The Coffee Producer Toolkit #3: Fermentation

Support the show on Patreon In this third episode, we give you a practical manual to take control of your fermentations and improve your farm's profitability. We start with the basics — what is actually happening inside your tank, where the microbes come from, and why your coffee is going to ferment whether you want it to or not. Then we go through five ways commercial microbes can make you money: consistency batch to batch, long fermentations you can run safely, lifting the score of your worst cherries rather than your best, clearing bottlenecks in your wet mill, and extending your coffee's shelf life. We cover what a well-run fermentation actually looks like — the cleaning, the monitoring, the record-keeping — with a step-by-step blue-barrel protocol for smaller farms and guidance on when to move to tanks. We also look at the investment sums needed for commercial yeasts and how to justify them. And we finish with the difficult questions — the environmental worries, whether using a starter culture is the same as adulterating your coffee, and how to talk about all of this with buyers who may view commercial microbes with suspicion. Related podcast episodes: Lucia: #72: Planning Your First Coffee Fermentation Trials? Start Here. #76: How Commercial Microbes Threaten The Coffee Industry #80: How Microbiology Can Explain Beginner's Luck James: Filter Stories - Coffee Quality, Part 1: The birth of specialty coffee flavours Follow us through our newsletters and Social media: Lucia’s Newsletter James’s Newsletter Lucia Instagram James’ Filter Stories Instagram People mentioned in the episode: Lester Lerner, Old Willow Coffee, Colombia Victor Chala, Palma Rosa, Colombia Fridolin Stocker— Mount Sunzu, Zambia Shyira washing station, Rwanda Evangelos Filippatos, La Cabra La Cabra, Copenhagen Helen Riley — Novonesis Gunne Øregaard — Novonesis Franz Zeimetz — Lost Origin Coffee Labs, Panama Alejandra Rodríguez Delgado — Hacienda San Pedrito, Puerto Rico Gustavo Arroyo — Rancho Contento, Puerto Rico Resources: pH meter & buffer Thermometer Novonesis Pichia yeast Novonesis Lactobacillus bacteria Pressure washer Fermentation Log Sheet Yeast’s impact on the environment in research on vineyards Sprudge Best Of Panama coverage Lucia’s Fermentation Training Camp Coffee Wet Mill Sanitize Opciones para la desinfección del beneficio Cabal Cafe Podcast en Espanol Lucia's Favorite Tools: Temperature Gun Ambient Temperature Sensor Temperature Probe pH meter & buffer solution Cover Art: Nick Hafner The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations: The Coffee Quest | BWT | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro Support the show