So, I am done with this excercise and dug into the beans I was supposed to be resting until 10/3. It’s the first decent brew from specialty beans in 2 weeks (best tasting brews in the meantime came from Illy Yirgacheffe, moka pot brews).
I rested a bag from the last week of Jan to 1st week of Feb, fine, all was well.
Bought bag #2 expecting to rest for 4-6 weeks
Bought a third bag & rested, to be started 15th Feb. Cracked into it and something definitely not right with it, roaster suggested leaving it another week & helpfully suggested their brew parameters to give its best chance. So, from 15-22 Feb I brewed the Illy and, apart from a couple of sighting brews to ensure I hit the ground running, left bag #3 to rest.
Brewed bag #3 on 22nd Feb, hit suggested brew weights & timings, still not getting a ball park result. Went back to the roaster who issued a refund. Fair play, no complaint on the customer service, but now coffee-less (the roaster can’t realistically be expected to do anything about that).
Bought bag #4 as a stop gap, was 5 days past roast when arrived with me. On opening, I noticed a lot of quakers, sorted through the whole bag and removed them. Next day (26th) made a brew and found the coffee really quite tasteless. Emailed the roaster, who has sent a replacement bag (again, no complaint with customer service).
Didn’t drink any coffee yesterday because I was just too hacked off.
This morning went back to my resting bag #2, 19 days past roast (28-42 days recommended) - the cup totally met expectations…might it be better in another 2 weeks? Sure, maybe…it won’t last that long though.
Trying to follow the recommended rest periods has been frustrating and left me with no decent specialty coffee for 2 full weeks, the longest gap in over a decade. This isn’t progress.
From now on I’ll be ordering new bags as I start my last bag of remaining stock. Still open to a bit more resting if a coffee shows promise, but is a little lacking.
Rant over :-)