Open fire dark roast

I find it fun the many ways coffee roasting is done. Here Dave Rumbler from Australia roasting coffee on open fire.

Dave Rumbler, Australia. Photo by Eamon WaddingtonPhoto by Eamon Waddington

He says: “I roast fresh every morning around 1-2 kg for my coffee/tatoo shop”.

He roast so differently from how I do it.

He roast untill 2nd crack is over ! That is extremely dark (I think it is called Spanish roast) – and close to fire in the beans.

He also have a much longer roast; he gets second crack after 33 minutes – when roasting 1,5 kilo.

My roast are often within 10 minutes and around the end of first crack.

He wrote in a coffee roasting forum and asked: “It’s just started to get cold here (winter is comming up in Australia) and my roast have gone from smooth creamy to a bit bitter. And had one roast go like a sour flavour.”

That made us talk about the lenght of the roast. Maybe it got too long. One hack is to roast smaller batches.

He tried with 1 kilo and found it tasted better.

It is normal that the weather affects the roast – and that you need to adjust the way you roast.

Ethiopean style

This reminds of the traditional way of roasting coffee in Ethiopia. They roast on open fire, very dark and right before brewing.

I tried it at an ethiopean restaurant. I expected it to be very bitter, since it was roasted way into Second Crack. But is wasn’t. From later experience it seems that the bitterness developpes during storage – as does the rancid taste from the coffee oils (after 10-14 days). Read more under Light versus Dark.

I did this video at the ethiopean restaurant here in Copenhagen, Denmark

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