GoodShave's Coffee Journal

I am very happy to read that you are enjoying the beans! They were being "wasted" on me, lol

I am very happy to read that you are enjoying the beans! They were being "wasted" on me, lol

Trust me, I have had my share of bags of coffee that were "wasted" on me as well!

Today's brew was Atomic Coffee Roasters (Peabody, MA) - Simple Summer beans with my glass Hario V60-01 and Cafec Abaca filter using the Lance Hedrick Two-Pour recipe (with Tales Coffee stir after final pour). This turned out to be a pretty bland brew in comparison to my B75 brew. I think I need more extraction with the V60. Maybe I went too much with laminar pours. I may try the 4:6 method soon and see what happens. My Kalita 155 is also calling me.

Second brew of the day:
I decided to try a different brewer and recipe for these beans to see how it would taste.
Atomic Coffee Roasters (Peabody, MA) - Simple Summer beans with my glass Kalita Wave 155 dripper using a Kalita 155 filter with the Project Barista 155 recipe.
The berry flavor came through. The brew was not bad but I think I would like a little more body to it.
As cooled further, some vanilla appeared. Maybe this is a better setting than I thought. I may bump up the temperature and see what happens.

I made two brews with the Atomic Coffee Roasters (Peabody, MA) - Simple Summer beans.

The first brew was with the glass Kalita 155 with the same scenario as yesterday except I bumped up the water temperature quite a bit.
The brew was essentially flavorless. After cooling for quite a while and tasting along the way, I poured it out.

I then shifted to the Varia FLO dripper with a Kalita 185 filter and the 'Medium 1' screen using the Alternative Brewing 4:6 recipe with the target of balanced acidity and sweetness, medium body, and adding a 2nd bloom. There was a nice vanilla aroma to this brew. As it cooled, I would say the brew had the most vanilla flavor of any brew so far with these beans. There was a great combination of berry and vanilla at the same time. Along with a nice mouth feel, this cup was a winner. The citrus flavor showed up as a finish when the coffee cooled way down. Maybe if I go for the more acidity target with the 4:6 method that the citrus would appear earlier. That said, I would rather have the berry and vanilla prominent than with citrus being the main note.

I made two brews with the Atomic Coffee Roasters (Peabody, MA) - Simple Summer beans.

The first brew was with the glass Kalita 155 with the same scenario as yesterday except I bumped up the water temperature quite a bit.
The brew was essentially flavorless. After cooling for quite a while and tasting along the way, I poured it out.

I then shifted to the Varia FLO dripper with a Kalita 185 filter and the 'Medium 1' screen using the Alternative Brewing 4:6 recipe with the target of balanced acidity and sweetness, medium body, and adding a 2nd bloom. There was a nice vanilla aroma to this brew. As it cooled, I would say the brew had the most vanilla flavor of any brew so far with these beans. There was a great combination of berry an vanilla at the same time. Along with a nice mouth feel, this cup was a winner. The citrus flavor showed up as a finish when the coffee cooled way down. Maybe if I go for the more acidity target with the 4:6 method that the citrus would appear earlier. That said, I would rather have the berry and vanilla prominent than with citrus being the main note.

Very interesting. I also wonder if my sniffer works as well as it should. I almost never can get a bouquet off a cup of coffee, just coffee smell.

Like you, I had to ditch a couple of cups of the other day as the brew was sour. I am still trying to get a cup that doesn't make me want to dump it!

I made two brews with the Atomic Coffee Roasters (Peabody, MA) - Simple Summer beans.

The first brew was with the glass Kalita 155 with the same scenario as yesterday except I bumped up the water temperature quite a bit.
The brew was essentially flavorless. After cooling for quite a while and tasting along the way, I poured it out.

