tamarian wrote:
Not sure where are the rest of the participants, or the instigator of this hole thing, Dave (I need my January coffee!), but I'm greatly enjoying this project and doing things I rarely do, like cupping and sampling, or roasting WP Ethiopian coffee.

Well, you guys "flushed" me out (says the guy in his second day of a diverticulitis attack). I have done two 2 pound roasts. I roast in a 4 pound RK drum in a Weber 36000 BTU gas grill with a 60rpm motor. I limit to 2 pounds to keep my times down. And I roast 2 pounds to keep my BT thermocouple in the beans. I get pretty consistent times and temps this way.
Here are my notes:
Roast 1: 300f BT at 5 minutes
1C at 10 minutes BT 410f
Drop at 12:12 BT 434F I called this a City+ at 14.1% weight loss. I know these temps are quite a bit higher than I see most of you guys reporting, but they are very consistent for my set up.
18 hours rest, the dry grounds had sweet chocolate and nutty aroma, 1st sip hot from an impress brew had a surprising melon flavor - like honeydew I think.
Day 2 the honeydew was still there and something else too. Maybe papaya.
Day 3 I brewed a vac pot that failed to impress. Must be me.
Days 4, 5 and 6 a tea like taste emerged and a floral quality.

Roast 2: 300f BT at 5:25
1C at 10:30, BT 410f
Drop at 11:44, BT 426f, 13.2% weight loss. I call this a City roast. It's the lightest roast I've ever done.
With 22 hours rest, I thought the dry beans had a bit of soy sauce aroma. Ground, the aroma was pure cocoa. Brewed in the Impress the taste was all cocoa and tea, sweet and balanced.
The next day with another 24 hours rest, still sweet, floral and tea like.
And that's the end of my tasting for this batch as my condition precludes more coffee drinking.

An interesting thought just occurred to me. I'm not sure I could distinguish my roasts of this coffee from my roasts of the Guatemala we did last month.

tamarian wrote:I'm just assuming there is a January coffee, not sure what beans it is, but I probably want it

Boar.d.Laze and Rick (RGroz) are Jan/Feb facilitators. I would expect them to announce around Dec 15th. They were trying to coordinate so you could shop at one place and keep shipping costs down.

I will be roasting the Ethiopian some time later this month. I have had my hands full with roasting 9 coffees for review/evaluation by the Gopher Gulpers and then turning around and pumping out greens.


B|Java

I am still on board, too; roasted 4 batches of 150 g. each, with a few roasting snags that I will describe later. I will evaluate in due time, after a few days rest.

Andy

Since this coffee has such a clean, sweet, well defined acidity, I'm going to set aside a small bit of it to enhance an espresso blend, since the only thing I find this coffee lacking is body and mouthfeel. I love blending and we don't discuss it much here. It's almost a faux paus, but people should be encouraged to follow their own palates and desires rather than conform to what's popular. I'm going to dig thru my stock and find my best Colombian that exhibits the best body and structure and play with the two. I think any other types mixed in would overwhelm the Ethiopian, but it should be fun to try. I only regret not getting a more diverse selection of Colombians this year when they were available.

I have been following the thread while out of town. Back now and roasting today, will participate properly later in the week.

Just out of curiosity, what do people mean by "roasting for espresso"? I have understood that one coffee may be better than another for SO espresso, but what is different in how it is roasted. Please PM me if you think it will divert from the thread.

As long as it pertains to this coffee, then it's fair game in this thread. In my case, having a hybrid design sort of machine such as the Strega, I can pull super bright acidic coffees and still end up with balance and harmony in the cup. i.e., something like the Guate Geisha can be incredible in my machine. I wouldn't even bother pulling it (although I've tried) on my old Duetto. So, I don't have to veer to far in any one type of roast method if I want to use this washed Ethiopian as a SO espresso. But using it in a blend, likely means a different overall profile or consider a melange. I think the later is a better idea.

Some coffees end up too bright, and unbalanced as espresso. A coffee like this will likely make an incredible SO espresso, since it also cools quite sweet, but it lacks body so I'd consider trying to amp it up as long as I don't bury the features in it I like. I'm considering using a tad bit of it for a blend as well. Whether it's a Colombian, or perhaps the Salvadorian Orange Bourbon I have coming, each of the two body enhancing coffees in the blend would benefit from a more traditional approach to what I normally roast for espresso, longer p1C development, really stretching it out, keeping it just under a stall, and letting a lot more caramelization occur than I normally would do for a simple cupping roast where all I want then is unique varietal character and as little roast character as possible. In my mind, it would be an interesting melange roast to try. My restock on the Orange Bourbon (which is already a wonderful SO coffee) shipped today from Klatch, so it will be a few days before I can even try this, but I plan on reporting back with what I find.

johnlyn wrote:...

Just out of curiosity, what do people mean by "roasting for espresso"? I have understood that one coffee may be better than another for SO espresso, but what is different in how it is roasted. Please PM me if you think it will divert from the thread.

We probably all mean something a little bit differently. Many folks are roasting lighter and lighter on their single origins for espresso. Not me. When I post, "roasting for espresso," I am taking it into the first outliers of second crack and dropping it for an external cool.

Will you be trying this with this coffee? I tend to change around in characteristics. I like balance whether that is on the acidic fruity end or on the chocolate caramelization end. Both appeal to me.

When you say "melange", is that when you mix two different roasts of the same coffee? I just did that with leftovers from the guat with interesting results.

johnlyn wrote:When you say "melange", is that when you mix two different roasts of the same coffee? I just did that with leftovers from the guat with interesting results.

Yes.

johnlyn wrote:Will you be trying this with this coffee? ...

Completely depends on the taste I get when I do a pourover. That is always where I begin.