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Yeah sorry if I've been obnoxious in this thread, I just like good coffee and like supporting goon businesses. I'll shut up and go back to annoying people I know in real life into buying good coffee. E: in other news, I finally made my first actual latte art (well, in this case, cortado art, but who's counting?) 
dik-dik fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Sep 23, 2014 |
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Sep 21, 2014 19:47
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Anyone notice SM is offering a new sampler, "Ethiopia South / West Sampler"?
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Sep 25, 2014 21:53
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dik-dik posted:Yeah sorry if I've been obnoxious in this thread, I just like good coffee and like supporting goon businesses. I'll shut up and go back to annoying people I know in real life into buying good coffee. That's amazing, I've never seen anyone draw a Georgia O'Keefe in a latte before
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Sep 26, 2014 03:44
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Yirga O'cheffe
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Sep 26, 2014 05:42
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I saw an ad the other day for a "Starbucks Aged Sumatra" where they age the beans for 12 months. Is...is that actually a thing? That doesn't sound like it should be a thing.
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Sep 28, 2014 19:55
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Casull posted:I saw an ad the other day for a "Starbucks Aged Sumatra" where they age the beans for 12 months. My guess is that a year or so ago a bunch of beans went missing and no one bothered to check up on them until now.
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Sep 28, 2014 20:51
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Just got my Ethiopia sampler: I've never actually roasted a dry process bean, huh. Holy poo poo, I just opened the yirgacheffe bag and they smell like no other bean I've smelled before. Google Butt fucked around with this message at 21:49 on Sep 28, 2014 |
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Sep 28, 2014 21:35
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dik-dik posted:My guess is that a year or so ago a bunch of beans went missing and no one bothered to check up on them until now. Apparently some people keep beans frozen or climate controlled so they can pull specific good lots back out. That said, Starbucks doesn't seem like the type that would care about this. I would imagine Blue Bottle or the likes.
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Sep 28, 2014 23:53
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Casull posted:I saw an ad the other day for a "Starbucks Aged Sumatra" where they age the beans for 12 months. From what I understand it's actually sort of a traditional process in some parts of the world. It's a pretty controlled process of storing the green beans in warehouses, rotating the bags as needed to make sure that they age evenly and correctly. I think you only tend to see aged Sumatra beans because they grow in an environment that's got just the right kind of humidity/temperature for the process. I get the feeling that it's an expensive process, so there probably aren't many farmers that do it, and since Starbucks uses it in all of their seasonal blends, and buys an absolute shitload of it, I feel like it's not super easy to come by in smaller roasters.
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Sep 29, 2014 04:05
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ChiaPetOutletStore posted:From what I understand it's actually sort of a traditional process in some parts of the world. It's a pretty controlled process of storing the green beans in warehouses, rotating the bags as needed to make sure that they age evenly and correctly. I think you only tend to see aged Sumatra beans because they grow in an environment that's got just the right kind of humidity/temperature for the process. Starbucks bought a shitload of Sumatra beans and couldn't figure out what to do with them for a year
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Sep 29, 2014 04:27
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On Saturday I completely botched roasting some Ethiopian Yirge Cheffe from SMs (I think it was this one but I don't have it in front of me atm: Ethiopia Gr. 1 Dry Process Yirga Cheffe Kochore). Even though I weighed it, it turned out that the popper was overloaded and didn't agitate as much as it should have, so the resulting roast varied wildly from bean to bean. Despite the crap roast, it still tastes and smells absolutely amazing. Home roasting is much harder to gently caress up than I thought. I would recommend it to just about anyone.
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Sep 29, 2014 18:02
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If I absolutely had to get a single serve coffee machine (not being my choice, though the machine will be), what would most of you suggest? Convenience, price, and taste are all important. I'm leaning towards a Vertuoline for espresso, but I do have an Essenza, so if something else makes better coffee at less than $1 a cup, I'd prefer that. That centrifuge technology though is sure fancy sounding. 
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Sep 29, 2014 18:50
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Who Dat posted:If I absolutely had to get a single serve coffee machine (not being my choice, though the machine will be), what would most of you suggest? Convenience, price, and taste are all important. I'm leaning towards a Vertuoline for espresso, but I do have an Essenza, so if something else makes better coffee at less than $1 a cup, I'd prefer that. That centrifuge technology though is sure fancy sounding. Do you live near a Crate & Barrel or a Williams Sonoma (maybe also Sur La Table)? You can try it out there iirc. I was pretty unimpressed with the vertuoline's coffee and espresso both, but I don't think there were many that had the option to make a 'regular' cup of coffee. The coffee option made a lot of crema (1/2 glass or so). For espresso, I liked the Nespresso Pixie the best, partially for having more pod options.
