Mahal Coffee Roast Log Blog

Beans: Dominican Republic Ramirez Estate Washed Organic Varietal: Caturra Elevation: 1400 masl Process: Washed Retailer: Burman Coffee Traders Pre-Roast Weight: 232 grams Roast Attempt: 56th Roast Date/Time: October 24, 2021, 1500 CDT The "retailer" section of these blog posts, as seen above, was one that started to feel kind of silly to me after a while.  I initially included it thinking that I might be sourcing my green coffee from various places, but Sweet Maria's does such a good job that I never spent much time looking anywhere else.  Occasionally, though, I would stumble upon the Burman Coffee Traders site, a more local green coffee retailer (based out of Madison, Wisconsin).  At first I was somewhat resistant because the Burman site is often rather more stingy with some of those details I like to include - for instance, I had to find the varietal and elevation information for this batch by searching the estate name and getting it off a different website - b...

Beans: Kenya Embu Gakui Peaberry Varietals: SL-28, SL-34, Ruiru, Batian Elevation: 1800 masl Process: Washed Retailer: Sweet Maria's Pre-Roast Weight: 235 grams Roast Attempt: 55th Roast Date/Time: October 17, 2021, 1530 CDT When you assume, coffee beans will make an ass out of you and me.  I did a Kenyan peaberry back in March and it was a pretty standard roast - first crack was somewhat sporadic, but the beans tolerated the heat well and came out to a nice medium, maybe even medium-light roast.  So these should be similar to that, right? As usual I started the roaster on manual control, 18:00, P5 (100% power to the heating element). Chamber Temperature 16:00 - 134 15:00 - 177 14:00 - 215 13:00 - 242 12:00 - 267 11:00 - 285 10:00 - 269 So far, pretty normal.  Yellowing occurred around 10:30; I increased the drum speed and lowered the heat to P4 at 10:00. Exhaust Temperature 10:00 - 195 9:00 - 284 8:00 - 321 7:00 - 339 6:00 - 352 5:00 - 361 4:00 - 366 3:00 - 372 2...

Beans: El Salvador Matalapa Calagual Varietal: Pacas Elevation: 1200-1350 masl Process: Washed Retailer: Sweet Maria's Pre-Roast Weight: 230 grams Roast Attempt: 54th Roast Date/Time: October 17, 2021, 1400 CDT After a couple of more experimental roasts, it was back to what I expected would be a fairly "classic" roast with an easy Central American bean.  But nothing's ever totally easy, is it?  A note on the varietal here: the Sweet Maria's site stated Bourbon in its specs, but in the farm description they mentioned that it's actually Pacas.  Pacas is a natural Bourbon mutation so the difference between the two in the same terroir is probably not gigantic, but you know I need these things to be specific! As usual, I started the roaster on manual control with a one-pound setting, 18:00 on the timer, and with 100% power to the heating element (P5). Chamber Temperature 16:00 - 129 15:00 - 172 14:00 - 208 13:00 - 237 12:00 - 264 11:00 - 282 10:00 - 266 I ha...

Beans: Ethiopia Gera Telila Varietals: Ethiopian Heirloom Elevation: 1900-2100 masl Process: Washed Retailer: Sweet Maria's Pre-Roast Weight: 231 grams Roast Attempt: 53rd Roast Date/Time: October 10, 2021, 0800 CDT The first attempt at following Sweet Maria's guide to light-roasting washed Ethiopians was something of a mixed bag, so I decided to try it again.  This time I increased the time before even starting the roast - although the Behmor only let me push it to a maximum of 20:30, so I started it at 20:00 even, giving me two extra minutes over normal (the same extra amount I had used during the Gera Genji Challa roast).  Once again I ran a manual roast and started the heat at P4, 75% power to the heating element. Chamber Temperature 19:00 - 86 18:00 - 116 17:00 - 149 16:00 - 177 15:00 - 203 14:00 - 222 13:00 - 239 12:00 - 230 The yellowing phase hit at about 12:00, and I increased the drum speed.  The chamber temperature was a little hotter than it had been ...

Beans: Ethiopia Gera Genji Challa Varietals: Ethiopian Heirloom Elevation: 1900-2100 masl Process: Washed Retailer: Sweet Maria's Pre-Roast Weight: 234 grams Roast Attempt: 50th Roast Date/Time: October 3, 2021, 1500 CDT For my "milestone" 50th roast, I wanted to do something a little special.  Fortunately, I had just the thing.  Some washed Ethiopians had popped up on Sweet Maria's recently that sounded so good I simply couldn't resist.  Not only that, but their social media team pushed out an older article with tips for how to roast washed coffees from Ethiopia , which suggested that my usual way of roasting light - hot and fast - was not the way to keep all those delicate, subtle flavors you want out of a truly excellent washed Ethiopian.  I'm reminded of the Yirgacheffe I did back in July that I thought came out good but not great, and notably missing some of the more delicate notes (perfumey, floral aromatics) that Sweet Maria's described.  T...