There's a local cafe, Portola Coffee, that has a side concept called Theorem, sort of a personalized, fancy coffee experience. One of the items they served for a while: high scoring burundi coffee that was cold brewed, then aged in a barrel for some time. Made for an interesting beverage.

I've been drinking a lot of Burundi lately, first the Burundi Teka roasted for espresso (they roasted it both ways) from Chromatic Coffee and lately the Verve Burundi Kinyovu I picked up from a local cafe (Avid Coffee) and it was the only coffee they had on hand.

They've both been bright with coriander notes and it was my plan to cold-brew and add to a glass of Tricerahops beer, or just pull a shot and add it to the glass, thinking that it would compliment the hops bite, but I've been under the weather for a few days so I'm not sure I'll get a chance to try this with fresh Burundi. I was thinking a Sidama would also work well.

I'm hoping to swing by Fermentation Solutions tonight before they close and pick up some barrel chunks to start my experiments with green coffee.

Just an observation, but oak barrel chunks are what ruined the reputation of California chardonnay. On the other hand, there is probably more and faster flavor infusion going on in a vat of liquid wine than in a dry container of green coffee. So, that may have no relevance at all.

It will be an interesting experiment, I'm thinking that any effects will be subtle as the coffee will be roasted after the barrel conditioning occurs, but then again, we know natural processing emphasizes the fruity flavors in coffee from the contact with the mucilage. I'll be working with small enough batches at home that even if it's a bust it's not going to be a major loss.

yakster wrote:... I'm thinking that any effects will be subtle as the coffee will be roasted after the barrel conditioning occurs...

It is definitely NOT subtle, I promise you that.

When I stopped by Fermentation Solutions on Friday, I found they had American, French, and Hungarian toasted oak pellets, but no wine, whiskey, or bourbon barrel chunks. I have a couple more shops to try, but may just order the chunks online.

I picked up a couple of two ounce foil vac-seal packets of bourbon barrel chunks at another local brewing shop, MoreFlavor in Los Altos which is the banner for MoreBeer, MoreWine, and MoreCoffee. They had five packets, so I left three behind. They also sell these online.

While I was there, I also picked up a pound of green Ethiopia Guji Natural Sidamo in a similarly vacuum sealed foil bag to roast up from their green coffee corner of the store.

I plan to bottle up different greens with and without the chunks for later roasting and comparison.

Last night I broke open one of the foil packets of bourbon chunks. They come vacuum packed but once opened are very aromatic.





I didn't spend a lot of time last night in deciding which coffees to use with the chunks, I pretty much selected a couple of coffees that I liked, and I have enough green to be able to do this experiment with. I chose a Brazil Candado Peaberry pulp natural which doesn't have a lot of fruity or winey notes and an Ethiopa Haro Sana wet process which does have some very nice fruit flavors. I vacuum sealed one pound of each green coffee with the chunks and another pound of each coffee without the chunks so that I'll be able to make at least two roasts from each coffee with and without bourbon aroma infusion for comparison.



Now it's just a waiting game. I've got another foil packet of bourbon barrel chunks and am considering which coffees to use with this packet.

This is going to be fun to participate in. Chunks will work, my barrels will not. I'd need to use those for liquids only.

Just for shits and giggles, someday I'd probably make an iced coffee and rack it into a barrel for a night or two and sample the results.

I just pulled 60lbs of El Paraiso from Huila Colombia from a Rye whiskey barrel. It rested there just shy of a month. I roasted it to my standard light profile and am tasting it now two days off roast.

The impact is profound. There is little to remind me of this coffee I'm intimately familiar with (I've roasted 2 tons of it). The sweetness is multiplied, the acidity modified, the body amplified. It tastes more like a natural than most naturals. The closest two experiences I've had are Ceremony's barrel conditioned series and last summer's Gelana Abaya DP.

This coffee makes me wonder if alcohols generated from fermentation are responsible for the flavors we associate with naturals. I had previously dripped dry the barrel, but it still stinks of Rye after pulling the coffee from it.

My first roast was a sample size that I wasn't familiar with roasting, and went into deep second crack. The fruity aroma was still quite pungent at this level.