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Sep 29, 2014 19:19
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Corla Plankun posted:On Saturday I completely botched roasting some Ethiopian Yirge Cheffe from SMs (I think it was this one but I don't have it in front of me atm: Ethiopia Gr. 1 Dry Process Yirga Cheffe Kochore). Even though I weighed it, it turned out that the popper was overloaded and didn't agitate as much as it should have, so the resulting roast varied wildly from bean to bean. Funny you say this, first crack started much later than wet process, when it started it was pretty insane. Caught me off guard and I stopped the roast too early. Drinkable, but lesson learned.
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Sep 29, 2014 19:47
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I poured a cool thing today:
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Sep 29, 2014 22:02
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beanbrew posted:I poured a cool thing today: I'm pretty bad at these because I'm just seeing a sonogram
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Sep 29, 2014 22:14
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Babby's first heatgundogbowl roast. Seems pretty inconsistent, but I'm guessing technique will get better with time. Any feedback? 
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Oct 1, 2014 00:52
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dcgrp posted:Babby's first heatgundogbowl roast. One thing I had trouble with at first was making sure to really back off with the heat gun once I'd hit 1st crack. That and stirring vigorously will really help the evenness of your roasts. Also, having the right amount of beans (not too many, not too few) is important.
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Oct 1, 2014 02:20
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Google Butt posted:Funny you say this, first crack started much later than wet process, when it started it was pretty insane. Caught me off guard and I stopped the roast too early. Drinkable, but lesson learned. Let me know what you settle on for roasting Kochore, I haven't been able to get it to behave as well as I'd like with the Behmor. I had another dry process Yerga before Kochore that took me three half pound roasts to dial in (1st crack was almost silent) that had astonishingly fruity/floral smells if you cut it right at the end of first crack but was completely terrible if you tried to develop the roast further. I think I tried that same approach with Kochore and under-roasted it, I should really keep a log of this stuff.
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Oct 1, 2014 06:09
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Google Butt posted:Just got my Ethiopia sampler: I just got my Ethiopia sampler and only 2 of the 4 I got are the same as what you received. I had hoped I would have gotten that dry process yirgacheffe, but no luck.
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Oct 1, 2014 15:52
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I'm experiencing that dry process issue right now. Due to the processing an uneven roast happens unless you develop the end of the roast to brown the beans. There will still be deadheads so essentially just toss them. Though I leave some in.. Trouble with that can be you make it less fruity and take away one of the reasons why dry process can be so great. It becomes a fuller mouthfeel instead. I'm not an expert by any means but I've been messing about with this: extend the drying phase of the roast (300-350) by lowering the heat applied. Then I go full throttle to the first crack. With the behmor, and I just sample on this, don't put in a full bag. I do a half pound on the 1lb setting. It helps me get a nice rolling crack with time to spare. For me It's essential the second I smell that awesome smell is to push the cool setting since the behmor coasts. That's just with dry process Ethiopians though. They're by far the hardest coffee to roast for me but even the worst looking roast can still be great. With all that said that is just my experience and wanted to share it. Everyone roasts a bit differently or has a different mind towards it. Take it darker or lighter, maybe that's how you like it! MasterControl fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Oct 2, 2014 |
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Oct 2, 2014 01:44
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AriTheDog posted:While I'm sort of annoyed by the amount of marketing going on for Royal Mile in this thread, I'm curious - can anyone compare Royal Mile to quality vendors such as Blue Bottle, Four Barrel, Stumptown, Ritual, Intelligentsia, etc? They're all better and out of that list I love four barrel. They've got a great taste for coffee and use shrub coffees sometimes. Counter culture gets great coffee as well and we drink them all the time. You really can't go wrong with any of them to be honest. Edit: need to add I'm sorry about the bad vibes, I'll chill with the promotion. MasterControl fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Oct 2, 2014 |
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Oct 2, 2014 02:03
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o muerte posted:Let me know what you settle on for roasting Kochore, I haven't been able to get it to behave as well as I'd like with the Behmor. I had another dry process Yerga before Kochore that took me three half pound roasts to dial in (1st crack was almost silent) that had astonishingly fruity/floral smells if you cut it right at the end of first crack but was completely terrible if you tried to develop the roast further. I think I tried that same approach with Kochore and under-roasted it, I should really keep a log of this stuff. I'm interested in this too. I just bought 5lbs of Kochore for my modified air roaster (power switch controls heat). I hope to master this stuff. If I burn the motor out I'm going to buy a Behmor.
