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March 2010 roast comparison and tasting bean swap.
seedlings
Vacuum cleaner (careful) or compressed air ThumbsUp

CHAD
Roaster: CoffeeAir II 2# DIY air roaster
Grinder: Vintage Grindmaster 500
Brewers: Vintage Cory DCU DCL, Aeropress, Press, Osaka Titanium pourover
 
randytsuch
Just finished my internal cupping "competition" a little while ago.

I had roasted a bunch of batches last week, using different profiles.

The winner was a medium profile, not the fastest or the slowest.
2nd place was the faster profile, and I only did this roast last night, so I am going to cup once more tomorrow, between 1st and 2nd place, and see if the rankings stand.

One thing that surprised me was that I was able to easily smell and taste the difference in the batches, I was wondering if I would have trouble ranking the batches, but it wasn't a problem.

I had five batches to cup today, and I did two seperate cuppings, 3 in each cupping. The winner of the first cupping was also in the 2nd, and ended up as the overall winner.

I used 7 grams of coffee (I have a scale), and about 5 ounces of water per. Seemed to work fine.

Now, a cupping question.
I was thinking it would be hard to cup all 9 entries at once, and I might split it up into two cuppings, to make the logistics easier. The problem with that is that you wouldn't get to compare all the roasts directly to each other.

Thoughts?

Oh, and now I'm hoping that I can recreate my "winning" roast tomorrow, we shall see.

Just remembered one more question I had.
There is a fair amount of variation in the size of these beans, and I am getting a pretty large difference in colors of the beans post roast, more then I usually see. I have been doing a little culling, but was thinking of doing a more thourough job of culling for the comparision.
What are you guys going to do?

Randy
 
bvwelch
Hi Randy,

9? I count 8, including myself. Mailing out to 7 folks. Did I miss anyone?

Here's my two cents worth - I've heard this type of coffee is supposed to be a bit wild, and that newbies tend to over-cull. I guess I'm in that camp-- way-off color, badly broken, insect bitten, hulls/shells - toss 'em.

bill

ps: Shall we start a spoilers thread? I've got photos! :-)
Edited by bvwelch on 03/20/2010 4:01 PM
 
randytsuch

Quote

bvwelch wrote:
Hi Randy,

9? I count 8, including myself. Mailing out to 7 folks. Did I miss anyone?

Here's my two cents worth - I've heard this type of coffee is supposed to be a bit wild, and that newbies tend to over-cull. I guess I'm in that camp-- way-off color, badly broken, insect bitten, hulls/shells - toss 'em.


No, you're right, I just counted 8 total.
Not sure why I thought 9, maybe it was because somebody dropped out.

OK, culling it is. I started looking for small, off color and other defective beans.

Randy
 
John Despres
I very seldom cull my roasts. The gray ones will be sour tasting and the brown beans rather sweet. Be certain to taste them to learn which ones to keep and which to toss.

Here's my culling rule of thumb - If it's brown, drink it down; if it's gray, throw it away.

John


Respect the bean.
John Despres
Fresh Roast 8, Gene Cafe, JYTT 1k, Quest M3, Mazzer Mini, Technivorm, various size presses and many more brewers.
 
gene
John is right about 10 grams after all. 15 is too bulky in envelope-just tried it.
And 10 gives us plenty to cup.

My hat is off to you John, wiser heads prevail!

gene
 
endlesscycles
I use a 12pack of 8oz ball mason jars for cupping. 10g of coffee and water almost to the top, so the bloom comes to the top.

I spent a long weekend playing in the woods and just got back and cupped 7 roasts that spanned a wide range of quality and a narrow range of profiles, leaving me a little confused. At least I found some direction to take this. I just repeated as close as possible to what I think should be nice, twice. I'm looking forward to good discussion and another round.
-Marshall Hance
Asheville, NC
 
John Despres
Hmmmm. I just sealed 8 15 gram vacuum packed packages. Yer all getting 15 grams from me.

