El Avion Caturra Washed v2 results

[Lorrie]

Ive attached a log file of todays recent attempt at dialing in on this coffee.

Yesterdays attempts were my first roasts, which kinda failed and resulted in mediocre tasting coffee.

Today I roasted lighter, faster, and with finer tuned fan calibrations. One of the biggest issues had to do with not getting enough agitation happening inside the roaster, so roast evenness was sketchy, and hitting my desired temps at desired times was also an issue.

However, I've learnt a little since then, and actually calibrated the fan properly.

Also, I fixed a little power supply issue, as in the logs of the other coffees I noticed a dip, but now its relatively smooth/better.

I was going for:

Yellow: 180c

brown: 200C

FC: 199/200c

Drop: 203.5 c 5:50 min (21/22% dtr range)

and basically, hit my targets dead on, except, I was like .5 c off and actually dropped at 204, but I also think FC happened .5c earlier then when I noticed, cause its kind hard to hear. But it was a nice rolling crack, albeit a little quiet but that's pretty common for washed, high dense coffees sometimes.

Color wise, its medium-light, wish I could be more accurate, but I don't have a spectrometer (yet) or a refractometer (yet). And is considerably more evenly roasted, if I did pull out .5c earlier, I think it would have been spot on, but I didn't want to risk under development.

What I want opinions on, is if I can direct you to look at the beginning, the mean temp line is a bit above the profile line, I'm kind of twisted on whether it's because my pre-heat power is too high, or if this is just the PID being stupid, it does eventually come back into range of the profile line, but it's kind of weird cause this is a fast roast, and at the beginning of roasts, like the first 2 mins or so, it's always wild, which I think is just a result of the PID.

I'm not sure if I should lower pre-heat power, because it might mess with the coffee development hitting my desired temp/time targets, so ultimately it will come down to taste, right?

I'm new to this style of roasting and using this piece of equipment, so if any of the more experienced and knowledgeable individuals could provide some feedback, it would go a long way towards making me better at roasting, I'm open minded and like a sponge when it comes to roasting, so go as complex as you want. Thank-you.

[Lorrie]

Today I made some improvements to the profile and am getting very close to perfection.

I implemented a lower pre-heat power setting and added some boost negative boost zones.

also, I made the RoR smoothing 30 secs.

Now it looks nicer, and I am dialing it in closer and closer to what I want.

I tasted the batches I did yesterday, and flavor wise it is getting there.

This coffee isn't really that special in terms of flavor, like it's not very interesting, but it does have good potential to be used as a base layer for my blend that I'm creating.

The batch I tested last, which was dropped at 204c, and had like a 23.7/24 ish dtr tasted close to what I expected of this coffee. Very clean, subtle Lavendar notes aroma and flavor wise, light milk body, a little bit of citrus, and a little bit of fruit, raspberry, but its hardly obvious. Besides those notes, it was considerably sweeter both scent wise and taste wise, the failed batches that I roasted too dark, had more of brown sugar, nutty, kind of thing going for it, whereas this one I tasted today, was more like white sugar and feint Lavendar.

And whilst everything in my brain was saying this is perfectly fine tasting coffee, I can't help but wonder if more micro adjustments will make even more of an improvement. I am very fussy as you can see.

So, what I've done, is make adjustments to different boost zones, where I've started and ended at key points of the roast where it starts to deviate a little.

The attached graph is of my most recent attempt (V5), and I only had negative boost zones at two spots. This did make an improvement, it is marginally tighter, and the RoR is also tighter, and specifics wise, the coffee acted predictably, and I got a 21.7% DTR, and a medium color, that was far more even.

I've yet to taste said coffee, BUT I still wonder if I can get it even more perfect.

So, in version 6 of this profile, which I'm about to roast now, I've made even more adjustments.

Instead of 2 zones, there are three zones, which I've given very specific negative boost numbers. I've also decreased the batch size by 10g. I've also lowered the pre-heat setting by another small amount.

Hopefully, the graph will look even better.

I am aware however that a pretty looking graph may not translate into good tasting coffee, but I have noticed as Ive been closer to my profile line, that the coffee is improving, the result I got from Ver.3 (I skipped ver.4), was perfectly fine coffee, good even, but its curiosity and perfectionism that makes me want to see if there's anything more to extract from this coffees potential.

If the results are negligible then its fine, the coffee will serve as a base layer, and is perfectly nice, but can it be more...that is the question.

I'm also having so much fun dialing in this coffee, I've been using the kaffelogic roasters companion and implementing things from there, as well as just experimenting with what works and doesn't. You should have seen me cupping the ver.5 batch this morning, It was like Christmas day and my hands were shaking with excitement. The thing I love most about coffee is that anything can learn about it, anything I can understand about it, I can apply it. It is proof that I understand coffee roasting, it is proof that I am getting better, and simultaneously both the coffee roaster (me) and the coffee are growing, realizing their potential.

[Lorrie]

So, I just did the ver.6 just now and look at the results!

wow! its looking pretty good. This was a 25% DTR, but I didn't know how it was going to react, so next time, Ill pull earlier.

dropped at 204.5, I want 203.5/6 ish range, for a 21.7% DTR or 22.0% DTR.

Look at my RoR its almost there.

and look at the top part, its basically on profile.

Ill negative boost more in zone 1 and drop pre-heat a bit more.

but it's getting there. I am one a shot away from perfection.

[Lorrie]

Here are the results. As we can see it improved even more. And is basically perfect, I'll make only one more minor adjustment to zone 1 and zone 3, a little more negative boost. Also got a 21.5% DTR. 204.6 drop. 6:23 final time. with that last adjustment, I'll hit everything perfectly.

[Lorrie]

getting closer, reacted differently so accidentally overshot.

[Lorrie]

Pretty perfect, dropped lighter and on time, for a 21.5% DTR.

This is done, actually, for real, okay I made one or two micro micro adjustments, but no more after the next one, I swear.

Its basically perfeccttt.

[Lorrie]

Ive finished. This is just about as perfect as it can get.

like mayyyyyyyybe a little less pre-heat power.

but its such an insignificant amount to dial in.

The RoR is nice.

21.5/7% DTR

202.3 drop

nice rolling cracking.

even roast color.

Now it's just time to cup!

The thing about this coffee is that it's just a base layer, the foundation of a blend I'm making. I still have to perfect two or 3 more coffees in the next few days. Ill post the same style progress posts, but of course they will be under the name of a different coffee.

I really had fun today, learnt a lot, got what I want and what I need, and If I can do this only two days into roasting on this machine, imagine how good I'll be in a longer time frame.

so excited to cup these coffees.

Next, I'll be roasting an Ethiopian Guji Masina G1! Stay Tuned!