Coffee again ...

[JayJay]

Mahalo 222 & others,
Any chance I can get a quick primer on how to pick, shell, dry and roast coffee?

JayJay

[macuu222]

Picking is the easiest part. Wait until they are red cherries and just hand pick. To remove the pulp...I put them in one of those process blenders with a dull plastic blade with alot of water. The pulp rises to the top while the beans sink to the bottom.

Then soak them in fresh water for about 2 days to remove the sappy residue.

Then I air dry them out on my covered deck.

The shelling is the hardest and longest part once they are dry. If I could find a cheap machine to do this....it would be great. I've tried shelling them individually and that takes forever and makes your fingers sore. I now use a long flat piece of shale and spread out the beans on a concrete floor and roll the shale over the beans to break down the husks. The only other option is to have them shelled by a commercial grower who has one of those expensive machines.

The roasting is the part that makes the coffee taste great. Everyone has their own receipe with regard to temperature and length of cooking time. You don't need a professional coffee roaster. A household oven will do. Just remember to move the beans around frequently while roasting.

[macuu222]

I forgot one important step. When your roasting your coffee and they look like they are ready to be taken out of the heat....pour them into a bucket of ice cold water to stop the cooking process immediately....otherwise they will continue to cook for several minutes longer and your medium roast will turn out dark or your dark roast will turn out as a burnt roast.

[hooligal]

My friend's coffee mill in Panama used a hot tumbler to de-husk. The heat makes the husk crispy & brittle... the aggitation pops the husks off. Granted, theirs was commercial, but I plan to do the same thing with an old 55-gallon drum & a hibachi....
figured I could weld a few pipes onto the drum so it can be turned like it's a pig on a spit, then fire up the hibachi underneath it while the drum turns. heat, bouncing around, presto!

Huh, come to think of it, maybe I'll take my green beans down to the laundromat & throw 'em in the commercial dryer!!


FWIW, my friend's place, they use the last batch of dried husks as the fuel for the fire that heats the next batch in the de-husking drum. They don't have to use any outside fuel source!

[JayJay]

Thanks everyone.

JayJay