dustin360 wrote:Ive roasted coffee with a thermocouple drilled into the center of a bean before

Hahahaha, perfectly normal. Nothing to see here.

Making materials smaller is easy, you just have to use the right equipment, and there are dozens of "particle-size reduction" methods. Let's say you do manage to get greens into smaller pieces. Even if you get some fines, you can always screen them out, same for the overly large particles, too.

You say roasting will be the greatest challenge. Maybe not. with uniform particles you can roast using a true fluid bed; i.e., where all the particles are lofted at the same time.

The problem I see with this is that you lose some of the roasting chemistry that goes on inside the bean with water and other volatiles. Because of the small size and huge surface area, you are going to lose these volatiles very quickly, and they are needed for many of the chemical reactions.

I think the result would be so different, you wouldn't call it coffee. My guess is that the brew would taste more like Ovaltine or tea made from ground Graham crackers, that is, mostly baked flavors.

Dan Bollinger wrote:Because of the small size and huge surface area, you are going to lose these volatiles very quickly, and they are needed for many of the chemical reactions.

"Bingo" went off in my head... I find this line of reasoning convincing.

(not to mention I find sieved coffee to taste worse rather than better). If/when I do this is will be for fun sake only, not to yeild a better cup.

Ok ground a Dry processed Ethiopia on what I would use for a v60. It smelled amazing coming out of the grinder, and in the bag i kept it in. Roasted it on the stove for about 10 mins, there was some cracking. But it didnt sound like a normal first crack, it also came when the beans were just turning tan(not towards the end of the roast). 12.26 percent weight loss, which should be in the realm of normal. The green coffee ended up grinding a lot coarser than than roasted coffee would.

Also spoiler alert!!!

Grinding green coffee still produces fines!!! look at the photos!!!!

I haven't tasted it yet, but will tomorrow.

This is so cool, Dustin! How did you grind the green coffee? Was it with your Ditting? Any problems doing that?

I love that Dustin is actually trying this experiment. Crazy

I cant help doing stupid or awesome experiments... if i could somehow figure out how to make a job out of it I would be the happiest person alive.

Anyway, though I could of used my Ditting... I substituted the "cough..." work "...cough..." grinder "...cough, cough..." But I only ground a small of coffee(60grams) to mitigate any negative effects on the grinder. Plus I dropped them in very slowly while the grinder was all ready running. (should of went to Safeway, now that I think about it).

I brewed a cup of this today, and it tasted pretty awful. Like super watery fermented watermelon with rice. It tasted like coffee just past the drying stage. But the weight loss was that of a coffee post first crack...? The grounds were really course, and the water pretty much went right threw it. Also pretty much no Co2 was released when water hit it.

Biggest take away: Grinding a natural coffee smells delicious out of the grinder.

Cool that you did the experiment!!

I guessing the flavor of the coffee was somewhat in the range you expected?

I too applaud your experimental bent.

But the weight loss was that of a coffee post first crack...?

My guess:

The higher surface area to volume ratio of smaller particles probably allow more weight loss at a lower level of roast than a whole bean. I would also guess that the volatiles that give flavors we want, have stay inside the bean during various phases of the roasting process, and are evaporated sooner from smaller particles. This would also effect taste.

Maybe try roasting to a higher level and see what happens; Vienna or French Roast.

QUESTION: How would grinding green beans damage the burrs? Couldn't the first grind be very coarse and then grind a second or third time to get to the fineness you want? (I guess I better try it myself. )

I do get the idea of not wanting to tear down the grinder to clean clogged burrs. But these things are hardened steel; aren't they tough enough to not get damaged? I don't know from experience.