I then shifted to the Varia FLO dripper with a Kalita 185 filter and the 'Medium 1' screen using the Alternative Brewing 4:6 recipe with the target of balanced acidity and sweetness, medium body, and adding a 2nd bloom. There was a nice vanilla aroma to this brew. As it cooled, I would say the brew had the most vanilla flavor of any brew so far with these beans. There was a great combination of berry an vanilla at the same time. Along with a nice mouth feel, this cup was a winner. The citrus flavor showed up as a finish when the coffee cooled way down. Maybe if I go for the more acidity target with the 4:6 method that the citrus would appear earlier. That said, I would rather have the berry and vanilla prominent than with citrus being the main note.

Very interesting. I also wonder if my sniffer works as well as it should. I almost never can get a bouquet off a cup of coffee, just coffee smell.

Like you, I had to ditch a couple of cups of the other day as the brew was sour. I am still trying to get a cup that doesn't make me want to dump it!

I don't always get aromas (which is probably dependent on which beans I use and how fresh they are) so it might not be your nose. I don't know if light roasts give off more aromas or not. I grind my beans just before I brew the coffee and only grind as much as my recipe calls for.

I find it is easier to smell aromas in a wider mug than a narrower one.  I don't know if I buy into the really small fancy glasses for tasting coffee (which have special designs that are supposed to capture aromas), but I do know that it is easier to smell coffee in my Carter Wide Mug than with my Carter Move Mug which is narrower. Both mugs have a top lip that is a narrower diameter than the main interior body of the mug. Maybe that helps capture aroma. I don't know. Maybe the right brew in a large mouth regular coffee mug would do the same thing.

I hear you about sour brews and pouring out coffee. I change my recipe if I find myself struggling to get a good cup. If I need more extraction and grind and water changes do not seem to get me there, I will change to a recipe with a different number of pours. If I need more extraction, I will chose a recipe with more pours or if I want less extraction, I will switch to a recipe with fewer pours. If I don't have recipes like those, then I will just modify my current recipe by splitting the water over more pours or consolidating my water into fewer pours.

Also, when I get new to me beans from roasters I have never tried, I will try pick a recipe for each of my 'go to' brewers and see which one comes closest to making a good cup. Then I will dial in with the brew with that brewer first.

Today's brew was Longneck Coffee Roasters (Williamsburg, VA) - Haitian Blue Norde Organic beans using the Varia FLO dripper with a Kalita 185 filter and the 'Medium 1' screen using the Alternative Brewing 4:6 recipe with the target of balanced acidity and sweetness, medium body, and adding a 2nd bloom. This was the first time using this scenario with these beans. I think the water was a little too hot as it drew in a smokey flavor. It turned out to be a decent cup none the less.

Today's brew was Longneck Coffee Roasters (Williamsburg, VA) - Haitian Blue Norde Organic beans using the Varia FLO dripper with a Kalita 185 filter and the 'Medium 1' screen using the Alternative Brewing 4:6 recipe with the target of balanced acidity and sweetness, medium body, and adding a 2nd bloom.

My previous brew was with 96C (204.8F) water and that lead to a smokey flavor in the cup. Today, I repeated the brew twice with 92C (197.6F) and 94C (201.2F) which would be more in line with a medium roast. Neither of those two brews were smokey. The 92C brew started with very little flavor if any. It was water like but as it cooled down it eventually took on a nice flavor. The 94C brew started with that nice flavor and kept it. The 94C flavor was a little stronger than the 92C (as expected due to slightly more extraction). I preferred the 94C over the 92C brew.

I also tried the Varia FLO dripper with a Kalita 185 filter and the 'Medium 1' screen  using the Kurasu 7/6/2024 hot recipe . This calls for a coarse grind and a low water temperature. I think for these beans, it was too far from the mark to make a cup of coffee. It had a fast draw down and never tasted anything more than water. The goal of this recipe it the relatively cool brewing temperature of 90C (194F). I will try it again sometime but with much finer of a grind.

Today's brew, I tried on click finer on the grind size with yesterday's scenario and the brew had a dry finish from the start and as it cooled, it had an almost bitter finish. That tells me that my previous grind setting was the maximum I will go for this brew scenario.

On another note, I watched this video today and definitely had a few tips to ponder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3QYZ6bAe60