I'm able to get them to lay out in a one bean layer so they'll fit vary nicely in a # 11 envelope folded inside a sheet of paper (the roast log).

Vac sealed this way, they look like strips of bacon... Mmmm.

Happy tasting, all.

John
Respect the bean.
John Despres
Fresh Roast 8, Gene Cafe, JYTT 1k, Quest M3, Mazzer Mini, Technivorm, various size presses and many more brewers.
 
seedlings
John, who's the 8th envelope addressed to? I counted 7 addresses in the email. Are you packing one sample in the same manner as those you shipped, to save for your own cupping?

Today: trim, caulk, lay carpet, paint... don't forget to mail the coffee!! I've had some trouble "nailing" this Ethiopian. Seems like I can smell the flavors, but can't taste them... alas, this is what's going out. I don't have much left to test. Honestly, I was obsessed to get a "black tea" flavor to go away. Maybe it's just supposed to be there? I give up.

On the bright side, we ran out of #40 legal envelopes, but 15g will fit in a #80. ThumbsUp

CHAD
Edited by seedlings on 03/21/2010 11:01 PM
Roaster: CoffeeAir II 2# DIY air roaster
Grinder: Vintage Grindmaster 500
Brewers: Vintage Cory DCU DCL, Aeropress, Press, Osaka Titanium pourover
 
bvwelch
For anyone who's bored (snowed-in, etc), here's my attempt at photos of the roast. Outdoors, sunny and windy. Dumped the roast onto a white paper towel from the kitchen (bad idea?), camera is inexpensive digital Kodak, no flash, 'macro' setting.

Roast comments and photo-shoot tips are both welcome!

http://photos.bvw...march2010/
 
John Despres

Quote

seedlings wrote:
John, who's the 8th envelope addressed to? I counted 7 addresses in the email. Are you packing one sample in the same manner as those you shipped, to save for your own cupping?
CHAD


Yep, kept one for myself. Well, I didn't actually address an envelope to me, just vac sealed a batch of beans for me.

I also had trouble nailing this one. This was a bit of a frustrating coffe for me, but I think I'm pretty happy with the roast that's going out.

John
Edited by John Despres on 03/22/2010 7:30 AM
Respect the bean.
John Despres
Fresh Roast 8, Gene Cafe, JYTT 1k, Quest M3, Mazzer Mini, Technivorm, various size presses and many more brewers.
 
gene
Getting a new Baratza Vario in mail this week. Won't be back to try it til this weekend.

What kind of setting to grind for cupping?
More toward drip, espresso or in between- which would be press pot?

Thanks,
gene
 
seedlings

Quote

gene wrote:
Getting a new Baratza Vario in mail this week. Won't be back to try it til this weekend.

What kind of setting to grind for cupping?
More toward drip, espresso or in between- which would be press pot?

Thanks,
gene


Fun new toy!

Grind should be:
FINE -> Espresso
Medium-> Drip
Coarse -> press/cupping

All has to do with the amount of time the coffee is in contact with water. :30 for espresso, 2:00? for drip, 4:00? for press/cupping ... there's some give and take in there.

CHAD
Roaster: CoffeeAir II 2# DIY air roaster
Grinder: Vintage Grindmaster 500
Brewers: Vintage Cory DCU DCL, Aeropress, Press, Osaka Titanium pourover
 
seedlings

Quote

gene wrote:
Just went to the PO to have 15 grams worth of beans assessed in an envelope. Instead of $.44 cents it will be .64. Not bad.

Postmaster said weight no prob. It will automatically be in non-sortable category because slight bulk won't go thru USPS automated equipment.
Can still use regular envelope.

Getting exciting!
Great weekend for roasting outside. I had planned on roasting Sun nite after trip to SC but that has been cancelled. Now plans are for Sat. Bring it on!

gene


Lucky. They charged me $1.22 per.

