Hi from Cucamonga!

[CucamongaDan]

Thanks Alex and Joe!

That's a good question about inputs and data. I'm at the point where I can always get a good result without having to pay a whole lot of attention, and my weekly coffee roasting is a relaxing time for me to hang out in the back yard with the dog and enjoy all the sights and smells of the developing roasts. I really love catching a whiff of the coffee in the early stages when it is yellowing and a lot of steam is coming off! Sometimes in the first few minutes of a roast I'll wander around the yard taking care of small things and the smell will surprise me as it drifted across the yard. Then I get back to check the roast- it has been less than 5 minutes, my thermometer has gotten close to 300 F, and the beans are moving faster than at first because they lost so much water weight. I turn down the air so they'll continue to rise gradually in temperature and once the temperature is up to 350 I stay really close, listening for cracks, watching the thermometer, stirring and pulling out beans for visual inspection with my long, skinny wooden spoon.

But I know I can get better and more consistent roasts if they are monitored more carefully and notes about the roasting profiles and subsequent tasting impressions are kept. I'm thinking I might ease into this a low tech way by making a graph form where I can record the time and temperature and other variables of each roast, as well as some notes about the brewing and tasting. Then I could keep a notebook of my graphed profiles, and study them.

I had a set of cheap clamp-on lenses for my cheap LG smartphone I got on a lark at the 99 cent store. I was surprised the macro one actually could give a good result. I will look for them- they are probably around here somewhere still- or get new ones (maybe better?) from Amazon.

Those Sumatran beans remind of the Sumatra Tano Batak I got from HappyMug the other day, and am looking forward to trying this morning. About 60 hours post-roast by then.

[JoeConiglioArmenia]

No need to complicate your current setup if you are consistently extremely happy with the results imho. I asked because I see how crafty you are my guess would be to assume you would love to tinker with actual inputs and log differene etc.

How are you enjoying your Tano Batak?

[CucamongaDan]

It's very interesting and enjoyable stuff. I had another cup after dinner last night that I liked even more than the first one.

I selected it because HappyMug's description says it is the fruitiest, most complex, sweetest wet-hulled coffee he's had at a medium roast. I roasted to city+ and can't disagree. The first thing I noticed was the great balance of the tanginess with sweetness and and an amazing, almost syrupy mouth feel. The after-taste is pronounced and refreshing. The flavor is fruity, but not like some natural Ethiopians where it can be cloying if things don't go the right way.

I've tried a couple of cups blended 50-50 with Africa coffees as well. Both were really tasty, though not necessarily greater than the sum of the parts. I liked the one I did with a washed Ethiopian better than the one I did with a honey-process Burundi.