How many days of rest do you guys typically give to freshly roasted beans, particularly when roasting lighter? Is it normal for lighter roasts to taste underdeveloped for the first couple days until they "open" up?

On the other hand, is a rest period necessary for roasts that are darker (FC to FC+). Curious to learn what your experiences are.

Thanks!
-Dave

In my experience a longer rest is needed for darker roast, it mellows out the roast flavors a bit. With light roast it depends on the bean really... Some are good after 3 days, some taste "grassy" up until day 8-9, a lot taste grassy/vegetal no matter how long you wait

I don't think there are standard rest periods for any roast, it's more dependent on the bean IME. You won't know until you try. I usually start trying beans at day 3 just to see where they are at. Hope this helps.

It matters a lot more for espresso than for drip. Shortly after roasting the beans are offgassing a lot of CO2. Since espresso extracts very quickly under pressure all of that CO2 is released in the crema which leads to very bubbly crema. But the real problem is that under pressure the CO2 is also converted to carbonic acid which imparts a harsh or astringent taste (could be why crema doesn't actually taste very good) which will mask the other delicate flavors. Once this process dies down and the harshness fades the other flavors can come through.

Dark roasts offgas more quickly and need less rest - usually 3 days is sufficient. Lighter roasts offgas much more slowly since the beans are less porous and therefore require more rest - typically around 5-7 days but some very light and acidic roasts can require more to taste best.

For non-espresso preparation methods a day or two should usually be fine. Experiment and see what you think.

I roast light and usually start drinking it by the next day and almost never start after more than two days. Almost always prefer my roasts during the first week with only an occasional exception. Sometimes need an extra day or so with espresso to get rid of any harshness, but been mostly doing Chemex and Siphon. I don't recall a bean in a long time that I liked better at day 10 or later vs. day 2 or 3. YMMV of course.

keno wrote:It matters a lot more for espresso than for drip. Shortly after roasting the beans are offgassing a lot of CO2. Since espresso extracts very quickly under pressure all of that CO2 is released in the crema which leads to very bubbly crema. But the real problem is that under pressure the CO2 is also converted to carbonic acid which imparts a harsh or astringent taste (could be why crema doesn't actually taste very good) which will mask the other delicate flavors. Once this process dies down and the harshness fades the other flavors can come through.

Dark roasts offgas more quickly and need less rest - usually 3 days is sufficient. Lighter roasts offgas much more slowly since the beans are less porous and therefore require more rest - typically around 5-7 days but some very light and acidic roasts can require more to taste best.

For non-espresso preparation methods a day or two should usually be fine. Experiment and see what you think.

I've had the opposite experience with dark roast, but I haven't had that many besides a monsooned blend, so I think that accounts for the longer wait (which I didn't think about when I gave my advice). I use medium roast 90% of the time.

Thanks for the responses! It seems that I've been digging in too early on the coffee I've been roasting lately, where I finished most of the batch within the first two days of roasting.

I asked this question because today I was pleasantly surprised by a 5-day old guatemalan roasted to C+ that had been tasting pretty muted, grassy, and astrngent on day one and two. It had evolved into tasting balanced and tea-like with a distinct raw granulated sugar finish.

I guess I'll have to just suck it up and wait 2-3 days before I start trying my roasts.

I'll brew coffee that's just cooled from a roast if I have no coffee. It's not ideal, but better than not drinking coffee at all. Anyway, I won't pull a shot from a fresh roast, but that has more to do with not wanting to readjust my grinder

I use an unventilated drum, so YMMV, but I try to wait 5 days. Unless I'm out.

Best way to know is taste it over time, not just when it's ready, but when it peaks, how long that lasts, and when it fades before staling.

Ellejaycafe wrote:I've had the opposite experience with dark roast, but I haven't had that many besides a monsooned blend, so I think that accounts for the longer wait (which I didn't think about when I gave my advice). I use medium roast 90% of the time.

I agree that monsooned requires a longer rest.

My dark roasts were usually phenomenal in the 2-3 days range. I can't explain to you why blends like Redbird require a lot of rest though. Is this due to it being a low altitude brazil? Ill admit a lot of my dark roasts are africans.