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Oct 2, 2014 02:25
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MasterControl posted:I'm not an expert by any means but I've been messing about with this: extend the drying phase of the roast (300-350) by lowering the heat applied. Then I go full throttle to the first crack. With the behmor, and I just sample on this, don't put in a full bag. I do a half pound on the 1lb setting. It helps me get a nice rolling crack with time to spare. For me It's essential the second I smell that awesome smell is to push the cool setting since the behmor coasts. That's just with dry process Ethiopians though. They're by far the hardest coffee to roast for me but even the worst looking roast can still be great. Yeah, it really doesn't matter what the roast looks like if you're going for flavor. In general I find the Behmor easiest to use on 1/2lb batches, I get the most consistent/best-tasting roasts out of that batch size. 1lb is always uneven for me for some reason. What smell are you talking about when starting the cooling cycle?
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Oct 2, 2014 02:30
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Fwiw I've been using the 1lb setting/p1 and a half pound of beans since week 1 with my behmor, regardless of bean. Seems to be working fairly well. I also crack the door to control first crack.
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Oct 2, 2014 04:13
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MasterControl posted:They're all better and out of that list I love four barrel. They've got a great taste for coffee and use shrub coffees sometimes. Counter culture gets great coffee as well and we drink them all the time. You really can't go wrong with any of them to be honest. They're all better as in you like Royal Mile better than all of the mentioned roasters? Sorry, just not sure I'm following what you're saying.
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Oct 2, 2014 05:48
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AriTheDog posted:They're all better as in you like Royal Mile better than all of the mentioned roasters? Sorry, just not sure I'm following what you're saying. I think "They're all better" means "They [the roasters you mentioned] are all better [than Royal Mile]." MasterControl doesn't usually pretend that he has somehow become the greatest roaster in the world.
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Oct 2, 2014 06:11
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I'm not happy with the coffee prices right now. Blue Bottle used to sell a 1/2 pound bag of their blends (3 Africans or Bella Donovan) for like $8 and now it's $10. Four Barrel used to sell 12oz bags for $15 and now it's $18. gently caress!
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Oct 2, 2014 07:12
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o muerte posted:Yeah, it really doesn't matter what the roast looks like if you're going for flavor. In general I find the Behmor easiest to use on 1/2lb batches, I get the most consistent/best-tasting roasts out of that batch size. 1lb is always uneven for me for some reason. The smells coming from the roasting is what I mean. The smells start happening during the very first crack and then develops, changes, or decreases over time. The behmor uses an afterburnerish smoke suppression but you can get whiffs of it from the exhaust, or put your nose around the door. For me there's a sweet spot where I don't get blasted with heat/smoke from the exhaust and can pick it out. Bigger machines you can stop the roast and drop into the cooling tray the second you smell what you want and nail it for the most part. AriTheDog posted:They're all better as in you like Royal Mile better than all of the mentioned roasters? Sorry, just not sure I'm following what you're saying. Sorry, I mean to say those roasters are better than me. It's difficult to state some of the reasons why I think this without going into any kind of chest thumping or promotion. If anyone is curious about buying and stuff I'm more than happy to talk over PM. Though we've gotten super busy lately and my time is limited to browsing my 4 bookmarks anymore. (hearthstone, right wing watch, this thread and my thread). Man, I love the SA app.
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Oct 2, 2014 14:07
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Hey guys my Gaggia Classic is giving me a slightly sour shot with known good beans.. Any thoughts on quick tweaks I can do to improve it? Using a Vario, 2oz in 25+ seconds.
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Oct 2, 2014 15:51
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Are you temperature surfing? It's probably not hot enough.
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Oct 2, 2014 15:52
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Mu Zeta posted:Are you temperature surfing? It's probably not hot enough. I flip the steam button for about 5 seconds on then 5 off, then I pull the shot. This is after about 20 minutes warm up time. Should I be leaving the steam button on longer or trying a different method?
