Diedrich IR-5 Analysis by Doris Garrido.
This month we are analyzing two coffees from Burundi, and I got to roast them the same day; this Burundi washed was the first in line. And as happened in the previous roast analysis, I ran the Sinar with the wrong setting. My density, and moisture reading were wrong, and I started the roast thinking there was more moisture to push. My first gas movements were based on that, and I ended up having a roast shorter than I expected, 8:35 total roast time. I charged at 426F with 30% gas, 0% air and began adding gas power every 30 seconds, lowering back to 30% just after the color change. I used 50% air in the middle of Maillard and just a few seconds later 100%. The first crack started at 386.7F and finished at 1:16 of post-crack development.
I believe I have learned my lesson while tasting the first shots from Isabella Vitaliano as she was dialing for espresso. The acidity hit me hard in the face on the first try and I thought that I could fix that by stretching Maillard a little longer bringing the sugars a little more. Soon I realized that I roasted this coffee faster than I wanted since I ran the Sinar incorrectly. In the end Isabella got a perfectly balanced shot that gave me a perspective of the capacity of this coffee - to read more please check her brew analysis. Previously when we cupped this coffee a day after roasting, the most frequent notes were clean citric acid, plum, tangy, green apple, guava, and orange peel. I was not surprised that the coffee was bright at the beginning of the dialing for the espresso, but there was also some brown sugar, browned butter, and cinnamon I would say that with a twist on the roast, stretching Maillard can improve the complexity of this coffee.
