Hii everyone, I’m struggling trying that this decaffeinated Guatemala Primavera SHB Swiss Water doesn’t have a tomato flavor !!
Can someone give me some advice? I have tried these 3 profiles but they all turn out the same, I try a light / medium roast.
Taste like tomato soup…
Also, I think these grains started to break when I was with D9, has it happened to someone else?
Ok so this may be nonsense for decaf, with which I have no experience at all, but for what it’s worth…
Tomato soup flavors sound to me like the beans could be under developed and/or under roasted. All of the roasts have a pretty low drop temperature around 206C, and pretty low weight loss in the 12% range. Those values might work for some beans, but tomato soup sounds like they don’t work for this bean.
TC108 looks like the best curve to start fine tuning. The first half of the roast looks reasonable, but the RoR went flat around 6:00 to 7:00. How about extending the P8 interval to gain a little more momentum, then eliminate the last fan increase and stick with F6, and shoot for a drop temperature closer to 210C with maybe mid-13% weight loss? You’ll probably need a little more time post-FC to achieve this, so you’ll get a little more development.
Please let us know what you end up trying next, and how it works!
I will try today, thanks for your answer !!!
It is the first time that I roast decaf, I think it lacks development but I think that the bean is very close to the second crack, because some beans are already a bit oily, even that the temperature shows underdevelopment, also after reading, I’m extremely careful to don’t burn the beans.
I’ve had reasonable success with decaf. We use it as after dinner flat whites with an espresso blend but I roast SO’s for neighbors who love them compared with what they purchase. The beans tend to have less moisture and moisture loss from roasting. They stale quicker leading to a cardboard like taste. I wonder if that is what you are tasting rather than tomato. Below is my latest roast of espresso blend. It follows my SO Honduras and Guatemala roasts pretty well. I think what you are tasting is mostly from your beans and not your roasting. Get them as fresh as possible and store them vacuum sealed if possible.
I have been studying decaf roasting online as a particular interest of mine over the last days and found a nice resource on youtube via Mill City Roasters. A gal named Lauren does a 4 part series of videos that are each about 20 minutes long. Decaf beans are a bit more delicate than your typical beans. She approaches decaf with lighter temps in comparison to typical coffee. She also does a phase at the beginning that allows the beans to “soak” which is a prolonging of the drying phase but without power (gas, in her case) before getting to FC and the development time after FC is key as well. I’m sure you can find the 4-part series and I think it may have practical knowledge that will help you significantly; at least I hope it does!
In my opinion…
1/ the roasts are all taking too long… particularly the Maillard phase. I find if this is extended too much, the tastes become so complex and muddled, it tastes like, well, for me, it’s ONION soup.
The analogy is like mixing all your colours, red, blue, green, yellow… and you get ONION SOUP.
2/ the roast is taking too long overall. I would use 275 PH ad give a 1 minute p2 soak, as suggested above, but then go to p8 and start from there. Your roast should be done sooner, and not have an overly “sophisticated” mishmash of tastes.
Here’s an 800g decaf roast that came out pretty well…
NO.
I wonder if the beans were not fresh!?
Hello everyone, since I published this thread, this decaf has become one of the best profiles I have developed, I am already roasting my second bag, very proud of what I can get from this coffee.
It is interesting that I have many clients who buy this decaf for the taste even though they usually drink regular coffee.
I got many feedbacks and very usefull info here, thanks to everyone!! 
Mr. Childs,
Ar you building your own blends for these decafs? If so, are you blending before roasting or after roasting?
I hadn’t really thought about it before: does the decaf process change the density of the beans which would give greater flexibility for blending for roasting purposes?
Good questions Bill.
I tend to roast my decaf beans the same way regardless of whether its a single origin or a pre-roast self made mixed blend.
I’ve noticed less need to modify by origin, density or moisture content. There is certainly a lot less weight loss after a roast. My opinion is the decaf process results in beans that are more alike. I generally only use SWP beans. Even a high grown Ethiopian behaves much like a Brazilian but there are exceptions where I see a pre 1C bump or a faster than desired ramp up to 1C.
I don’t roast decaf that often and gift a lot of it to neighbors who kindly cat sit when we are away but those are my observations.
Good information,
Thank you Sir!
@Miguel thank you for sharing this. I think the link to the profile is broken. I would love to check out the profile. Can you please repost the link.
I removed the /my/ part of the url and I think it worked.
Try this link: Roast World - Cup, grade, and analyze your coffee roasts in depth
