Kenya Embu Gakui Peaberry

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
2:00 - 381

This was a similar spot to where I took the roast in March, temperature-wise, but it took several minutes longer to get there.  The first pops of first crack started around 4:30 and I waited for the full crack to start to call it.  And then it just... never happened.  This isn't the first time I've ever had beans that didn't really make the noises, but it hasn't happened often.  Temperature was still pretty low - only 366 at 4:00 and barely over 370 at 3:00 - so I just let things keep running to see if full first crack would ever start.  As far as audibly, it never did.  Finally at 2:00 with the heat topping 380, I gave up and sent the roaster to cool.  At that heat level the beans shouldn't have been overroasted yet but there was almost no way that they wouldn't have been done.  Certainly the smell out of the exhaust vent, which was just starting to turn from the popcorn-like smell of roasted beans into the acrid tinge of burnt chaff, suggested a finished product.

Complete Roast Time: 16:00
Post-Roast Weight: 199 grams
Loss Percentage: 15.3%

Not exactly what I was going for... but this number has come out okay in the past, and the beans did have a decent amount of chaff to lose.  So I guess we'll see.

Kenya Embu Gakui Peaberry

These were the beans on Thursday, four days off roast.  The color was uniformly darker, but I was pleased to note that the smell and a lack of visible oils suggested a rich medium over anything to the darker side of the roast spectrum.  I ground 64 grams of beans at the 3/4 setting, coarse, for use in the Chemex.  Brewed with 1,066 grams of water, the yield was about 34 fluid ounces of brewed coffee.  There was some extra foam in the bloom, usually seen on darker roasts with more carbon dioxide, so that was a little concerning.

TASTING NOTES: There was a big punch of lemony citric acidity right up front, but a number of flavors emerged once my palate got used to the acidity.  There was a hint of plum, a jammy sort of sweetness that I ultimately described as grape jelly, and a spice note resembling cinnamon.  There was a bit of roast note in the profile, but more balanced than overwhelming, and it contributed to a rather enjoyable butterscotch bass note.  Curiously, the profile morphed substantially as the coffee cooled, switching over to a peachier acidity and a lot of suggestions of almond.

VERDICT: When you feel like you've overdone a coffee, you're happy if it just comes out drinkable.  This one was more than that!  I was pleasantly surprised by how little the roast notes took over the flavor profile, and the balance between bean character and roast character yielded a fun flavor note at the back end that I probably wouldn't have gotten if this had been a light roast.  I will probably still try to roast the second half of this batch lighter and see what I get, but what an unexpectedly pleasant result.

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