So I have another question for the group. The use of that "disk" to cover the espresso cup and for his specialty drink...what was it? Was it an odor catching disk or just a disk of some sort to trap the aroma? In the end, a smart use of telling the judges what to expect. Personally, I have a much easier time telling friends and family what my espressos smell like, then taste like...which seems more elusive.

baldheadracing wrote:The guidance has to do with how the competition is scored. To over-simplify, you have to tell the judges what they are going to taste, and you get points if they taste it.

Exactly. His entire presentation was building this up even more. His discussion on expectations vs reality building trust showed how confident he was that everything he said would be tasted in the cup. The judges agreed and he won. It's like a batter pointing where the ball will go.

People gotta remember that WBC isn't "world's best coffee" (or espresso drink), it's about the barista. Part of that is the quality of coffee, but it's all about the crafted drink and how the barista sells it. Telling the judges what they're supposed to taste is part of the competition, just like a good barista might tell you the flavors of the coffee in an intimate preparation

So, has anyone tried holding a roast just barely above first crack for 2-3 minutes, i.e. deliberately 'stall' the roast at a relatively low development temperature?

The word "stall" may have negative connotations, but as the OP points out, perhaps that strategy is a viable tradeoff between triggering development phase chemistry and minimizing degradation of the caramelized sugars?

I've observed an exothermic bump in BT 10-15 seconds before any audible cracking sounds. That exothermic bump implies I hit the threshold for first-crack chemistry before actually hearing it - but that was when I was ramping BT at about 10C/min. If I was slowly approaching FC to avoid overshooting, then I suspect the thermal bump would lead the audible cracks even further, making the total development time even longer than Anthony suggested.

GDM528 wrote:So, has anyone tried holding a roast just barely above first crack for 2-3 minutes, i.e. deliberately 'stall' the roast at a relatively low development temperature?

The word "stall" may have negative connotations, but as the OP points out, perhaps that strategy is a viable tradeoff between triggering development phase chemistry and minimizing degradation of the caramelized sugars?

I've observed an exothermic bump in BT 10-15 seconds before any audible cracking sounds. That exothermic bump implies I hit the threshold for first-crack chemistry before actually hearing it - but that was when I was ramping BT at about 10C/min. If I was slowly approaching FC to avoid overshooting, then I suspect the thermal bump would lead the audible cracks even further, making the total development time even longer than Anthony suggested.

I've read (and tried) "stalling" a roast after 2C start. I didn't spend enough time developing a post-2C roasting strategy to contribute much on that topic but I do remember reading about that technique and trying it. I found his note in the presentation to be interesting because I've never heard anyone recommend stalling after first crack start. More surprising to hear it in a competition roast.

My main interest was if this was simply a blind spot that I hadn't run across but it seems that it is a rather unorthodox roasting decision. So that is interesting to me.

I think I will send an email to Axil asking about his comment on the roast. Just to see if his numbers were intend correct before actually trying something like this.

N3Roaster wrote:I've done this a few times as part of an exploration into certain flavor changes that happen early between cracks. My lab roaster lets me pull enough to cup from the trier while maintaining a rate of change steady at a bit under 1F°/min. There is a particular flavor which I personally find objectionable (my preference here is not universal) that never goes away until 10F° above the start of first crack regardless of anything else in the roast profile.

Just came across this post, and I'd like to report that I also came to similar conclusions from my roast experiments. Some "greener" flavor notes just won't go away unless the end temperature exceeds a certain threshold . Fine for some particular coffees, disastrous for others.

Also, in the video he stated that the coffee had been "fermented for 80hrs", and from what I know (and what others said in previous replies), these kinds of coffee probably suits the competition and its scoring sheets better (cup-to-profile scorings).

Depending on what exact fermentation process the coffee went through (and probably other green-related factors), from my experience these kinds of coffee might do fine with a "flattened" curve at the end of a roast. Paired with an extended post crack dev time, you could probably bring the acidity of these long fermentation coffee to an intensity thats more balanced, and the relatively low end temp could possibly preserve more of that unique flavors resulting from the fermentation.

And from what I know and heard, these days competition coffee tends to be roasted with faster profiles, so the 24% development probably corresponds to a 2 min post crack development (assuming the total profile is 8min-ish). Quite a normal duration for post crack development if you ask me (still, depends on the actual green and the roaster used)