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Oct 2, 2014 16:00
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dhrusis posted:I flip the steam button for about 5 seconds on then 5 off, then I pull the shot. This is after about 20 minutes warm up time. Should I be leaving the steam button on longer or trying a different method? Surf method to try: With an empty portafilter after pre-heating the machine, hit the brew button to pass water out of boiler through to the drip tray until the ready light for the boiler ticks off (I usually grind while this is happening). While the boiler is heating back up to brew temp, pull portafilter, wipe/dry portafilter, dose, tamp, seat portafilter. If you got back on the machine before the light, wait for the light, brew. If the light came back on before you got back on it, acknowledge, disregard, brew. Even with that 5 seconds on/5 seconds off... you could still be under, or way over, brew temp. Working the thermostats is more consistent than time is for surfing. Anyway, other solutions for sour pulls: tighten up the grind, harder tamp, longer pull. You say your pulls are already 25+ seconds, so I would go for the grind or tamp first. Chances are it's that and you're under temp.
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Oct 3, 2014 20:40
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Alleric posted:Surf method to try: With an empty portafilter after pre-heating the machine, hit the brew button to pass water out of boiler through to the drip tray until the ready light for the boiler ticks off (I usually grind while this is happening). While the boiler is heating back up to brew temp, pull portafilter, wipe/dry portafilter, dose, tamp, seat portafilter. If you got back on the machine before the light, wait for the light, brew. If the light came back on before you got back on it, acknowledge, disregard, brew. Thanks, this is going to be awesome. I'll try it as soon as I can!! I hesitate to mess with the grind and tamp because one of the problems I have is sometimes I tamp too tight and the machine doesn't want to bring any liquid through. That pisses me off because it seems like I just wasted a full portafilter. In those situations should I just let the machine go for longer, or is that shot basically screwed? The machine has had an OPV adjustment (not by me).
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Oct 3, 2014 21:43
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dhrusis posted:Thanks, this is going to be awesome. I'll try it as soon as I can!! If that's the case, then as persons (me and others) have said: temperature is too low.
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Oct 3, 2014 22:41
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Alleric posted:If that's the case, then as persons (me and others) have said: temperature is too low. Well this is good news - so essentially, it shouldn't be easy to grind too fine and tamp too hard if the temp is right? Interesting and good to know.
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Oct 4, 2014 00:19
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Seconding the temp issue. Definitely try forcing the boiler on and thoroughly preheating the portafilter.
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Oct 4, 2014 02:03
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nth'ing the temp issue. I was getting consistently sour shots out of my Gaggia before I PIDed it and haven't had almost a single sour shout since.
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Oct 4, 2014 02:41
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dik-dik posted:nth'ing the temp issue. I was getting consistently sour shots out of my Gaggia before I PIDed it and haven't had almost a single sour shout since. Thanks for all the help Alleric, rockcity, dik-dik. I tried the surf method just now. Adjusted the Vario up a few clicks to a fairly tight grind and made a maybe 40lb tamp (guess). I was about 5 seconds behind in pulling after the light because my portafilter receives the grinds directly, and the machine recovered before the grind was done. Either way, I pulled the shot and nothing came out for about 15 seconds, then it was a very slow trickle, almost where it seemed like it was clogged... I stopped it about 45 seconds in, at about 2oz. This was a double. The shot wasn't sour, but I could detect a little bitterness. Better, though. The light cycled at least one more time while the shot was being pulled during those 45 seconds. Thoughts on this? Anything I can do better? For some reason I thought anything above 30 seconds for a double was screwed and would be horrible, but that's obviously not the case although it could be better.
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Oct 4, 2014 14:47
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dhrusis posted:Thanks for all the help Alleric, rockcity, dik-dik. I tried the surf method just now. Adjusted the Vario up a few clicks to a fairly tight grind and made a maybe 40lb tamp (guess). I was about 5 seconds behind in pulling after the light because my portafilter receives the grinds directly, and the machine recovered before the grind was done. Either way, I pulled the shot and nothing came out for about 15 seconds, then it was a very slow trickle, almost where it seemed like it was clogged... I stopped it about 45 seconds in, at about 2oz. This was a double. The shot wasn't sour, but I could detect a little bitterness. Better, though. The light cycled at least one more time while the shot was being pulled during those 45 seconds. okay I dunno what I was thinking before, maybe I'm off here, but I feel like I just leveled up as a human. Pulled another double, this time it took 60 seconds, there were no hints of bitterness, just a bunch of awesomeness, a la like what you read on the side of a sweet marias bag. It was stupid good with monster crema. I feel like I can keep doing this now. Is 60 seconds too long for a double? Am I crazy in thinking 30 seconds was what I was supposed to target? All I know is that shot was good as hell and if its wrong then so be it :-)
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Oct 4, 2014 18:28
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