We are struggling getting a Kenyan Peaberry roasted, its our first try at a Peaberry and were finding that when we cup the coffee it tastes brilliant, nice and fruity with a sweet taste and a nice light mouthfeel. We normally brew a v60 after cupping just to give us some idea on how its tasting and on these 2 roasts the outcome was positive.
The tasting notes are kiwi, frozen raspberries, elderflower and bubble gum and we do get some raspberry & kiwi (nice acidity) and the sweetness of bubblegum at the end.
However when the coffee develops over the next week or so it starts to taste slightly burnt or just slightly not right as though its lost abit of its clarity this is normally through a v60 as this is what we are aiming for with this coffee.
could this be linked to maybe developing it too much?
ive attached the 2 profiles of the best tasting coffees so far if anyone is able to offer any advice!
Hi Tom, this sounds like a lovely coffee to be profiling. My hunch is it’s not over-development. Your development ratio (16.5% and 17.6%) is on the normal-to-short side for a light roast and your weight loss leans light, so if it were me I’d look elsewhere before touching development time.
The first thing I’d chase is the shape of your rate-of-rise into the finish. On both roasts it is different, in 3 it looks low but steady, in 6 it crashed. So the roast kind of coasts into the drop. In my experience that stalled finish is where roasty or baked edges tend to creep in, more than a long development would. I’d bet on 6 it’s coming from cutting power pretty hard late (P8 down to P2 on roast 6), which tends to pull the RoR out from under the beans right at the end. On 3, I think you just needed to likely hold P6 and F3 longer to maintain more momentum into development.
So if I were tackling this I’d fix the finish before anything else: come down in smaller power steps and a bit earlier, so the curve keeps gently declining but stays positive instead of stalling. Something like not dropping more than a couple of steps from first crack on, and keeping power at P3 or above at the drop. I wouldn’t pull earlier though, since development’s already on the short side.
If you want, send the raw roast file data (roastime exports) and I’m happy to dig in deeper.
You were absolutely right, by chance we hit the jackpot with roast 7 and I’ve just checked the profile and there’s a massive difference toward the end of the roast.
I think previously we were so worried about getting the Ror lower and focusing to much on that. Roast 7 seems to decline better and almost level out towards FC and into Dev and it suits the coffee so well. We have had such good feedback from this one and its such a great cup on V60. Thanks again for taking the time to message your thoughts! ill bear that in mind for future roasts. We have another Kenyan coffee next (albeit not a PB) so we may try something similar to achieve similar results!
