Mahal Coffee Roast Log Blog

Beans: Ethiopia Bensa Asefa Qonqana Varietals: Ethiopian Heirloom Elevation: ~2000 masl Process: Washed Retailer: Sweet Maria's Pre-Roast Weight: 227 grams Roast Attempt: 86th Roast Date/Time: May 14, 2022, 1900 CDT Going back to a washed Ethiopian, I decided to once again try the Sweet Maria's suggestion for how to roast them light - instead of hot and fast, start the beans off lower and slower, like you would for a low-altitude coffee, and then punch them into first crack by pushing to peak heat late in the roast.  The first time I tried this it didn't quite work; the second time I pretty much nailed it.  But was that luck?  How easy is this process to achieve for any given batch of beans? I started things on P4, 75% power, with 20:00 on the timer and of course manual control in place. Chamber Temperature 19:00 - 93 18:00 - 122 17:00 - 150 16:00 - 177 15:00 - 199 14:00 - 219 13:00 - 233 12:00 - 222 When the vent opened at 12:30, I increased the drum speed but le...

Beans: Laos Paksong Typica Varietal: Typica Elevation: 1200 masl Process: Washed Retailer: Sweet Maria's Pre-Roast Weight: 230 grams Roast Attempt: 85th Roast Date/Time: May 14, 2022, 1730 CDT My last order from Sweet Maria's, which I had been sitting on for a couple months while I tried to clear my green coffee backlog, was motivated by this batch - coffee from Laos!  I've said it before and I'll say it again, but I am just a massive sucker for provenance, and I've only seen Laotian coffee on offer a handful of times before, and never green.  The ability to try it for the first time out of my own roaster was way too tempting to pass up, and while I knew I wasn't going to want to roast it right away while I was working through the backlog, I had to order it when I did or it would sell out, so I did.  And now here we are. Because the elevation is comparatively low relative to most non-island coffees I roast, I decided to try starting the roaster on P4 (75%...

Beans: Rwanda Milles Collines Peaberry Varietal: Bourbon Elevation: ~2000 masl Process: Washed Retailer: Sweet Maria's Pre-Roast Weight: 230 grams Roast Attempt: 84th Roast Date/Time: May 14, 2022, 1630 CDT For a while I had been running way ahead on coffee.  Then all of a sudden I was nearly out - I roasted only one batch for myself in the previous month-plus, and I had gone through the coffee I'd brought back from a trip to Hawaii.  Fortunately, I had three full bags of green coffee that I could finally get around to roasting.  Less fortunately, this did mean that I would have to turn around and drink one of them the day after roasting it, which is sub-optimal.  This was the first of three roasts I did on May 14, so it was also the first one I brewed, on May 15.  I started the roast with 20:00 on the timer, manual control, and on the P5 setting (100% power to the heating element). Chamber Temperature 19:00 - 93 18:00 - 132 17:00 - 172 16:00 - 204 15:00 ...

Beans: Papua New Guinea Kuta Waghi Varietals: Arusha, Bourbon, Typica Elevation: 1600 masl Process: Washed Retailer: Sweet Maria's Pre-Roast Weight: 230 grams Roast Attempt: 83rd Roast Date/Time: May 1, 2022, 1015 CDT After finally getting almost all the way through my backlog of green coffee, I finally cracked into one of the batches I bought most recently (two months ago at this point).  Although it was beans from Laos that spurred this most recent order, I decided to start with a batch from PNG that my dad also purchased and had been raving about.  As usual, I started the roaster on P5, 100% power to the heating element, with manual control and 20:00 on the timer. Chamber Temperature 19:00 - 87 18:00 - 129 17:00 - 168 16:00 - 204 15:00 - 231 14:00 - 255 13:00 - 275 12:00 - 258 Back when I used to get hotter temperatures, I would generally change settings when the beans hit the yellowing phase.  Nowadays I've been doing it at 12:30 on the timer, when the exhaust ...

Beans: Ethiopia Dry Process Hambela Goro Varietals: Ethiopian Heirloom Elevation: ~2000 masl Process: Natural Retailer: Sweet Maria's Pre-Roast Weight: 231 grams Roast Attempt: 76th Roast Date/Time: March 20, 2022, 1515 CDT I doubt you'd notice without me pointing it out, but the "roast attempt" number jumped from 67th to 76th from the last post to this one because I've spent the last month working my way through my sizable backlog of green coffee.  I'm almost there now - it should only take another couple of weekends and then I can actually roast the new coffee I got a couple weeks ago with minimal guilt.  This batch is the last of the really old stuff - I'm pretty sure it came with the roaster, which means it's been sitting around for 15 months, not ideal.  The main reason for this is that when I first roasted it, back on March 1, 2021, I was still pretty green and roasted the beans to a point where they were throwing off a LOT of flaming cha...

Beans: Brazil Pulp Natural Fazenda Alta Vista Varietals: Bourbon, Catuai Elevation: ~1000 masl Process: Pulp natural Retailer: Sweet Maria's Pre-Roast Weight: 233 grams Roast Attempt: 67th Roast Date/Time: February 20, 2022, 1300 CST This is actually another one that's been sitting around for a while - I ordered it as kind of a throw-in with an order I made in March 2021 when I really wanted to get a couple of Indonesian coffees plus a Burundian.  I hadn't tried a Brazilian yet... but to be honest Brazil is not an origin that tends to excite me hugely for a variety of reasons, and so I never found myself getting around to trying it as more interesting things kept popping up online.  I finally decided I needed to cut back on actually buying more green coffee until I was through what I already have, and that means finally getting around to the only bag in my coffee bin that hadn't been opened yet.  Hopefully I haven't left it too long. Given the issues I'v...