong fruit characteristics of naturals I find they can go a little longer and still be enjoyable over a wet-processed coffee. the pain, of course, is waiting 40 days before you can consume coffee but if you already know this and want to buy again start sampling the coffee at a month past roast or just get them a little darker roast to enjoy them earlier.

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