Guatemala | The Fermentation Project | For Cupping and Filter Brewing

The Fermentation Project

On Oct 3rd there will be a worldwide coffee tasting event created by James Hoffmann and fermentation specialist Lucia Solis, and we at Roasted Brown are excited to be participating in the roasting and distributing of the coffees for this.

The Fermentation Project has taken coffee from the same harvest, same varieties and from the same farm, and processed the coffee using four different types of fermentation. This is an opportunity for us to taste how different types of fermentation affect what we taste in the cup, and tasting each side by side is the best way to experience this.

You can join us and thousands of other people in this guided live event of October 3rd, at 3pm GMT, pick up a tasting kit of 4 x 200g bags below, each bag containing the same coffee but fermented differently. Follow the comments on the live stream and see how other people describe what they taste... there are no wrong answers!

Here’s some background on the fermentations, and you can watch this video of James and Lucia discussing the project.

The Tasting Kit

Each kit includes:

 4 x 200g bags of coffee (1 of each specific fermentation).
 2 x sachets of Third Wave Water treatment.


Coffee 1.

Mechanically Mucilaged - For this coffee, the mucilage (the sticky fruity bit surrounding and attached to the seeds inside the cherry) was removed in a machine using water, and the flavours in the roasted coffee come only from the cherry, the tree and the farm. The natural fermentation on this coffee is minimal.

Coffee 2.

Wild Fermentation - a traditional 48 hour submerged fermentation with local, wild microbes. Only the naturally occurring local yeasts, bacteria and microbes influence the fermentation, nothing has been added.

Coffee 3.

Lactobacillus Inoculated Fermentation - This coffee has gone through a 48 hour submerged fermentation with an added Lactobacillus culture.

Coffee 4.

Saccharomyces Yeast Inoculated Fermentation - This coffee also was submerged for a 48 hour fermentation with a selected saccharomyces bacteria (found in yogurt, kefir, cheese, kimchi) culture added.

We have included 2 Third Wave Water sachets with each tasting set.
You can add this to distilled water to make sure that the mineral content of the water is suitable and doesn’t mask any of the flavours of the coffee.
(Don’t ask, it’s a rabbit hole, but ordinary tap water is one kind of wrong and bottled water can be another!).

How to Participate:

The coffees will be roasted on the week beginning on the 14th of September and shipped on the week beginning the 21st. Delivery will be fulfilled by DPD. 

The coffee will be supplied as whole bean only. You can order the tasting set below, and if you want to know how to prepare a coffee cupping you can watch this video.


COFFEE INFO

Producer: Lillian & Hector Leal / Rueda Farms

Farm: Finca San Miguel Urias

Varietals: 85% Caturra, 15% H1, <1% Bourbon

Process: Yeast Inoculated Fermentation

MASL: 1,450 - 1,550