Bad beans?

[jimgsmith]

I started buying roasted whole beans a few months ago, and grinding right before brewing. Most of the beans I have bought have been good, and have brewed a great cup of coffee. But I have had 3 cases now where the beans just did not create a “proper” cup of coffee and I am wondering if it’s the beans or something I’m doing. Some background...I am using a French press, and infusing for 4 minutes. Most of the time, when I pour the water into the press, it starts bubbling and you can see the beans giving up their flavour. But 3 times now, there has been little to no bubbling, and the grounds just settle to the bottom. I stir a couple times during the infusion, but it doesn’t seem to matter. The resulting coffee is very, very mild and thin as though there just wasn’t any flavour to extract from the beans. If this had only happened once I wouldn’t think much of it, but 3 times seems like a lot. Thoughts?

Jim


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[Duffyjr]

Do the beans you are buying have a "roasted on" date printed on the bag? The no bubbling (bloom) is a sure sign of stale/old beans.

 

[jimgsmith]

Do the beans you are buying have a "roasted on" date printed on the bag? The no bubbling (bloom) is a sure sign of stale/old beans.

That’s the strange part. The last 2 had only been roasted 2 weeks earlier. Is there any other reason that freshly ground beans would result in a poor bloom and coffee with little colour or flavour?

Jim

 

[Duffyjr]

That’s the strange part. The last 2 had only been roasted 2 weeks earlier. Is there any other reason that freshly ground beans would result in a poor bloom and coffee with little colour or flavour?

Jim

I'm certainly not the most experienced guy here but maybe the green beans were old before they roasted them and they were trying to get rid of old stock. If you are getting the beans from the same roaster I would let them know and see what they say.

 

[PinkRose]

Hello jimgsmith,

Are any of the roasted coffee beans a little off-color? Just a few bad beans in the batch will ruin the coffee.

Take a look as the photos on this website:
Coffee Terms - Bean Defects

Rose