Determining the length of rest

I’ve done a lot of day by day testing and kept a log on this with many differenent roasts.

That’s probably the only way to find out what YOU like. The difference from one day to the next, as the beans hit peak flavor, can be quite dramatic.

I rest a medium roast for 14 days minimum. City gets 18 days and light gets 21 days. The earliest I’ve had a dark roast hit peak flavor and viscosity was 8 days.

Each to his own.

Cuprajake haha glad I’m not the only one!

Question, do you think air exposure would affect staling, ie, it you start using the beans earlier will they be the same later as if you did not open the container and rested more?

Cuprajake What makes you decide how long you rest your beans?

Taste. And past experiences.

Personally I tend to aim to start drinking ~two weeks after roast, 10 days if I’m pushed. A bit longer is good too. Earlier I think my average coffee hasn’t peaked yet.

And for decaf?

In the past when I bought roasted I’d give most coffees 4-5 days post roast, then vacuum seal/deep freeze and thaw/consume each jar as needed. Of course rest time varies with every coffee depending on origin and mainly level of roast development. Now that I’ve been home roasting for 7 yrs I can really dial things in as I can see/smell the changes day after day. If I’m roasting a ‘new to me’ green I’ll try an extraction at day 2-3 post roast, then maybe day 4-5 and find most coffees that I like taken to a full city range tend to peak around day 7-8, so I roast/rotate so each jar never sits more than 8 days or so. I can enjoy insane consistency and never have to deal with anything being stale.