Ethiopia Organic Yirgacheffe Chelbesa Danche

Beans: Ethiopia Organic Yirgacheffe Chelbesa Danche
Varietal: Ethiopian Heirloom
Elevation: 1900-2200 masl
Process: Washed
Retailer: Sweet Maria's
Pre-Roast Weight: 235 grams
Roast Attempt: 38th
Roast Date/Time: July 4, 2021, 1000 CDT

Recently - as chronicled in my other coffee blog - I tried some Ethiopian coffee, also a washed Yirgacheffe, from a roaster in Iowa.  It wasn't terrible or anything, but I felt distinctly underwhelmed by the flavor profile.  Having now been doing my own roasting for a while, and having underroasted several batches early in the process, I was suspicious that I was seeing and tasting the hallmarks of a roast that had just not quite gotten there.  If that is what happened, I'm not offended or anything - nobody's perfect - but it seemed like the first time I had spotted, or at least felt like I had spotted, an underdeveloped coffee done by somebody else.

The upshot is that when it came to picking the second coffee I was going to try roasting on the morning of July 4, I knew I had to try the washed Yirgacheffe that I had ordered from Sweet Maria's a few months earlier.  Obviously the inputs aren't identical, and since it's Ethiopia there's every possibility of them being even less identical than two coffees in the same region in another country.  But I wanted to see if I could take a washed Yirgacheffe and develop it in a way that I didn't really think had been done with the other batch.

As usual, I started the roast on the manual setting for one pound, giving me 18:00 on the timer, and with the power set to P5, 100% power to the heating element.

Chamber Temperature

16:00 - 136
14:00 - 206
13:00 - 233
12:00 - 255
11:00 - 275
10:00 - 271

The temperatures in the chamber were at their lowest point yet, and I'm not really sure how to account for that.  The roaster had two hours to rest after the first roast of the morning, which should be plenty of time.  It could be that the temperatures actually were not that different and the earlier roast left some buildup on the thermistor, which led to a lower reading.  But I don't know.  Yellowing did not actually seem to occur until closer to 10:00 on the timer, 8:00 into the roast, which is as long as I've ever seen it take.  That certainly supports the idea that the temperature was just not as high.  So, certainly I wasn't about to lower the power.  Instead I just increased the drum speed and hoped the temperature would keep climbing.

Exhaust Temperature

10:00 - 192
9:00 - 269
8:00 - 307
7:00 - 329
6:00 - 345
5:00 - 356
4:00 - 366

One notable difference between a roast where the post-yellowing part is done at P4 and one where it's done at P5 is that when the power is dropped to P4, the chamber temperature drops significantly when the exhaust vent opens, then gets to a lower temperature which it more or less holds for the rest of the roast.  When you don't lower the power, the chamber temperature drops initially, but then begins climbing again.  That has made me feel somewhat more relaxed about the slower pace of the recent roasts - as long as I don't drop the heat, there doesn't seem to be any risk of the roast stalling, even if the pace at which it climbs is slower.  The exhaust temperatures did climb slower than they had on the Tanzanian roast, and certainly even when the chamber temperature climbed again it didn't get as high as it did in that roast, topping out here at 276 at the 4:00 mark.  But it still worked.  First crack arrived at 4:15, right around the same temperature spot it had for the Tanzanian (notably, there were a few isolated pops for at least 30 seconds before full first crack arrived, which is always a little nerve-wracking because you never know if you've gotten one of the rare batches with a super quiet first crack, and if you have then you need to watch time and temperature even closer because just listening for the taper of the first crack pops isn't going to be good enough).  It lasted right about the usual 60 seconds, and then I hit cool at 3:15.  The A temp peaked at about 377 early in the cooling cycle.  I slowed the drum and then opened the door at 90 seconds into cooling, as usual.

Complete Roast Time: 14:45
Post-Roast Weight: 204 grams
Loss Percentage: 13.2%

It does vary somewhat based on the beans, but I'm expecting this batch to come out a nice medium-light.  I know it finished first crack so I have to think the flavors will be fully developed - Sweet Maria's rated the green beans a 90.1, so if I nailed the timing these should be quite good.

Ethiopia Organic Yirgacheffe Chelbesa Danche

These were the beans on Wednesday, three days off roast.  I thought they looked like a solid medium-light roast.  I ground them a bit coarser, more like 3/4, because my Chemex pours were taking too long with the finer 5/6 grind.  60 grams of ground beans and a liter of water made about 32 fluid ounces of brewed coffee in about seven minutes, a better time than some previous.

TASTING NOTES: One thing that surprised me was not getting a big fruit acidity off these, especially considering the elevation at which they were grown.  It was a milder, dried fruit kind of acidity, like a raisin.  Beyond that, the body was surprisingly creamy and there were a lot of chocolate notes.  This is the interesting thing about Ethiopian heirloom - you really never know what you might get.  The bass note was sort of green, like lime zest or watermelon rind.

VERDICT: I did like these a bit better than the ones I bought, but they didn't totally blow me away either.  Given the Sweet Maria's rating and description I'm not totally sure what happened.  They did mention a "rindy citrus note" that I also found, but I didn't really detect the perfume/incense notes they mention.  Granted, you can theoretically find almost anything in coffee if you're looking for it, but I'll have to think more about that next time I brew this.  I will say that my wife specifically texted me to say how good the coffee smelled, which she never does, so that at least seems like an indication that it has that aromatic character suggested by Sweet Maria's.  Maybe I'll update this after my second pass if I get anything else.  Or I could try another brewing method - I feel like I get more flavors out of V60 brewing than Chemex.  It also may be that these would have come out better with a hotter, faster roast, but that's something I don't have a lot of control over right now, so if I end up feeling like the slower roasts aren't doing it for me I'm going to have to figure out how (if?) I can possibly remedy that issue.