Roasting : Yemen Mokkha Sharasi (Round Two)

So I am taking the Yemen well into Full City today. I am also experimenting (as much as I can with my popcorn roaster) with a roast curve. I am allowing the air to escape so I can control the roast after the first crack. This hopefully will have a similar affect to an actual roasters decrease in BTU's in the roast cylinder. The Yemen should work well as an experiment due to its heartier cell structure and size differential. Also, I don't feel weird wasting it in part because it was an experimental purchase and I have realized (duh moment) that the really tart nutty flavor was a result of over fermentation. Can't always be perfect. Oh well.

I will let you all know what this darker roast turns out to be like. Thanks for sticking with me while I experiment and grope my way through the seemingly easy yet tumultuously complicated world of coffee roasting

On another point, I have received requests for photos of the various products and productions that I am under going. I have taken these suggestions under advisement and come to the conclusion that, since I am a student photographer, I should be including some sort of visual aid for your drooling pleasure. Stay tuned for more updates.

Later

In the Realms of Beer and Roasting

So I have messing around with this beer diary that my bosses bought me and it's a pretty handy little tool. The 33 Beers Journal has a easy to understand layout and fits easily in your back pocket. That being said, I have been taking notes in it and intend to flood the world with my assessment of 33 beers in one fell swoop.

As for roasting I am swinging back to the Burundi today. I have had good luck with this coffee not very far past the first crack (about two minutes or so). The smoke changes from a violet sweetness to a more nutty scent and I wait for that to develop before I end the roast. Tastes amazingly lemony and full of body. If you haven't had a Burundi before, you should definitely find one and check it out.

I would estimate that if this coffee was done in a full drum roaster that the lemon would calm down and reveal a more refined complex of berries and melon. I personally cup my roast at around 87 or so, but would hope for something a little richer and fully developed in the cup if it was professionally handled.

Roasting : Yemen Mokkha Sharasi

So I have been dabbling in the world of roasting since the beginning of summer, and I must say that I am doing a good job of it. I had been roasting mostly African coffees, i.e. Burundi and Ethiopian, but I had wanted to try my hand at a Yemen. Thanks to Sweet Maria's I was able to get some and started roasting it today. It had turned out to be somewhat of a headache though.

The beans are remarkably inconsistent and I have had to go back and pick out the blonde beans. The roast I was going for was a City-City+ and I think I got it, but there is no way to know if it is the right roast until I brew some in a few days. Here's to hoping that my first peregrination into Yemeny coffee is not a complete failure.

Later