Roast help

[indyrob]

I have three pounds of green beans left and I'm thinking about roasting them on my porch this weekend.

Here's my dilema...I have a # of yergacheff, a pound of the Horse, and a pound of Mexican Robusta. I was making turkish roasts before and wanted an extra kick so that's why I have the robusta.

I want to try a blend using these three, if not just 2, but I haven't roasted in over 2 years so I was wondering if what I should roast each at to get the best flavor yield.

-Rob

[Black Dog]

I don't have much blending experience but looking at what you've got I'd do the yerg roasted to just before second crack and take the harrar a little ways into second. I think that might give you the widest range of flavor. I'm not sure about robusto though.

[indyrob]

Thanks. The robusta is just awful by itself. It's mainly good for extra caffiene and that's it.

So this will end up more like a french roast for the Harrar?

[Black Dog]

I wouldn't go quite to French roast on the Harrar. You'd lose all the sweetness. I do like Harrar darker than some folks though. About 10-15 seconds into second crack is where I like it.

[indyrob]

Cool...Thanks!

[Black Dog]

I just remembered we had linked this (http://sweetmarias.com/roasting-VisualGuideV2.html) roast pictorial in a sticky in this forum. The roast level I was describing is called Full City + as shown in picture #12.

[jasontp]

I like harar and yerg fairly light, and you can pretty much do anything you want with robusta (it's still going to taste awful). . . Check out http://www.sweetmarias.com for more in depth info on roasting profiles. I've purposely avoided learning to roast because I don't want the responsability and I've got enought to worry about trying to keep up w/ all the other baristas in the BGA. . . good luck! it's nice to find a home roaster outside of CG!

[indyrob]

Okay...I'm sure I'm gonna make someone cringe.

I got bored today and roasted up 1 1/2 pounds of beans with a coleman propane burner and a Stainless & Copper sauce pan. It was cold on the porch tonight and I was smoking a '26 Padron so I figured what the hell...Ain't it how it was out on the range 150 years ago? (Minus the propane and the Padron anyways.)

It went better than I thought it would, that's why I ended up with 1 1/2 pounds. The Robusta went farily well, since it's just an octane booster for monday morning who the hell cares right? (Robusta has a higher Caffiene content) Yerg didn't do so well, it didn't get a consistant roast through out. It wasn't calico, but 96% went to a full city roast profile,while the other 4% was more of a light mocha color. The Horse was made for this kind of setup. That's all I got to say about that!

I also found another pound of Sulawesi Toraja that I forgot I had. It's the saddle to the horse. It blended very well with the Harrar and I think I'll try to order more of this bean.


A bit of advice...don't blow into the pan when your roasting. I know it's hard,because you want to clear away the smoke so you can check on the delopment, but it get's you a face full of chaff.

More comedy later,
-Rob

[jasontp]

How dark did the Harar come out? I've never blended Harar and Sulawesi I'll have to try that. The most important thing to remember home-roasting is actually a friends signature on the BGA forum "taste is the only morality". . . it's all about how it tastes to you and if you like it that's all that matters.

[indyrob]

I roasted the Harrar seperately from the sulawesi because I wanted to get a nice Vienna roast. I got it just about there going into a french roast...nice and oily.

The sulawesi I took just a step below the Harrar, then mixed them together. The Sulawesi is a smaller bean and I didn't know how long it would take to roast. The Harrar took to the heat like a champ. The sulawesi took a bit longer so I am assuming that if I did blend them together in the roast, they should come out the same way I did them...Harrar darker than the Sulawesi.

Bottom line was it turned out great!