Making Coffee with Lucia Solis

I find the term "over fermentation" to be especially annoying. From a biology point of view this term is nonsense.
When coffee professionals use this term it's understood to mean a defect, usually vinegar, "boozy" or like rotting fruit. Everyone agrees that it's a negative trait for a coffee to have. I think it's important to be able to identify this trait but I think this label has held fermentation back and made many (producers and roasters alike) shy away from a process that when controlled can enhance coffee quality.
In this week's episode I answer a listener question about double fermentation and Brettanomyces that gives me an opportunity to untangle the concept from the name we've given it.
"Double fermentation" is another common colloquial phrase mistaken for a scientific label.
It gives the impression that there are two fermentations, but this is not what's happening biologically.
I also talk about the Russian River Brewing Company in Windsor California. I visited earlier this year in July and got to see how they use Brettanomyces and try their Brett Beer. The coffee industry is borrowing from the Beer industry as well as the wine industry and beer yeasts are becoming more popular in mills across Central America. This is an exciting time for coffee microbiology but there are a few cautions I want to give about this particular yeast.
For the visually inclined: I have 3 videos that will breakdown the coffee fermentation process:
https://www.luxia.coffee/instructional-videos

Next time you set about making your morning coffee, take a moment to peruse the info on your bag of beans. What do you notice? The variety of beans? Flavor notes? Technical details on where the coffee was grown?

They're not so different from the sort of blurb you might find on the back of a wine bottle in many ways. And that’s intentional. Specialty coffee has taken a lot from the world of wine.

But could the increasing overlaps be a problem for coffee farmers — or even dangerous?

In this episode, Scott and Jools join forces with coffee processing specialist and former winemaker Lucia Solis from the Making Coffee podcast to dive deeper into where our coffee comes from and what (if anything) wine's got to do with it.

Lucia talks to coffee producer Karla Boza from the Finca San Antonio Amatepec coffee farm in El Salvador and vintner Todd Kohn from the Wayfarer Vineyard in California to shed some light on the techniques behind picking, transporting and processing their precious produce.

Take a sip on this (soon-to-be-a-good) vintage episode to pique your curiosity about how coffee and wine are made, and why it matters.

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In this episode we talk about:

• The long geographical chain of custody for a cup of coffee
• Why do wet process and dry process coffees taste differently
• Coffee seeds: orthodox vs. recalcitrant seed
• The yeast metabolism case for quality vs the plant metabolism case for quality
• Cacao seed germination vs coffee seed germination

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RESEARCH PAPERS
S-E Knopp, G Bytoff, D Selmar, Influence of processing on the content of sugars in green Arabica coffee beans, European Food Research and Technology 2005 223(2):195-201 DOI:10.1007/s00217-005-0172-1
D Selmar, G Bytof, S-E Knopp, B Breitenstein,Germination of coffee seeds and its significance for coffee quality, Plant Biol (Stuttg) 2006 Mar;8(2):260-4. DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-923845.
Ludlow CL, Cromie GA, Garmendia-Torres C, Sirr A, Hays M, Field C, Jeffery EW, Fay JC, Dudley AM. Independent Origins of Yeast Associated with Coffee and Cacao Fermentation. Curr Biol. 2016 Apr 4;26(7):965-71. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.02.012.

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

I’m writing this from a hotel in the small town of Ataco, El Salvador. I’ve been away from home for 21 days out what will eventually be 120.

It’s currently coffee harvest time in Central America this is the time of the year when I am traveling the most seeing clients at their mills and designing fermentation lots.

This is an interesting industry because of the amount of travel required by many parties along the chain (farmers, producers, exporter, importers, roasters and cafes). All of these entities are usually located in different countries with different languages, time zones, cultures and customs. These far apart business need to work together and the best way to have a smooth business is to have strong relationships. The best way I can think of to have strong relationships is to travel and sit with each other face to face and get to know the other's culture.

Unfortunately flying is a huge contributor of carbon emissions.

I’ve struggled with the paradox since I started traveling heavily in 2014.

At home, I am committed to reducing my environmental impact, I don’t have a car, I buy bulk foods in my own reusable containers, I compost all my food waste, Ive reduced my meat consumptions and I’ve stopped purchasing new clothes. Yet the amount of flying I do every year eclipses all the other efforts.

Previous years I spent November to March alternating one week in Central America and one week at home. Sometimes even seeing 3 clients in 1 month and only being home for a handful of days.

In addition to the environmental strain, there was a personal strain as well. That pace was difficult because It kept me constantly on the move and in airports, I was never home long enough to feel refreshed.

There was a moment I felt like I might need to quit working in coffee because the travel was too demanding.

To reduce my travel, this year I’m trying something different. Instead of going back and forth between Central America and the United States, I will stay in Central America all 4 months. My flying is dramatically reduced but not eliminated. Having such a dramatic carbon footprint is not in alignment with how I live the rest of my life, so I’m still working on how to reconcile that.

Join me for today’s episode for more on this paradox and a harvest update.

This week I want to talk to you about where native coffee yeast come from. If you are concerned about coffee flavor manipulation by yeast, I hope by the end of the episode you have a broader understanding of where "native" yeast originally came from.
To help illustrate the point, we start with non traditional coffee growing regions like Southern California.
In the episode I will also be sharing research from Dr. Amiee Dudley.

I met Dr. Aimee Dudley in 2017 during SCA EXPO in Seattle when we were on a Re:CO Panel together talking about yeast. I was offering the perspective of practical application of yeast, how coffee producers in situ could use it and Dr. Dudley was presenting her research on yeast genetics. She runs a lab at Pacific North West Research Institute and she is an expert on yeast genetics.
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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee
Mentioned in the Episode:

The Coffee Podcast: Jay Ruskey
Frinj Coffee
Dr. Aimee Dudley's Research Lab