To Whom It May Concern

#1

A thread for tips/answers. Often times I have a hard time remembering all that I feel is important and perhaps I’m even worse at writing them down in a clear concise way. So I thought I’d start a tread where it is all random an nonsensical-like. Beginner to pro tips and tricks for roasting or whatever, like how I like to drink two cups of water when I wake up before my coffee…you know those sweet sweet tips that make it all a little easier :wink:

  1. A 27% majority of flavor shift can happen by moving where (by minute) the profile moves through yellow. For me yellow can happen in the range from 360F - 430F, for the Marshal Ethel profile I like to cross 400F in the 5:00-5:30ish range while ideally then adjusting so the profile hits first crack some 10-30sec before the last segment.

Hope that helps, to all you coffee nuts out there burning coffee in the pursuit of flavor and knowledge, I salute you. That is all, Good day Gentleladies and Laddies.

For you, something to hear, something to feel: https://youtu.be/hdFeQ5oi5fY

#2

Generally roasting profiles (for me) on the IKAWA is decided by hard/soft bean and more/less porous. Washed beans tend to have larger pores or at least need more heat in the profile than dry processed beans. It is said that decaffeinated beans have even larger pores and take on more color than washed, dry processed tend to take on color the least. Soft beans like those from Brazil, need a lot higher temp in the beginning to roast well, but if not managed well can burn out before flavors develop or the desired roast level is achieved. I have a working theory that from the start they need to get up to, at least, a yellowing temp within a minute or two and spend plenty of time being a yellow color (for chocolate notes). Hard beans are able to use a much more “gentle” profile. Meaning that they absorb heat much easier at lower temps, and hold on to the heat during the roast.

I think it would save a lot of time and increase our understanding if we talked about beans by their cultivar name aka variety and then where they came from, which allows for a quick synopsis of the physical characteristics of the bean. An also would create awareness that roasting a blend of varieties is different than a single variety.

#3

Following my previous thought about beans and cultivars…roasting multiple different bean varieties together is a difficult task on the Ikawa. I believe this inherent issue stems from the air roaster applying heat very precisely. And because the beans can be lofted quite well, all the beans are receiving the same heat together with little bean to bean or bean to wall interaction. So if you have multiple beans they usually would require different heat profiles for each variety, so even in a perfect roast, only one aspect of that green is optimally roasted. An easy solution, though, could be very expensive. Sourcing from a single farm, and single varietal, that extra complication is not ideal for me. I do not believe all weight loss is created equal and the profile shape is critical for the flavor/aroma formation. I think one way for all the beans to follow the profile is to roast with a relatively low fan, so heat can be distributed better to beans that take on heat differently in the mass, ideally trying to not overdo it on the beans that take heat the easiest or burn out sooner. But adding a low fan to a normal profile hasn’t worked out for me yet, a drastic change in the fan will need a different heat profile.