CHAD
Roaster: CoffeeAir II 2# DIY air roaster
Grinder: Vintage Grindmaster 500
Brewers: Vintage Cory DCU DCL, Aeropress, Press, Osaka Titanium pourover
 
bvwelch
Mine cost $1.05 per. Probably would have been cheaper if I'd had an extra envelope-- the postal worker was quite interested. :-)
 
randytsuch

Quote

seedlings wrote:

Lucky. They charged me $1.22 per.

CHAD


You got robbed. I went a little while ago, and they also charged me 64 cents per to ship these.

On a side note. I am going on vacation for a few days startiing Sunday, so I hope to cup everything on Saturday, hope I got all the samples by then.
If not, it'll have to wait until Weds when I get back. If everyone roasted this weekend, they will be about 10 days old then, so I think it will be fine.

BTW, when I did my cuppings, I also had small differences in profiles that appeared to make a big difference in the cup. I'm now wondering how close I got to what I was aiming for, I was not able to duplicate my "target" profile as well as I had hoped, guess we will see.

Randy
 
John Despres
Mine went out for 64 cents each. Just a standard #11 envelope with the profile and 15 grams each...

Interesting.

John
Respect the bean.
John Despres
Fresh Roast 8, Gene Cafe, JYTT 1k, Quest M3, Mazzer Mini, Technivorm, various size presses and many more brewers.
 
Hamilton

Quote

John Despres wrote:

Quote

seedlings wrote:
John, who's the 8th envelope addressed to? I counted 7 addresses in the email. Are you packing one sample in the same manner as those you shipped, to save for your own cupping?
CHAD


Yep, kept one for myself. Well, I didn't actually address an envelope to me, just vac sealed a batch of beans for me.

I also had trouble nailing this one. This was a bit of a frustrating coffe for me, but I think I'm pretty happy with the roast that's going out.

John


I just gave up trying to really 'nail' the profile on this one. The beans are so small and they kept ending much darker than I wanted/thought they would. By my final roast, I ended up taking the 'beer and a lawn chair' approach and they looked like the best of the 3.

In any case, I mailed mine out today. I'm looking forward to getting some beans in the mail this week!
 
camper
I put the beans & profile in a #11 envelop & used the postal scales in the lobby of the post office. It came to one oz exactly & said I only needed 44 cents of postage. Hope you all don't have postage due when you get it. Grin
 
bvwelch
The problem is the automated machinery at the post office-- their rules say they can add a surcharge if they don't think it will make it thru the machine. We'll know in a week or two. And we'll be better prepared for next month's roast.
 
Hamilton
Unfortunately, the automated machinery did not like one of the letters I sent out. It was returned to me this morning all smashed up and torn. I re-packaged the beans and sent it again @ $1.22 with some padding inside. I hope it makes it to VA by this weekend.
 
John Despres
Randy's arrived today in fine form.

ThumbsUp

John
Respect the bean.
John Despres
Fresh Roast 8, Gene Cafe, JYTT 1k, Quest M3, Mazzer Mini, Technivorm, various size presses and many more brewers.
 
seedlings
And I rc'd from John D. and Gene C. And, since you both included profiles, Here's the loose notes I took:

Time BeanTemp
6:41__300F Yellow
7:58__325F
8:55__350F
10:08_375F
11:55_400F First crack started 406F, infrequent snaps, not very many
15:25_426F Pull, cooled, City+

CHAD
Edited by seedlings on 03/24/2010 7:41 PM
Roaster: CoffeeAir II 2# DIY air roaster
Grinder: Vintage Grindmaster 500
Brewers: Vintage Cory DCU DCL, Aeropress, Press, Osaka Titanium pourover
 
camper
I received envelopes from Randy, Chad, John & bvwelch today. All are in excellent condition. Getting excited about the cupping in a few days.
 
randytsuch

Quote

camper wrote:
I received envelopes from Randy, Chad, John & bvwelch today. All are in excellent condition. Getting excited about the cupping in a few days.


I thought it would take longer, but I'm not sure where you're at.

Wayne was the only other person in Cal, everyone else was pretty far away.

Wonder what's in my mail? I'm still at work.

Randy
 
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