What are you looking for in a particular coffee? Do you want a sweeter coffee? A brighter one? Are you roasting for espresso and would like more body and lower acidity? All of these characteristics can be altered through roast development, specifically by altering the length of time of certain parts of the roast. In the first part of this article, we'll look at stretching out the time after the end of 1st Crack and see if it has a tastable impact on the perceived acidity due to the breakdown of acids and compounds.
OK, so I'm finally back in the Bay after two intense weeks trekking through the Peruvian and Colombian Andes. This particular trip was non-stop from start to finish with many a flight and long car ride filling big chunks of virtually every day. After arriving in Lima late my first night, we woke up the following morning and sped off across the Peruvian Altiplano to Chanchamayo for the coffee and cacao conference where I was to present a lecture to cooperative based farmers from across the country.
I wanted to share the Stretchin' Out the Roast series with the Shrub crowd here and see if we could get some discussion going on these topics. One question that I have left after all these experiments and tastings is whether there is a difference to be found in the cup between stretching out the drying stage and stretching out the time before 1st Crack after the Malliard Reaction has started. I'm looking at doing a part 4, but if the findings are inconclusive I'll probably just note that in the comments of Part 3.
