Dark roasting out of curiosity

[tisri]

Friday night is 48 hours - I roasted them on Wednesday night (last night). I couldn't agree more that it's good to try roasting things in new ways - that's why we roast our own, after all

:drink:

[simonp]

Friday night is 48 hours

I've no idea why I put 36 hours, 3 X 24 is 72 hours which is what I meant . Anyway 3-days rest is the min I find.

[tisri]

Fair enough - sounds like you need a coffee

I rest mine for at least 48 hours but often they get a little more since they don't get used until the bean hopper on the Gaggia is empty.

[simonp]

I have found that the lighter the roast, the longer the beans degas for, I often find after 3 days the crema overwhelms the spouts, and is lightish with larger bubbles, also a baking soda taste. I think that with a darker roast more gas is expelled in the roasting, and so the degasing is less.

My dark roast will be ready to try tonight, I also have some more beans to blend and try tonight, could be on a caffeine high later

[tisri]

Welcome to the light

Suffering from withdrawal symptoms I did another experiment and roasted it slightly darker than normal, specifically letting second crack go absolutely wild for about 30 seconds before dumping the beans.

I was expecting them to be almost black but I'd say that they were still slightly lighter than, say, Bourbon chocolate.

Come the weekend I'll be able to compare the relatively light with the relatively dark (by my own standards, naturally ) roasts and see which way I prefer to lean.

[simonp]

Tried the dark roasted beans last night, not too bad. The roast taste was rather dominant, and probably a little too dark for straight drinking. The crema was impressive though, very dense, very thick, brick red, and lasted for ages. Taste was very earthy (unsurprising with the Lintong) with a little muted acidity (presumably from the Guat Huehue).
This was not unlike H&Vs San Giorgio, and the roast colour was about the same I would say, not as dark and smokey tasting as Roberts Sienna Blend though.
I tried this in a Cappuccino this morning, with a little dash (10%) of robusta, and it was very nice, lots of bite cutting through.

I do quite like the bittersweet taste you get from a heavier roast, but not quite this much, and I do miss the subtler aromatics of a lighter roast. I think maybe I would enjoy a mixed roast, perhaps with some Brazil, and Yirg on the lighetr end, and some dark Lintong, and not quite so drak Columbian for sweetness. No pre-roast blend cheating for this though.